Carandiru (2003)

Review by All Movie Guide
Hector Babenco co-scripted (with Victor Nava and Fernando Bonassi) and shot this epic adaptation of Drauzio Varella's novel, woven around the infamous Carandiru prison massacre of 1992. It's a giant muckraker of a movie: Babenco sets up the two-and-a-half hour tale in a short story format, by delving - ever so briefly - into the backstories of ten or twelve inmates, and thus enabling the audience to care about each one. He then brings in the brutal Brazilian task force, with masks and subatomic machine guns, who indiscriminately wipe out everyone we've come to care about, regardless of the guilt or innocence of each individual, merely because of a minor ruckus. (In this sense, the picture recalls George Eliot's heartbreaking conclusion in her Mill on the Floss). Throughout the movie, we're repeatedly shocked by the brutality and animalism of the characters' lives as they play out before us; they think nothing of cheating on their loved ones, or gunning down one another when they deem it necessary. (In one segment, a character even pumps bullets into his wife after he discovers her unfaithfulness). But however questionable their individual acts might be, their behavior is utter child's play compared to the vile sadism of the Brazilian task forces. In Pixote, the humanistic Babenco pointed fingers at the system of heartless Brazilian reformatories, ill-equipped to rehabilitate juvenile delinquents. In this film (an 'unofficial' follow-up to Pixote, which reexamines that generation and others at an older age), the filmmaker aims higher - the prison staff, such as the kindly penitentiary physician, might be sane and compassionate, but their superiors - the representatives of the Brazilian police - exemplify Satanic cruelty and perversion and the basest denominator of humanity. Overall, Carandiru represents a solid, satisfying effort that delivers a massive gut punch - it shakes one to the bone, and its impact lingers for months. But oddly, even at 150 minutes, one wishes it were two or three times longer, enabling Babenco to further develop the many characters. (It would make a superb miniseries). Humanist Babenco evinces such narrative magic with his individual lives - and the cumulative effect of the massacre is so overwhelming - that a greater length could only double the film's power. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide