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Just perfect...

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

When we see most of the films about Jesse James and specially Sam Peckinpah's "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" we feel how difficult it is to define who is the "good guy". The outlaws are fighting the sometimes dishonest business interests of the politicians, railroads, banks, etc. Antonio das Mortes is the Pat Garrett of the Brazilian Northeast. His mission is to kill the bandit Coirana. They even have a fight holding a scarf between their teeth reminiscent of the Jesse James' films "Kansas Raiders"(1950) and the future "The Long Riders"(1980). But this "Pat Garrett" will realize he is on the wrong side and fight for his redemption. Glauber Rocha combines vivid colors with absorbing words, sometimes in rhyme, and rapturous folkloric songs. He expresses his views in the western format, as would be done later by Tarantino.

If you watch Hollywood movies only, this one may be hard for you. But it will be a great experience for some lunatics (like me) who believe in the power and in the freedom of the cinematographic images.The subject is Brazil, the conflicts of a country that crossed a violent dictatorship at the time the movie was made. All the characters are representing groups of the brazilian society. Some of them, like the cangaceiros (poor and revolted people who became outlaws in the early 20th century), and the Saint (portrait of a blended religion that exists in Brazil, with elements of catholicism and african religions) are taken in a mythological approach. The delirious Glauber Rocha takes his characters to moral edges, leads them to crazy bang-bang scenes, to samba and war. There are no linear conclusions in the end. Only some new doubts and unusual beauty.

Went into this one not really knowing what to expect. I'm no student of Brazilian history, and am sure this meant many allusions and much else that was interesting about the film passed me by. There were stretches where I felt my eyelids drooping (this was after a couple of beers, admittedly). However, some of the imagery is breathtaking, and the final ten minutes are just astonishing. I would watch it again for the end alone. Music too is great, particularly the final snatch of song/narration. Audience (half Brazilian, half staid English types like myself) was fairly bopping in the aisles...

I was amazed to see that others have given this movie an average rating of 8.5 out of 10. It's extremely dated, confusing, and quite silly. Some people walked out of it when it showed at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, Calif., USA, recently. And that audience represents the acme of film buffs and connoisseurs --people who can tolerate almost anything.