I suppose their professional opinion is more valuable than my amateur one but I'm just being honest: From an entertainment perspective I feel that this movie doesn't live up to the hype.
I will expect (and welcome) some backlash for my statement but let me defend my point of view on this.
The movie is "based on real events" but if you look a bit closer and investigate you will find out that it is "loosely based on real events," which kind of changes my feelings about how much credence a story can gain by being "factual." Loosely can mean very loosely based on real events and that is just a few steps away from being "not actually based on real events."
That being said, the story is good, but it is not like it hasn't been done before. There are tons of movies out there about areas that turn into warzones because of feuding gang leaders involved in the nefarious activities. There are plenty of movies about rising up in the ranks of being a gangster and how the ones who were truly cut-throat manage to rise to the top only to be bested in the end.
like this guy, for example.... and Goodfellas was loosely based on true events also
So the story is narrated mostly by a boy named "Rocket" who lives in the slums but decides to stay out of the gangster life at the urging of his older brother, who is a gangster and always in trouble as a consequence. Rocket, however is known to all the real gangsters because of his brother and while not one of them, is respected via childhood friendship by many of the important ones. Therefore he is allowed access to certain aspects of the dark underworld without actually being directly attached to it.
fantastic image created by Paul Shipper
He tells us the story of how the area in Rio de Janeiro was riddled with gang violence from the 60's to the 80's and how pals of his, or at least people he became acquainted with were involved in the very high up leadership of these organizations while pursuing his dream of being a photographer.
I'm not going to spoil the rest of the story but I just want to say this. The direction and the acting is top-notch, the locations scenes are fantastic, and the story if fast-paced and rarely seems boring.
The violence is so constant that eventually there seems to be no where else to go from there - you become desensitized to it and the twists and turns no longer have any sort of shock value. I don't want to sound like I am telling anyone to not see this movie because it is bad - i honestly don't think that is the case. I just feel it isn't as EPIC as some critics or review lists would have people believe. I think it gets lots of extra credit points because it was made on a low budget in a country that isn't terribly known for its films. (by the way the film is in Portuguese so you will likely have to read it.)
Also a couple of things that rubbed me the wrong way
- it really bothers me when revolvers have the ability to fire 20 bullets without the shooter reloading. This happens a lot in this film
- Even for Brazil the level of tolerated violence seems extremely high and at no point are the police anything other than a non-issue. I understand that there is corruption and what not but honestly, if there were street wars on the level that is presented in this movie, the military would have gotten involved
- there is one sequence where anyone with a minor grievance is able to join one of the rival gangs and is immediately given a loaded weapon to join the cause handed to them by the leaders of the rival gangs while both sets of leaders were desperately trying to kill the other gang's leaders. This seemed like an absolutely terrible recruitment strategy and it also would have been a wonderful opportunity for assassination because the leaders are shown as not having a clue who the various applicants are.
The film was nominated for 4 Academy awards but didn't win any of them. It was considered a financial success, pulling in more than $30 million off a budget of just over $3 million.
Sorry to any of the dedicated fanbois out there, but I am afraid I am just not one of you.