ANTONIO DAS MORTES Movie Review

O Dragao da Maldade contra ο Santo Guerreiro

The most outspoken and brilliantly talented member of the Cinema Novo movement in Brazil, Glauber Rocha came to the film world's attention with his 1964 Black God, White Devil. In this sequel, made five years later, the bounty hunter from the earlier film comes to realize that his true enemies are not the revolutionaries he's being paid to kill, but rather the land barons and government functionaries who are using him so cynically. Rocha's first film in color is a rich, imagist epic that immediately established him as one of the world's most important new cinematic voices. Antonio Das Mortes brought Rocha a shared Best Director prize at Cannes, and became the most widely distributed of the Cinema Novo films in the west, even receiving a moderately successful art house release in the U.S. Yet despite the worldwide critical acclaim that the film garnered—or perhaps because of it—Rocha was hounded mercilessly by the Brazilian establishment and was ultimately forced to flee to Europe, where he would continue to work as both a filmmaker and critic until just prior to his untimely death at age 43. When he discovered that a lung infection was going to kill him, Rocha flew back to his beloved Brazil to die, a gesture reminiscent of the sweeping romanticism of this film, his masterpiece.

NEXT STOP … Black God, White Devil, Quilombo, Bye Bye Brazil

1968 100m/C BR Mauricio Do Valle, Odete Lara, Jofre Soares, Lorival Pariz; D: Glauce Rocha; W: Glauce Rocha; C: Alfonso Beato. VHS FCT