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Elite Squad

On the streets of Rio only the elite survive

2007 · 1h 55m · R Action, Crime, Drama
Directed by José Padilha

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Overview

In 1997, before the visit of the pope to Rio de Janeiro, Captain Nascimento from BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) is assigned to eliminate the risks of the drug dealers in a dangerous slum nearby where the pope intends to be lodged.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
51%
Tomatometer
Rotten

For nearly two hours, Padilha bombards viewers with senseless, sickening violence for its own sake.

V.A. Musetto, New York Post
Rotten

Elite Squad is a relentlessly ugly, unpleasant, often incoherent assault on the senses from Brazil.

Manohla Dargis, New York Times
Rotten

Elite Squad can't decide whether it wants to pull the lid back on what urban decay has wrought or simply open up a can of whup ass.

David Fear, Time Out New York
Fresh

[Jose Padilha] recariously pitches the squad's brute force as less a necessary evil than the outgrowth of an existing evil -- a no-win situation that mocks liberal ideals and warps conservative pragmatism into domestic terrorism.

Jim Ridley, Village Voice
Fresh

It bears a resemblance to viscerally exciting seventies urban thrillers like The French Connection, in which only the fascists could do what needed to be done.

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture

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