Cangaceiro (1953)
"O Cangaceiro" (original title)

Brazilian movie inspired by American westerns (but losing none of its cultural integrity) about Cangaceiro (bandit) Teodoro who falls in love with a small town school teacher who his gang ... See full summary »

Director:

Lima Barreto

Writers:

Lima Barreto, Rachel de Queiroz (dialogue)

Stars:

Alberto Ruschel, Marisa Prado, Milton Ribeiro

2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Alberto Ruschel	...	Teodoro
Marisa Prado	...	Olívia
Milton Ribeiro	...	Capitão Galdino Ferreira
Vanja Orico	...	Maria Clódia
Adoniran Barbosa	...	Mané Mole
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Antonio V. Almeida
Heitor Barnabé
Lima Barreto
Dan Camara
Horácio Camargo
Ricardo Campos
Carybé
Antônio Coelho
Maria Joaquina da Rocha
Cid Leite da Silva

Storyline

Brazilian movie inspired by American westerns (but losing none of its cultural integrity) about Cangaceiro (bandit) Teodoro who falls in love with a small town school teacher who his gang has kidnapped.

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Plot Keywords:

backcountry | brigand | cangaço | gangster

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Genres:

Action | Drama

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Details

Country:

Brazil

Language:

Portuguese

Release Date:

3 September 1954 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Ninth Bullet

Company Credits

Production Co:

Vera Cruz Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Levels (2008)

User Reviews

A rare film well worth watching, if only for the haunting music score and B/W cinematography.

Another great film that is characterised by a memorable music score. Not all films with great music are great films, but haunting or otherwise memorable scores are a feature of so many of the greatest films of all time - The Third Man, Jeux Interdits, High Noon, American Graffiti, most of the Kubrick opus, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and probably any documentary adopting Philip Glass' minimalism (The Thin Blue Line and The Fog of War) being prominent examples. This is so even when the music is not original but simply selected and edited in from classical music, popular or folk songs, as appropriate and evocative. Bets are that you won't be able to get the title folk song of O Cangaceiro out of your head for some time after you've finished watching it - it seems to affect every viewer that way.

This is a film reminiscent of The Wages of Fear, in its portrayal of poverty and the brutality, especially towards women, traditionally endemic in South America. No wonder Claude Levi-Strauss entitled his seminal ethnographic work based on travels in South America "Tristes Tropiques".

I had been warned of the brutality of the horse-dragging scene in this film - yet I can only say that it pales into insignificance with the graphic closing horse-dragging scene of The Cowboys - when I guess John Wayne was, as his career closed, ever more drawn to reactionary law-and-order neanderthalism.

A melancholic film with great B/W cinematography and even better music, depicting that eternal South American atmosphere of brutality and tragic sadness. A rare film well worth watching.