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18 out of 23 people found the following review useful:
Brazilian New Wave revolutionary masterpiece is still absolutely dazzling, 24 February 2007
10/10
Author: debblyst from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

"So I've told you a story/of truth and imagination/I hope you've learned the lesson/and see this world is unjustly divided/for the land belongs to man/not to God nor to the Devil". Thus sings the narrator of Glauber Rocha's astonishing, symphonic, revolutionary epic masterpiece that changed Brazilian cinema overnight, was enthusiastically praised by great international filmmakers (Buñuel, Pasolini, Bertolucci, Godard, Leone) and stormed Cannes in 1964. Glauber, just 23 at the time of filming, combines a wide range of influences (Eisenstein, Dovzhenko, Humberto Mauro, John Ford, Welles, Rossellini, cinema-vérité, Godard, Buñuel, Brecht, Marx, Frantz Fanon, Guimarães Rosa, José Lins do Rego, Euclides da Cunha, Villa- Lobos, Portinari, Brazilian Art Brut and Northeastern popular culture) to achieve a poetic, explosive, entirely unique style that bombards the screen with unforgettable images, sounds and political significance.

"Truth and imagination" are the keywords to the film. Inspired by actual events ("truth") raised to almost mythological heights ("imagination") by Brazilian pamphlet literature ("literatura de cordel") and folklore, the film follows poor peasant cowherd Manuel and his wife Rosa in their dire saga through the Brazilian "sertão" (the arid hinterland in the Northeast of Brazil), and their encounters with "God" -- personified by black prophet Beato Sebastião (who turns out to be a messianic madman) -- and the many "Devils", personified by "Blond Devil" Corisco, the very last of the "cangaceiros" (heavily armed bandits who terrorized the "sertão" and became popular anti-heroes, not unlike U.S. Wild West bandits); Antonio das Mortes, the mercenary headhunter hired by local politicians and priests to kill Corisco; and Moraes, the cattle owner who, by humiliating Manuel, finally brings forth Manuel's tempestuous reaction and subsequent journey into crime, religious fanaticism, tragedy and final enlightenment.

The highlights are countless: the film's opening shots, with the fly-infested carcasses of dead cows and horses out of thirst and famine under the blazing sun; the slow-paced depiction of Manuel+Rosa's lives in abject poverty, their hard and repetitive work, their endless struggle against hunger and inclement weather; the extraordinarily inventive sung narration, in the style of the "cantadores" (minstrels) of the "sertão", setting all the action in motion and commenting on it; the electrifying montage of the Monte Santo massacre, a tribute to Einsenstein's iconic Odessa steps scene in "Potemkim", and just as riveting; the Monte Santo chapel sequence, as Manuel kills an innocent baby in ritual sacrifice only to suddenly realize the horror of blind religious fanaticism; Beato Sebastião, fatally stabbed by Rosa, deliriously crawling on the altar's big crucifix as he tries to place himself on the cross as a new Messiah; the expressionist scene where the shadows of Rosa's knife and Antonio das Mortes' rifle "touch" on the chapel wall, marking the birth of a new, doomed pact of blood and death; Villa-Lobos' famous Bachianas #5 vocalise dictating the pace of Corisco+Rosa's passionate kiss while the camera draws frantic circles around them; the Buñuelian power of the sequence where the wedding party turns into a nightmarish terror of merciless torture and rape.

There's much more: Othon Bastos's amazing performance as Corisco, with his electric, restless body movements and thunderous voice ("Corisco" means lightning in Portuguese). There's a staggeringly bold conception in the scene -- partly influenced by Kurosawa's Rashomon and partly by the trance tradition of Afro-Brazilian religions -- where Corisco suddenly "incorporates" the spirit of dead bandit Lampião, aka the "king of the cangaceiros": Bastos' voice lowers, his gestures become hieratic, the camera frames just half of his head in extreme close-up (the "split" personality), alternating with close-ups of the emblematic elements of his "cangaceiro" outfit, where bullets, crucifixes, silver coins, guns and amulets co-exist, representing religious faith, ostentation, superstition, vanity and thirst for blood. Observe the way Glauber "arranges" his characters on screen: they always move "magnetically" toward other characters with whom they identify at given moments; it's a Brechtian, choreographic mise-en-scène in a completely non-theatrical environment (the vast openness of the sertão!). Waldemar Lima's weightless, dizzying camera and high-contrast lighting is essential to the film's aesthetics, as is Sérgio Ricardo's voice and guitar-playing as the narrating minstrel, Rafael Valverde's virtuoso, multi-style editing and the unique locations in the hinterland of Bahia.

I could go on and on; it's such a rich film that multiple viewings are required, culminating in the breathtaking finale of unforgettable poetic and political impact. Building a realist/expressionist/ mythological portrayal of Brazilian sertão -- the inhuman labor and life condition of the illiterate, destitute, God-fearing peasants, perennially exploited by landowners, politicians, bandits, Catholic priests and doomsday messianic "prophets" -- Glauber proposed a "new Brazilian cinema" for a new Brazil, less ignorant, less corrupt, less unequal, less exploitative. A country where land could finally belong to Man, not to God nor to the Devil. Rocha's ambitious dream was traumatically excised by the Brazilian military coup of 1964, that buried all hopes of a long-awaited and much-hailed political and agrarian reform that ultimately caused the deposition (with the CIA's active help) of left-wing President João Goulart. But this incendiary, revolutionary, poetic manifesto influenced a whole generation and is still dazzling enough to keep inspiring filmmakers and audiences whose blood boils for socially-aware films that are also non-conformist works of art. A masterpiece.

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23 out of 34 people found the following review useful:
A great piece of art, 15 June 2004
Author: cybermorphy (cybermorphy@hotmail.com) from Ribeirão Preto, Brazil

Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol isn't just a good Brazilian movie. This is an actual masterpiece, compared to the big ones in the history of cinema. It's not a boring and too regional film, but deals with universal aspects of human nature, such as blind devotion, love, hate, and all kinds of misery. Glauber Rocha, with only 22 years, made a mix of Eisenstein, Italian neo-realism and nouvelle-vague, under a background of cordel literature (our pulp fictions). The Mauricio do Valle character, Antonio das Mortes, is fundamentally a European western anti-hero, and certainly inspired Leone, Corbucci and others in the development of their scripts. The soundtrack, with Villa Lobbos and Rocha&Ricardo songs, matches perfectly with the dry landscape of the Brazilian Northeast. In short, Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol must be known. If you have open mind and like great cinema, and not just the popcorn no-brain north-American blockbusters, try this one.

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19 out of 29 people found the following review useful:
A great masterpiece!, 3 October 2001
8/10
Author: gazineo-1 from Brasilia, Brazil

This movie is considered by the critics as the most important Brazilian movie of all times. And they are right in this point. An impressive, outstanding portrait of Brazilian rich culture with a focus on some delicate subjects as religion, faith, violence and economic exploration. Rocha made here a fantastic synthesis of the main problems of Brazil, problems that still remained almost forty years after. Great performances by Del Rey and Mauricio do Valle.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
The finest of Cine Novo, 17 October 2008
9/10
Author: FBS83 from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I was very excited to finally see Black God, White Devil, Glauber Rocha's reputation is so immense this film was a real treat and especially to see more Latin American films, of which availability is little. There is no doubting Black God, White Devil is a good film, the film is bursting with intelligence and style. A little slow at first I had a little trouble adjusting the narrative flow but Rocha had me enough to really want to stay with the film. As the narrative starts to take shape and build the film gradually reveals itself and intensifies. The messages of what Rocha is trying to do become more apparent – on a profilmic level as well as his aesthetic choices and how these impact on the interpretation of the narrative and how this comments on modern (political) Brazil. Rocha effectively juxtaposes his sequences using an intense sound mix of shouting dialogue, the sounds of the earth and then to a sequence of near silence and whispered dialogue. It seems to me that he is building a set of dichotomies about what is enacted and what is reported, what is seen and how it is interpreted on a narrative/profilmic level. The wasteland that is northern Brazil is clearly important to Rocha as we see the vistas of the land, hear its sounds and view its people. The despicabe poverty in which these people live is clearly something Rocha wishes to showcase.

Spoilers ahead The acting is theatrical at times whilst the (metaphoric) narrative is anything but. Rocha seems to want to be saying that the political climate of Brazil is absurd and the only option out is violence – which he shows lavishly as we see the protagonist, cowherd, Manoel, follow a preacher senselessly, Manoel seems to have lost any logic he might have once had when he kills his boss and from this a spiralling decline of logic builds around the ensuing violence. The preacher is murdered by Manoel's wife as she theatrically plunges a knife into his back, at this point she is the only character to retain any kind of 'sense'. Antonio das Mortes arrives and murders all the followers and the preacher, with the job already done Antonio spares them and they go on their way becoming followers of Corsico. Corscio is some kind bandit who's motives seem unclear to me, and a continuing wake of violence follows his travails. The films ends with Antonio das Mortes coming to kill Corsico and Manoel, Corsico is shot down in a sequence resembling a spaghetti western, as do many of Antonio's scenes due to his costume design, he looks like the quintessential dusty spaghetti western antihero. In the final shot we see Manoel running for his life in a long and quick tracking shot along the dusty plains of north Brazil. The finale was a little puzzling as it seemed to lack the dramatic punch I thought was coming. But I think the drama was there but by this point I was quite deflated from thinking about the intellectual dynamics of the film and general lethargy.

Rocha's style of film-making is very interesting and like many Latin American films takes as it's influences many of the great politically motivated cinematic movements before it, Soviet montage cinema, Italian Neo Realism and the French Nouvelle Vague. Rocha's usage of these techniques does make his film like a jumble, his film is focused and fully formed aesthetically, his camera roving around the wasteland with the vitality of the Nouvelle Vague is nicely, editing with frenetic power of the Soviet montage cinema juxtaposed by the largely single take, static sequences of contemplation and introspection evoking Italian Neo Realism. A stunning film from a director so young as Rocha who must have been less than twenty four when he made it and winning the Palme d'Or in Cannes to boot.

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This is a real masterpiece!!, 24 February 2009
10/10
Author: gustavo_ma92 from Brazil

This movie is so fantastic! I've seen it like 10 times or so, and I still get impressed whenever I watch it. Glauber Rocha, who was a total genius, unites various elements of Brazil's Northeastern culture in a great story about alienation of the people. The story is narrated by a singer who impersonates a regional popular singer; and the visual aspects of the film and the tone of black and white are supposed to resemble the rhymes and the woodcut covers which invoke the "literatura de cordel", or "string literature", which is very common in the northeast of Brazil(not so much today, but certainly in the 60's). The film shows how the powerful control the poorest through violence and intimidation, and how religion and the "Cangaço" movement can be bad when a person without perspective and objectives in life get involved with them. Manuel, the main character, is totally alienated by the "black god" Sebastião, which resembles, in many ways, real Brazilian preacher Antônio Conselheiro; and by the "white devil" Corisco(a real Cangaceiro who worked with real and, in the 20's and 30's, widely famous Cangaço boss Lampião), wonderfully performed by Othon Bastos, while the hired gun Antonio das Mortes is on the look for both Sebastião and Corisco through the badlands of Northeast. This is a real masterpiece!!

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0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
duality (may or may not contain spoiler, you decide), 15 June 2009
10/10
Author: giantbunny24 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The copy that I had of this film was very poorly transferred so I couldn't read the subtitles very well, so forgive me as this commentary may not be altogether accurate. As I see it Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol is about a man who is caught in the duality of things. He tries to do good, but ends up doing bad. He is called Satan at one point in the film. This duality reflects the duality of life. Who's to say what's good and what's bad? Are so-called priests who molest children people to be revered. Are these just a few rouges or is it the institution that is corrupt? In the face of injustice people have been known to do some terrible things. Communism, a reaction to the injustice of capitalism, lead to Stalinism and Maoism which became their own forms of oppression (the oxy-moron of the dictatorship of the proletariat). We see this resistance to the oppression of capitalism in the liberation theologist Saint Sebastian, but as many great leaders do, such as Jim Jones, power went to his head and he began preaching insane doctrines. At the same time, the catholic church sees the radical as dangerous, not because he is encouraging the people to leave Christianity (on the contrary, he preaches Christianity) but because he is disrupting the status quo and getting the people to think differently about their situation in life. In this way saint sebastian is very much a materialist, despite his Christianity. He preaches violence as a way of getting what you want and appeasement of the gods can mean material gain. Saint Sebastian is himself a paradox, and paradox is the theme of the film. We must ask ourselves, why was the title Black God, White Devil chosen for the English version of this film? Is the black god sebastian and the white devil the man who kills everybody towards the end (I never got his name)? I think the black god and white devil are the yin and the yang of existence: the very duality of man; the god and the devil within all of us.

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2 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
One more for the bandwagon, 6 December 2008
6/10
Author: frankenbenz from Sydney, Australia

Like Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto, Deus e O Diabo Na Terra Do Sol, (translated: God and the Devil in Land of Sun) doesn't bother mincing words when addressing what's wrong with the world. As Communism swept through South America and Cuba in the 50's and 60's, Socialist film-making enjoyed its greatest hey dey and, amongst those films, DeODNTDS is remembered as one of the best. Whereas films like Mikhail Kalatozov's I Am Cuba were unabashed agents of propaganda, bashing Capitalism with a hammer-like heavy hand, Glauber Rocha's efforts were hidden behind the symbolism of one man's Chaucer-esquire journey into an unknown fate.

The journey is Manuel's, an impoverished farmer who is radicalized after killing his boss who (like evil capitalists do) attempted to cheat Manuel of his wages. Manuel then finds God, in the form of a self-proclaimed Saint named Sebastian. Before long, Sebastian's blood thirsty spell over Manuel is broken by Rosa, Manuel's dutiful (and long-suffering) wife. But soon after they're free from Sebastian's grip, Manuel is seduced by the charms of a charismatic and similarly blood thirsty bandit named Corisco. Such is the way with Manuel, doomed to follow, and it is this theme that strangles the life out of Rocha's film.

DeODNTDS is a scathing indictment of not only capitalism, but also of religion and society as a whole. In this world, man is desperately out of balance with nature (and thus himself), wishing (and prophesying) for the land to turn to sea and the sea to turn to land. These fruitless dreams are a constant reminder that man must look inward, to find strength from his own heart and hands. The message is unmistakable, as stark as the black and white imagery Rocha bombards us with, but the trouble with DeODNTDS is that it makes it's point early on is compelled to repeat it over and over again, not unlike a mantra.The inevitable fate of Manuel is set up mid-way through the first act, when bounty hunter Antonio das Mortes is hired by church and city officials to kill Saint Sebastian and put an end to his proletariat uprising (which threatens the establishment aka the money making machine). But das Mortes' hunt is sidetracked and ultimately stalled to such a degree that by the time he and Manuel come face to face, no real stakes remain. In the process of pitting these two against one another, Rocha's film gets bogged down in dogmatic digressions that drag out for what feels like an eternity. By the time the credits roll, the momentum of the powerful first act is lost, and instead of challenging its audience's socio-political allegiances, Deus eO Diablo Na Terra Do Sol merely challenges you to stay awake.

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6 out of 23 people found the following review useful:
The best Brazilian movie off all the time., 16 July 2004
10/10
Author: dbaltz2003 from Brazil

I'm very pleased to comment this picture. It treats about all the hard life of Brazil's northeast population in 60's. Every person should have this knowledge, to understand why Brazil's people are so strong. Even if many people didn't understand, the picture is very realist.It's the fight for life in a place where there is no hope, unless you make justice with your own hands. There is a significant way of showing how poor people survive in extreme conditions of weather. Another thing that it should be said about this wonderful movie is that there is no political structure able to stop life, as it is demonstrated in the scenes of the movie.This is a movie to anyone who wants to have a better idea about real life.

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15 out of 41 people found the following review useful:
Starts off great, but..., 27 January 2005
6/10
Author: ctiptonk from United States

This film begins wonderfully, brilliantly shot and keenly acted- but right as you're sure it's coming to a close, the music suddenly runs uptempo and the narrator says the equivalent of "Wait, there's more!" and the second segment of the film destroys any credibility the first might have established. The director's portrayal of the desert's harshness lends logically to the lunacy of the characters- but Rosa's actions in the second half seem completely unmotivated, as if the actors ran out of script and just start making things up out of boredom in front of the camera. Laudable attempts at Eisenstein-style multiple-repeat editing are a good idea but using them to cover the low-budget nature of the action scenes is not. Overall worth seeing, but I must warn you that I fell asleep towards the end.

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11 out of 52 people found the following review useful:
This is the worst film I have ever seen., 16 March 2008
1/10
Author: just_ducky_ from United States

I don't make a habit of crying at films. But for this film I couldn't help myself. I was literally bored to tears. I had to watch it for a film class, and while watching this film felt a little like torture, I was determined to finish what I started. Towards the end of the film I couldn't take it anymore, my mind shut down, and I started laughing and crying at the same time. Surely, I think, this film must but some kind of terrible joke. Why is no one else laughing? I know that the people who have previously commented on this film see it as a cinematic masterpiece, and will probably dismiss me as a philistine. But still I need to warn all the future film students out there of the potential emotional breakdown you will face upon seeing this film.

IMDb says this film is 120 minutes. This is incorrect. The film is actually 17 hours long.

I think the trouble is that this film takes itself much too seriously. The pace is much too slow, to a point that it's almost unbearable. The acting is BAD, the costumes are ridiculous, the music is incredibly repetitive, and the plot is nonsensical. I don't care if it's a masterpiece. I don't care if it influenced Martin Scorsese. It made me want to pull out my own eyeballs and eat them.

There are much better Brazilian films out there, like "Central Station" and "City of God." If you're looking for realism, a much better example is "I am Cuba," which flows at a similar pace but the cinematography is beautiful (and yes, it also influenced Martin Scorsese).

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