Antonio Das Mortes

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Review added by
Tom J Fallows

Certificate: 18
Running Time: 96 minutes
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Release Date: 31/5/2010
Content Type: Movie

Synopsis:
Following on from the hugely successful and acclaimed Black God, White Devil (Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol) comes Glauber Rocha s powerful award-winning sequel Antonio Das Mortes aka O Dragão da Maldade contra o Santo Guerreiro.

Part epic, part folklore, part political allegory, Rocha's Antonio Das Mortes is one of the most memorable films of the Cinema Novo (Brazilian filmmakers movement) by one of its finest filmmakers.

The film returns to the Brazilian Sertao 29 years after Antonio das Mortes killed Corisco (the "Blond Devil"), last of the Cangaceiros. The legendary 'warrior saint' Antonio (Maurício do Valle) is now the central character a jagunco (hired gunman) contracted to kill cangaceiros and protect a powerful landowner. He tracks down and kills the members of a guerrilla band, only to realise after killing the last rebel in ritualistic combat that his fight should be against the landowners rather than the dispossessed country folk.

The film celebrates his turn against the military regime that hires him, offering his righteous fight as a model for all revolutionary resistance and garnered Rocha the Best Director award at the 1969 Cannes Films Festival.

The Brazilian ANTONIO DAS MORTES casts Mauricio De Valle as a mercenary peacekeeper. Agreeing to hunt down and kill rebel soldiers, the mercenary becomes increasingly drawn to the rebel's cause. His 11th-hour turnaround does not prevent the film from ending in a bloodbath.

ANTONIO DAS MORTES unabashedly casts its lot with such insurgents as Che Guevara. As such, this 1968 film had difficulty finding an American distributor until two years later.

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