DIRTY Harry is an altar boy compared with the black-uniformed members of BOPE, an elite police unit in Rio de Janeiro.
They shoot first and never ask questions as they go after drug lords that the city’s corrupt police force otherwise ignores.
There’s nothing too sadistic for BOPE members – setting a bad guy on fire or blasting away somebody’s face with a shotgun are all in a day’s work.
In Brazilian director José Padilha’s “Elite Squad,” set in 1997, BOPE members go into bloody overdrive when the pope announces he’s coming to Rio and plans to stay with priests who live just outside one of the worst slums.
For nearly two hours, Padilha bombards viewers with senseless, sickening violence for its own sake. A little character development might lessen the harshness, but Padilha – who directed the much better 2002 hostage doc “Bus 174” – will have none of it.
It boggles the mind to think that “Elite Squad” won the top prize at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival in February.
In Portuguese, with English subtitles. Running time: 115 minutes. Not rated (extreme violence). At the Sunshine, Houston Street, near First Avenue.