Four Days in September Reviews

This altogether gripping thriller, based on actual events and realized by Brazilian director Bruno Barreto, explores the thin line between political activism and terrorism while never losing sight of the human dimension. Rio de Janeiro, 1969: As the U.S. celebrates Neil Armstrong's giant step for mankind, Brazil teeters on the brink of chaos. Five years into an oppressive military dictatorship, civil rights have been suspended, the press is heavily censored and Brazil's jails are filled with political prisoners who are routinely tortured. Young journalist Fernando Gabeira (Pedro Cardoso) falls in with the "October 8th Revolutionary Movement," or "MR-8," a group of radical leftists who hope to effect political change through guerrilla tactics and civil unrest. After the group pulls off a successful "revolutionary expropriation" -- bank robbery, in laymen's terms -- Fernando suggests an even more ambitious attention-getter: kidnapping American ambassador Charles Elbrick (Alan Arkin). The planning and execution of the Elbrick's abduction is a first-rate nail-biter, but it's the aftermath -- four long days during which the captors face their prisoner -- that's the real grabber. Taking inspiration from the real-life Gabeira's published memoirs, Barreto's film is less concerned with history than the fate of idealism and the wide-reaching effects of oppression. With the exception of two veteran guerrillas who come aboard to direct the inexperienced MR-8, there really aren't any bad guys here: The kidnappers are ultimately the victims, and Elbrick is carefully presented as a largely sympathetic, squarely MOR liberal. In a film where even torturers are granted pangs of conscience, Barreto may be accused of anaesthetizing Brazil's wounds, but the film wields an undeniable power. Leopoldo Serran's masterful screenplay does a beautiful job of endowing each of the many characters with full-blown identities, while maintaining a corrosive sense of humor right up to the film's final, quietly shattering moments.