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O Cangaceiro
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Wikipedia article
'O Cangaceiro' (lit. "The Cangaceiro"; also known as 'The Bandit' and 'The Bandits') is a 1953 Brazilian adventure western film directed by Lima Barreto. After some reluctance by its studio Vera Cruz, Barreto shot it in 1952. After its release it was national and international success, and won several film awards, including at the Cannes Film Festival. It was poorly received in retrospect despite being praised by the time of its release and started a subgenre in Brazilian cinema.
Cast
* Alberto Ruschel as Teodoro
* Marisa Prado as Olvia
* Milton Ribeiro as Galdino
* Vanja Orico as Maria Cldia
* Adoniran Barbosa as Man Mole
Production
In 1950, Lima Barreto joined the film studio Companhia Cinematogrfica Vera Cruz invited by its then president Alberto Cavalcanti. After releasing two documentaries successfully for the studio, 'Painel' and 'Santurio', Barreto get the chance to direct a feature film. With the idea to shoot a film about Lampio since the early 1940s, he only commenced to shoot it in 1952 after some reluctance by Franco Zampari, Vera Cruz's founder. Although he went to Bahia and did some research there, it was shot in Vargem Grande do Sul, So Paulo, with a production that lasted nine months due to internal conflicts.
Reception
'O Cangaceiro' was released on January 20, 1953, and was a public success; it grossed $30 million (about US$1.5 million) in the 24 Brazilian theaters in which it spent six weeks. After its national success, it was distributed to over 80 countries, becoming one of the most internationally successful Brazilian filmsa feat uncommon in that time. It led it to be considered Vera Cruz's "high point" and its "most important production" by Georges Sadoul, author of 'Dictionary of Films', and by 'O Estado de S. Paulo's Luiz Zanin, respectively.
After winning several Brazilian awards, the film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival, where it was "much liked for its original and truly national flavour." 'O Cangaceiro' won the Best Adventure Film Award, making it the first Brazilian film to win a prize at Cannes, and received a special mention to Gabriel Migliori's musical composition. At the Edinburgh International Film Festival it was awarded the Best Film.
It received mixed commentaries since its release. It was once voted the best Brazilian film in 1968 by National Film Institute's magazine 'Revista Film Cultura'. Sadoul declared, "Lima Barreto well conveys a sense of poetry of the open desert space of the Serto and makes this story lively and suspenseful". After praising its cast performances and its "thrilling" musical score, Bosley Crowther of 'The New York Times' said, "This '[O] Cangaceiro' is a picture that will cause the Western fans to rub their eyes." However, Cinema Novo representantsmainly Glauber Rochawould criticize it for borrowing too much the style of American films. Critics also went on to comment on its "sociological inaccuracies."
Legacy
It is the first film to mix 'cangao' with Western, starting a genre called "Nordestern" an amalgam of the words "Nordeste" (Northeast) and "Western". It would be followed by successful films such as Carlos Coimbra's 'A Morte Comanda o Cangao' (1960), 'Lampio, o Rei do Cangao' (1964) and 'Corisco, o Diabo Louro' (1969), and Aurlio Teixeira's 'Os Trs Cabras de Lampio'. It also established 'cangao' as a subgenre in Brazilian cinema; subsequently, 'cangao' would be featured as a theme from comedysuch as 'Os Trs Cangaceiro' and 'O Lamparina'to 'pornochanchada' films'As Cangaceiras Erticas' and 'A Ilha das Cangaceiras Virgens'. Also, Ruschel and Ribeiro would reprise the role of "good 'cangaceiro'" and "bad 'cangaceiro'" in other films.
References
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