Behind The Sun
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Movie Reviews of Behind The Sun
Movie Review: Suffering and sadness lie Behind the Sun.
Summary: 4 Stars
Behind the Sun takes place in 1910 in the Brazilian countryside. Even so, the movie has a timeless feel to it. Two families have a long standing feud and the film very early on shows us a dream sequence with the oldest son of the Breves family being ambushed and shot while carrying his youngest brother, "kid," on his shoulders across an open field. The shirt of the victim is hung on a clothesline. When the blood turns yellow, Tonio, the son next in line, will be required to ambush and kill the member of the rival Ferreira family who murdered his brother.Tonio carries out his assignment, kills his rival, and the stage is now set for the process to be repeated, seemingly in an endless cycle which will ultimately destroy both families. Unfortunately, a misguided sense of honor has blinded both families to the stupidity and senselessness of the feud.
Only the youngest brother of the Breves family, the kid, seems immune to the craziness of the longstanding feud. He is a dreamer and we see him pouring over a book about the ocean given to him by circus performers who are on their way to the next town to set up their tent. The fire-eater in the circus is a beautiful young woman and the kid's older brother Tonio falls in love with her at first sight. This complicates matters because Tonio knows that he doesn't have much longer to live. The rival family will kill him when the blood on the shirt of the man Tonio killed turns yellow.
Except for brief moments at the circus, we experience the suffering of a family that has lost much and appears destined to lose even more. The Breves family has no hope and no future because tradition and honor are more powerful than reason. We don't have to look far to see counterparts everywhere today -- Northern Ireland, Palestine, Bosnia, etc.
The climax of the film is heartbreakingly sad -- no Hollywood ending here. The kid loves his brother Tonio and wants him to be happy. He is a dreamer and he is willing to pay the price to make his dreams come true. His dreams and sacrifice are a means of liberation for his brother and his family and an example for all of us. We will not soon forget him.
Movie Review: "Mostly Beautiful"
Summary: 4 Stars
Set among feuding sugarcane farmers in rural Brazil at the start of the last century, this film is in most respects a consistently beautiful achievement. First of all, the spectacular photography, as astonishing on DVD as in the theater, is marked by a series of wonderfully lit or darkened barren and lush vistas of the sort which linger in the memory. The acting, too, is noteworthy for the naturalness of most of the players, the older of whom have faces rightly savaged by the harshness of the vengeance code they uphold and the narrow meanness of their lives of quiet desperation. The younger people in the film, eager for a life of more promise and joy than that offered by the declining sugar cane trade or itinerant circus performing, are to a person physically beautiful, yet frail and vulnerable to abuse, even early death, given the limited options their lives actually afford them.On the other hand, the film ,in my view, has a serious flaw, which is its dependence on the stereotypical character of the wise, unbelievably insightful pre-pubescent child not only to voice obvious truths none of the grown-ups see as quickly but also to provide the entirely predictable, essentially sentimental denouement. With such astonishingly fresh realism marking the treatment of economic competition (i.e. the scene of price gouging at the sugar trading office) and family feuding (the appearance of the killer among the mourners at his victim's funeral) in the early and central parts of the film, the use of such a Hollywood or T.V.-style wise kid is both jarring and disappointing.
Movie Review: In the best tradition of Brazilian regionalist storytelling
Summary: 4 Stars
This was a captivating movie, with beautiful filming that captures the awesome, rugged beauty of the Brazilian sertao. And the story was as captivating and satisfying as it was conventional. What is remarkable about this film, beyond the beauty of the imagery, is the bittersweet ending, that leaves you both relieved that the outcome was not what was expected, but that also was as sad and tragic as a story could be.
Although this movie was based on a novel by an Albanian writer, it fits well in an established genre of Brazilian story-telling, the stories of the sertao.
The only thing that seemed a bit unnecessary to my imagination was the indication at the beginning that the movie occurred in 1910. Given the transcendence of the story, this was not necessary. This movie could have been set in 1879, 1910, or 1928. It doesn't really matter - it is a mythical, fabulous pre-modern sertao that is the setting, not any particular time and place.
Movie Review: Ignorance and opportunity...
Summary: 4 Stars
What kind of view could one expect from Behind the Sun? Perception is obviously distorted. From space, the sun is a hot fiery ball of yellow and red - an interesting contrast to the yellow globe that lights our day, and a unique use of symbolism in the movie. Sacrificing their children in the name of vengeance, the principle characters fight a losing battle for "honor." Honor that is the only remnant of a dying culture, and the only thing left that gives meaning to life. The cycle of killing and vengeance is ultimately superceded - not by the principles alone, but by providence in the form of a visiting female circus performer. The performer offers vision, hope, and love to a pair of brothers doomed to a future of despair.
The major parts of the movie - acting, scenery, cinematography, all come together in a masterful way to augment an otherwise abstract story. In all, this piece represents an extraordinary work.
Movie Review: Moving
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this movie because I am studying Brazilian Portuguese and wanted to immerse myself in it. I have to say that I'm glad it had subtitles. I will need to watch it many, many more times before I can understand what they are saying. Technically, you wouldn't even need a soundtrack to understand the story, and it is a good one, very moving. A tale of a family feud with a definite surprise ending. It moves pretty slow, but the scenery is so beautiful that you don't notice much. When the action finally does take place, you're absolutely stunned. It is a relatively short movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it.