Eu Matei Lúcio Flávio (1979) User Reviews

Dirty Harry in a clockwork-orange police department in Copacabana - inspired by a real story

[guisreis · 6/10 · 4 August 2021]

Significant exploitation film, with a strong aesthetics from the 70's but also with strong roots in Brazilian sexploitation "pornochanchadas". It begins very well and is well performed, seeming that Dirty Harry worked in a clockwork-orange police department in red-light Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro. With well done action scenes, quite decent acting, naked people having sex, and an interesting and diverse soundtrack, it could have worked. However, there are some serious social-political problems and, besides that, the side events in the story become increasingly loosely connected. The main character, based in a real life man, was a policeman who had many famous love affairs and worked in a criminal death squad during military dictatorship. The movie was also released years before authoritarian regime were over. Therefore, there is the possibility that the intention was showing that police was corrupt, tortured, killed without due law process (and those who were not murdered were alternatively jailed in awful conditions). If it is true, doing this disguised as an action flick indeed could be a smart strategy to bypass censorship. However, it is too much ambiguous if it was hidden criticism against dictatorship repressive apparatus or if they simply were not taking seriously what happened in authoritarian Brazil, were supporting violation of human rights as a desirable path for law and order, or simply saw misogynist and reactionary exploitation as profitable. The rape scene in the drugstore (not the only one!), although not too explicit, was disgusting. Saying in other words: if it was not a strategy to criticize dire problems under the menace of censorship, it was alternatively a proto-fascist piece that opposed the goal of building a fair society. It reminded me a more recent and successful film, "Elite Squad", in which police also tortured and killed in a seriously brutalized warlike behaviour. Those characters were not taken as criminals by most viewers, but as brave heroes who were constrained by unnecessary bureaucracy that favoured bandits. That may explain the fascist path Brazil would take few years afterwards. Indeed, the death squad from "I killed Lúcio Flavio" was curiously called by a minor character as an "elite squad" at some moment. Ambiguity in this kind of film is too dangerous... or perhaps it is simply deliberate support for fascism, and it is me who am trying to envision a better perspective. To resume, a loose script and ambiguous narrative choices made the film not to be good as it could have been.

Cheap Violence and Exploitation of Sex

[claudio_carvalho · 4/10 · 18 June 2005]

In the early seventies in Rio de Janeiro, detective Mariel Moryscötte de Mattos belonged to a special police force called "The Golden Men". This powerful group of the elite of the police was created with the intention of eliminate crime from Rio de Janeiro, and they had privileges above law to expedite their action against the outlaws. However, absolute power in wrong hands corrupts, and this group formed the "Death Squad", executing criminals without the conventional trial from the justice. "Eu Matei Lúcio Flávio" is a manipulative movie about the life of Mariel Moryscötte, one of the most known "golden man". This film is too much violent, and cheaply exploits crimes and sex, showing many deaths, naked women and simulation of sexual intercourse. The screenplay if very bad, the music score is horrible and the edition is awful. This is the first time that I see this film, and it is not worth watching it. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Eu Matei Lúcio Flávio" ("I Killed Lúcio Flávio")

One of the greatest Brazilian police films ever made

[muidoido · 10/10 · 4 July 2006]

One of the greatest Brazilian police films ever made and a great classic of the Brazilian cinema. It's a true history about Rio de Janeiro of the 60's and 70's and the beginning of the Death Squad. It is the history of Mariel Moryscotte Araújo de Matos one of the most famous members of the group known as Scuderie Le Cocq. The film shows some of the most famous criminals killed by the death squad, all deaths well reported in the Brazilian press, and the personal life of Mariel in the high-society of Rio de Janeiro. Directed by Antônio Calmon, it is one of the best films of Jece Valadão, a great star of Brazilian national cinema.