Four Days in September (1997) Film Review

Four Days in September- (1997) directed by Bruno Barreto was a "semi-fictionalized" recounting of the kidnapping of the United States Ambassador in 1969. The ambassador was kidnapped by a group of radical students during the time period of the Brazilian dictatorship.

In the beginning of the film there were many snapshots of the people of Brazil celebrating and shots of places around the country. Each snapshot indicating that the people of Brazil were happier before the dictatorship of Brazil started. It gave a clearer perspective of how some people may view the new government of their country.

In the film many people were against the new government that was known as a dictatorship. Rallies that were lead down the streets where people shout out, "No more dictatorship." The rally lead to the fight against the cops where the people tried to get their point across. During this time the press was censored limiting the amount of information people know about the consequences of dictatorship.

One revolution that was the group that kidnapped the United States Ambassador was MR-8 (October 8 Revolutionary Movement) whose leader was a women named Maria. In this group it consisted of young adults. Each member had a new identity or new name to protect them from being caught by the government. One actor that stood out from this group was the writer. The writer wrote letters to the press demanding things in trade for the ambassador to be set free. He had gotten this position because of the skill of writing and he was unable to hold a weapon without being nervous to shoot. He was the main key because he came up with the plan to kidnap the ambassador and came up with convincing letters for the press. He was the brains behind the group but not the strategist. The writer was known as Paulo. When the ambassador was held prisoner to MR-8 Paulo was the only one who made the Ambassador wear glasses rather than Paulo wearing a hood over his head. This showed the significant difference between him and the other members of the group in that he demanded respect and was more casual about the kidnapping.

A few scenes that demonstrated that the government was serious about the revolutionary spreading word were that each revolutionist held prisoner was tortured. An example was Oswaldo who was caught when MR-8 was robbing a bank to get funds and spread the word to the people trapped in the bank and hesitated to shoot a guard. Oswaldo was shot and held prisoner from there he was interrogated and tortured just to release information about the revolutionary. Once the police had information about their where about the group had relocated their safe house. The group was clever but not too clever in hiding their tracks. Even if they couldn't get accurate information through the interrogations they had come across evidence of their whereabouts because they decided to order take out.

In the opening scene dating September