Black God, White Devil (1964) User Reviews (21)

Horrifying and undoubtedly important

[tomgillespie2002 · 8/10 · 10 July 2013]

At just 25, Brazilian director Glauber Rocha directed Black God, White Devil, now considered one of the most important pictures to ever come out of Brazil, and a key entry into the Cinema Novo movement. Combining elements of Sergio Leone, Italian neo-realism, and Soviet propaganda such as the work of Sergei Eisenstein, Rocha created a brutal, grainy world inhabited by suicidal religious fanatics, wandering hit men, and psychopathic bandits. From the opening shots of rotting animal corpses and the endless Brazilian sertão, Rocha portrays a grim social realism, one of the key aspects of Cinema Novo.

Ranch-hand Manuel (Geraldo Del Rey) lives in poverty with his wife Rosa (Yona Magalhaes). Fed up with his situation, he goes into town to sell his stock, only to have his boss try to cheat him out of his money, so Manuel kills him with a machete. Fleeing the authorities, he falls in with maniacal preacher Sebastiao (Lidio Silva), who leads Manuel, Rosa and his other followers on a killing spree. Circumstances lead to Manuel leaving the cause, and joining up with famous bandit Corisco (Othon Bastos), who also leads the couple on an orgy of meaningless violence and thievery. But shadowy gun-for-hire Antonio das Mortes (Mauricio do Valle), having been paid by the church and a poltician, is hot on Corisco's tail.

The film very much reminded me of Cormac McCarthy's astounding novel Blood Meridian, where the sheer brutality of the violence played as a metaphor for a society gone sour and a world intent of self-destruction. Like Blood Meridian's The Kid, Manuel and Rosa follow blindly to whichever cause they see a glimmer of hope in. They fail to see the lunacy of Sebastiao's behaviour, and it's only at the point where he stabs a baby in the heart that their eyes seem to be opened, only for them to shack up with the gibbering Corisco, a man who speaks like a poet but doesn't seem to be able to comprehend his own existence. It is at this point, about two-thirds in, that the film seems to lose momentum and becomes somewhat of an unfathomable mess.

But it isn't just the social-political ponderings that make Black God, White Devil so memorable, it also has style in abundance. The camera-work is shaky and urgent at times, full of character close-ups from awkward angles, but it also uses fast editing reminiscent of Eisenstein's greatest works. Similar to Battleship Potemkin's (1925) Odessa steps sequence, the Monte Santo chapel massacre at the hands of Antonio das Mortes is simply electrifying. It is das Mortes' presence that leads to the moments that evoke the work of Sergio Leone, wrapping the shady anti-hero in moody atmosphere like Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name. It's a dangerous mixture of conflicting styles that works beautifully, making the film beautiful and cool, occasionally horrifying, and undoubtedly important. It's just a shame it doesn't manage to keep up with the absolutely astonishing opening two-thirds.

A great masterpiece!

[gazineo-1 · 8/10 · 3 October 2001]

This movie is considered by the critics as the most important Brazilian movie of all times. And they are right in this point. An impressive, outstanding portrait of Brazilian rich culture with a focus on some delicate subjects as religion, faith, violence and economic exploration. Rocha made here a fantastic synthesis of the main problems of Brazil, problems that still remained almost forty years after. Great performances by Del Rey and Mauricio do Valle.

Stunning, brutish and unforgettable

[tim-764-291856 · 8/10 · 4 August 2011]

I loved the first two-thirds of this jaw-dropping epic. For my second viewing, this time with a friend, we both agreed that it fell to pieces after that point, becoming incoherent and unfathomable, whilst still being stylish and remaining 'strange'.

The visual sense was part 'Aguirre, Wrath of God' and Sergio Leone's 'Once Upon a Time in the West'. But, in grainy, high contrast black & white. Camera movements are urgent rather than flowing with the odd editing flourish to enliven the action. We both found this approach initially utterly mesmerising.

This film is of hardcore fanaticism, with religious bigotry and the sheer survival in the harsh scrub desert-lands of northern Brazil. Some scenes are reminiscent of Russian cinematic masterpieces by Eisentstein, as in Ivan the Terrible. I think some scenes will offend and appal many viewers whilst still retaining mystery and that 'Wow, this is something totally different and exciting'. The sort of film that has the critics swooning but with the actual film-lover rather less than overawed.

I'd rather not go into all the narrative in and outs, mostly because it is the overall effect and impression that it has left on me. Unforgettable, true; daring and significant, undoubtedly. But that doesn't make it a film any easier to watch, though. I would give the first two thirds 9/10 and the remainder five.

Brazilian New Wave revolutionary masterpiece is still absolutely dazzling

[debblyst · 10/10 · 24 February 2007]

"So I've told you a story/of truth and imagination/I hope you've learned the lesson/and see this world is unjustly divided/for the land belongs to man/not to God nor to the Devil". Thus sings the narrator of Glauber Rocha's astonishing, symphonic, revolutionary epic masterpiece that changed Brazilian cinema overnight, was enthusiastically praised by great international filmmakers (Buñuel, Pasolini, Bertolucci, Godard, Leone) and stormed Cannes in 1964. Glauber, just 23 at the time of filming, combines a wide range of influences (Eisenstein, Dovzhenko, Humberto Mauro, John Ford, Welles, Rossellini, cinema-vérité, Godard, Buñuel, Brecht, Marx, Frantz Fanon, Guimarães Rosa, José Lins do Rego, Euclides da Cunha, Villa- Lobos, Portinari, Brazilian Art Brut and Northeastern popular culture) to achieve a poetic, explosive, entirely unique style that bombards the screen with unforgettable images, sounds and political significance.

"Truth and imagination" are the keywords to the film. Inspired by actual events ("truth") raised to almost mythological heights ("imagination") by Brazilian pamphlet literature ("literatura de cordel") and folklore, the film follows poor peasant cowherd Manuel and his wife Rosa in their dire saga through the Brazilian "sertão" (the arid hinterland in the Northeast of Brazil), and their encounters with "God" -- personified by black prophet Beato Sebastião (who turns out to be a messianic madman) -- and the many "Devils", personified by "Blond Devil" Corisco, the very last of the "cangaceiros" (heavily armed bandits who terrorized the "sertão" and became popular anti-heroes, not unlike U.S. Wild West bandits); Antonio das Mortes, the mercenary headhunter hired by local politicians and priests to kill Corisco; and Moraes, the cattle owner who, by humiliating Manuel, finally brings forth Manuel's tempestuous reaction and subsequent journey into crime, religious fanaticism, tragedy and final enlightenment.

The highlights are countless: the film's opening shots, with the fly-infested carcasses of dead cows and horses out of thirst and famine under the blazing sun; the slow-paced depiction of Manuel+Rosa's lives in abject poverty, their hard and repetitive work, their endless struggle against hunger and inclement weather; the extraordinarily inventive sung narration, in the style of the "cantadores" (minstrels) of the "sertão", setting all the action in motion and commenting on it; the electrifying montage of the Monte Santo massacre, a tribute to Einsenstein's iconic Odessa steps scene in "Potemkim", and just as riveting; the Monte Santo chapel sequence, as Manuel kills an innocent baby in ritual sacrifice only to suddenly realize the horror of blind religious fanaticism; Beato Sebastião, fatally stabbed by Rosa, deliriously crawling on the altar's big crucifix as he tries to place himself on the cross as a new Messiah; the expressionist scene where the shadows of Rosa's knife and Antonio das Mortes' rifle "touch" on the chapel wall, marking the birth of a new, doomed pact of blood and death; Villa-Lobos' famous Bachianas #5 vocalise dictating the pace of Corisco+Rosa's passionate kiss while the camera draws frantic circles around them; the Buñuelian power of the sequence where the wedding party turns into a nightmarish terror of merciless torture and rape.

There's much more: Othon Bastos's amazing performance as Corisco, with his electric, restless body movements and thunderous voice ("Corisco" means lightning in Portuguese). There's a staggeringly bold conception in the scene -- partly influenced by Kurosawa's Rashomon and partly by the trance tradition of Afro-Brazilian religions -- where Corisco suddenly "incorporates" the spirit of dead bandit Lampião, aka the "king of the cangaceiros": Bastos' voice lowers, his gestures become hieratic, the camera frames just half of his head in extreme close-up (the "split" personality), alternating with close-ups of the emblematic elements of his "cangaceiro" outfit, where bullets, crucifixes, silver coins, guns and amulets co-exist, representing religious faith, ostentation, superstition, vanity and thirst for blood. Observe the way Glauber "arranges" his characters on screen: they always move "magnetically" toward other characters with whom they identify at given moments; it's a Brechtian, choreographic mise-en-scène in a completely non-theatrical environment (the vast openness of the sertão!). Waldemar Lima's weightless, dizzying camera and high-contrast lighting is essential to the film's aesthetics, as is Sérgio Ricardo's voice and guitar-playing as the narrating minstrel, Rafael Valverde's virtuoso, multi-style editing and the unique locations in the hinterland of Bahia.

I could go on and on; it's such a rich film that multiple viewings are required, culminating in the breathtaking finale of unforgettable poetic and political impact. Building a realist/expressionist/ mythological portrayal of Brazilian sertão -- the inhuman labor and life condition of the illiterate, destitute, God-fearing peasants, perennially exploited by landowners, politicians, bandits, Catholic priests and doomsday messianic "prophets" -- Glauber proposed a "new Brazilian cinema" for a new Brazil, less ignorant, less corrupt, less unequal, less exploitative. A country where land could finally belong to Man, not to God nor to the Devil. Rocha's ambitious dream was traumatically excised by the Brazilian military coup of 1964, that buried all hopes of a long-awaited and much-hailed political and agrarian reform that ultimately caused the deposition (with the CIA's active help) of left-wing President João Goulart. But this incendiary, revolutionary, poetic manifesto influenced a whole generation and is still dazzling enough to keep inspiring filmmakers and audiences whose blood boils for socially-aware films that are also non-conformist works of art. A masterpiece.

A great piece of art

[cybermorphy · 15 June 2004]

Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol isn't just a good Brazilian movie. This is an actual masterpiece, compared to the big ones in the history of cinema. It's not a boring and too regional film, but deals with universal aspects of human nature, such as blind devotion, love, hate, and all kinds of misery. Glauber Rocha, with only 22 years, made a mix of Eisenstein, Italian neo-realism and nouvelle-vague, under a background of cordel literature (our pulp fictions). The Mauricio do Valle character, Antonio das Mortes, is fundamentally a European western anti-hero, and certainly inspired Leone, Corbucci and others in the development of their scripts. The soundtrack, with Villa Lobbos and Rocha&Ricardo songs, matches perfectly with the dry landscape of the Brazilian Northeast. In short, Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol must be known. If you have open mind and like great cinema, and not just the popcorn no-brain north-American blockbusters, try this one.

Starts off great, but...

[ctiptonk · 6/10 · 27 January 2005]

This film begins wonderfully, brilliantly shot and keenly acted- but right as you're sure it's coming to a close, the music suddenly runs uptempo and the narrator says the equivalent of "Wait, there's more!" and the second segment of the film destroys any credibility the first might have established. The director's portrayal of the desert's harshness lends logically to the lunacy of the characters- but Rosa's actions in the second half seem completely unmotivated, as if the actors ran out of script and just start making things up out of boredom in front of the camera. Laudable attempts at Eisenstein-style multiple-repeat editing are a good idea but using them to cover the low-budget nature of the action scenes is not. Overall worth seeing, but I must warn you that I fell asleep towards the end.

This is a real masterpiece!!

[gustavo_ma92 · 10/10 · 24 February 2009]

This movie is so fantastic! I've seen it like 10 times or so, and I still get impressed whenever I watch it. Glauber Rocha, who was a total genius, unites various elements of Brazil's Northeastern culture in a great story about alienation of the people. The story is narrated by a singer who impersonates a regional popular singer; and the visual aspects of the film and the tone of black and white are supposed to resemble the rhymes and the woodcut covers which invoke the "literatura de cordel", or "string literature", which is very common in the northeast of Brazil(not so much today, but certainly in the 60's). The film shows how the powerful control the poorest through violence and intimidation, and how religion and the "Cangaço" movement can be bad when a person without perspective and objectives in life get involved with them. Manuel, the main character, is totally alienated by the "black god" Sebastião, which resembles, in many ways, real Brazilian preacher Antônio Conselheiro; and by the "white devil" Corisco(a real Cangaceiro who worked with real and, in the 20's and 30's, widely famous Cangaço boss Lampião), wonderfully performed by Othon Bastos, while the hired gun Antonio das Mortes is on the look for both Sebastião and Corisco through the badlands of Northeast. This is a real masterpiece!!

One more for the bandwagon

[frankenbenz · 6/10 · 6 December 2008]

Like Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto, Deus e O Diabo Na Terra Do Sol, (translated: God and the Devil in Land of Sun) doesn't bother mincing words when addressing what's wrong with the world. As Communism swept through South America and Cuba in the 50's and 60's, Socialist film-making enjoyed its greatest hey dey and, amongst those films, DeODNTDS is remembered as one of the best. Whereas films like Mikhail Kalatozov's I Am Cuba were unabashed agents of propaganda, bashing Capitalism with a hammer-like heavy hand, Glauber Rocha's efforts were hidden behind the symbolism of one man's Chaucer-esque journey into an unknown fate.

The journey is Manuel's, an impoverished farmer who is radicalized after killing his boss who (like evil capitalists do) attempted to cheat Manuel of his wages. Manuel then finds God, in the form of a self-proclaimed Saint named Sebastian. Before long, Sebastian's blood thirsty spell over Manuel is broken by Rosa, Manuel's dutiful (and long-suffering) wife. But soon after they're free from Sebastian's grip, Manuel is seduced by the charms of a charismatic and similarly blood thirsty bandit named Corisco. Such is the way with Manuel, doomed to follow, and it is this theme that strangles the life out of Rocha's film.

DeODNTDS is a scathing indictment of not only capitalism, but also of religion and society as a whole. In this world, man is desperately out of balance with nature (and thus himself), wishing (and prophesying) for the land to turn to sea and the sea to turn to land. These fruitless dreams are a constant reminder that man must look inward, to find strength from his own heart and hands. The message is unmistakable, as stark as the black and white imagery Rocha bombards us with, but the trouble with DeODNTDS is that it makes it's point early on is compelled to repeat it over and over again, not unlike a mantra.The inevitable fate of Manuel is set up mid-way through the first act, when bounty hunter Antonio das Mortes is hired by church and city officials to kill Saint Sebastian and put an end to his proletariat uprising (which threatens the establishment aka the money making machine). But das Mortes' hunt is sidetracked and ultimately stalled to such a degree that by the time he and Manuel come face to face, no real stakes remain. In the process of pitting these two against one another, Rocha's film gets bogged down in dogmatic digressions that drag out for what feels like an eternity. By the time the credits roll, the momentum of the powerful first act is lost, and instead of challenging its audience's socio-political allegiances, Deus eO Diablo Na Terra Do Sol merely challenges you to stay awake.

duality (may or may not contain spoiler, you decide)

[giantbunny24 · 10/10 · 15 June 2009]

The copy that I had of this film was very poorly transferred so I couldn't read the subtitles very well, so forgive me as this commentary may not be altogether accurate. As I see it Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol is about a man who is caught in the duality of things. He tries to do good, but ends up doing bad. He is called Satan at one point in the film. This duality reflects the duality of life. Who's to say what's good and what's bad? Are so-called priests who molest children people to be revered. Are these just a few rouges or is it the institution that is corrupt? In the face of injustice people have been known to do some terrible things. Communism, a reaction to the injustice of capitalism, lead to Stalinism and Maoism which became their own forms of oppression (the oxy-moron of the dictatorship of the proletariat). We see this resistance to the oppression of capitalism in the liberation theologist Saint Sebastian, but as many great leaders do, such as Jim Jones, power went to his head and he began preaching insane doctrines. At the same time, the catholic church sees the radical as dangerous, not because he is encouraging the people to leave Christianity (on the contrary, he preaches Christianity) but because he is disrupting the status quo and getting the people to think differently about their situation in life. In this way saint sebastian is very much a materialist, despite his Christianity. He preaches violence as a way of getting what you want and appeasement of the gods can mean material gain. Saint Sebastian is himself a paradox, and paradox is the theme of the film. We must ask ourselves, why was the title Black God, White Devil chosen for the English version of this film? Is the black god sebastian and the white devil the man who kills everybody towards the end (I never got his name)? I think the black god and white devil are the yin and the yang of existence: the very duality of man; the god and the devil within all of us.

Black God, White Devil

[jboothmillard · 6/10 · 3 March 2016]

I found this Brazilian / Portugese film in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, it certainly had an interesting sounding title, so I was looking forward to seeing what it would be about, directed by Glauber Rocha (Entranced Earth). Basically set in the 1940s during another drought in the sertão (outback), common rural worker and ranch hand Manuel (Geraldo Del Rey) is dissatisfied with his current situation. He kills his boss when he tries to cheat him of his earnings, and he flees, leaving his wife Rosa (Yoná Magalhães), becoming an outlaw and descending further into a life of crime. Manuel joins up with self-proclaimed saint, in fact bandit and hired gunman Antônio das Mortes (Maurício do Valle), he condones violence, even at one point slaughtering a baby, and preaches disturbing statements of his plans or beliefs. Rosa also turns to a life of crime, and Manuel joins the gang of Antônio's sworn enemy, Corisco the Blond Devil (Othon Bastos), and the Pedra Bonita Massacre. Also starring Lidio Silva as Sebastiãn, Sonia Dos Humildes as Dadá, João Gama as Priest and Antônio Pinto as Colonel. This film blends together mysticism, religion and popular culture to create a symbolic and realistic drama, and one of the characters goes by the logic that man must determine his path by his own voice, I just remember this black and white film having quite a few dark moments and many longs takes and montages, it makes for an interesting crime drama. Good!

Not worth watching

[Daniel Karlsson · 4/10 · 2 September 2015]

I saw this film on the premise of that it according to critics is the "best Brazilian film of all times". Critics are way too generous to this young auteur influenced by Eisenstein and other masters, mixing genres and styles but only achieving an amateurish, confused, pretentious and quite tasteless work. It is messy, low-budget and is overall not worth watching despite a handful of nice shots and moments. In an accompanying interview to the film, the director Rocha, with Marxist rhetoric, blame European colonists for Latin America's economic problems and justifies the movie's content as "the aesthetics of hunger". To me, more than anything else, it shows the madness of religion and cults and how they attract people in desperation.

"I always said you have two laws here:The Government law,and the law of the bullet."

[morrison-dylan-fan · 9/10 · 23 September 2019]

During a discussion about the Brazilian New Wave (BNW) title Barren Lives (1963-also reviewed) fellow IMDber manfromplanetx mentioned another BNW title by auteur film maker Glauber Rocha. Planning a "Auteurs in '64" week of viewing,I got set to surf the wave of Brazil for a second time.

View on the film:

Loading up the first of two adventures for outlaw cowboy Antonio das Mortes, writer/directing auteur Glauber Rocha & cinematographer Waldemar Lima bring the Western to the BNW in a utterly startling, surreal fashion. Hunching the camera on the ground, Rocha grounds the viewer in the middle of masses covering the entire mountain side surrounding self-proclaimed saints with a religious fever.

Backed by the earthy score by Sergio Ricardo, Rocha brings out the Neo-Realism of the BNW in pulling back the soundtrack to a stark, silent form during the most viciously violent sequences, which are finely balanced by a rousing score and refined wide-shot whip-pans hitting each grubby shoot-out.

Dissecting the myth of the Wild West outlaw, the screenplay by Rocha displays a masterful precision in taking the hat off of the holy aura Mortes has wrapped himself. Filling the film with austere dialogue on religion and the merciless drought engulfing the locals looking for hope ,Rocha lassos the myth of Mortes, (played by a outstanding Mauricio do Valle)with the unrelenting fall of rural worker Manuel getting involved in crime and becoming entangled with Mortes arch rival outlaw Corisco the Blond Devil, setting a Brazil New wave stand-off.

Western done Brazilian style.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 7/10 · 17 May 2011]

Nothing wrong with a movie that is being a bit slower and different, as long as it fascinates. And this movie does that well.

It's an unusual movie, with an unusual approach and story. This is not a slick Hollywood movie here but an artistic South-American one. It doesn't really follow any familiar movie rules but having said that, this movie at the same time still remains a perfectly accessible one.

Even though there are of course some deeper meanings behind it all, the movie never feels too serious or heavy handed. The movie actually still manages to entertain as well, which is for most part thanks to its very lively characters, who especially come to live in its second half. Most people seem to have most problems with the movie its second half but I actually do think that this was the strongest and most intriguing part of the entire movie, since it seemed to focus more purely on its characters and less on its story, that is a complicated one to follow and completely understand.

What I foremost love about this movie is that it's being shot like a western, while it's actually a totally different genre movie, set in Brazil. The cinematography, directing, characters and such still make this movie really feel and look like a good old spaghetti western.

Due to its directing approach and way of storytelling this is a very visual orientated movie. Even though it can be a slow movie at times, its visuals still manages to fully keep you interested throughout. It's black & white cinematography does ensure this well.

No need and reason to overpraise this movie but it remains simply a good and special one to watch.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

A big missed chance.

[fivelocks · 3/10 · 9 August 2019]

The idea was great. The period was ideal. The location was perfect. But the execution, so amateurish, was hilarious. At best. Any director with real talent would have done a magnificent job. That was not the case. To say that this film is a masterpiece is a joke of terrible taste.

Revolutionary cinema, with a non-traditional narrative that can test the patience

[nqure · 16 November 2011]

A film that rewards with repeated viewings, I appreciated the review by 'debblyst' which gives a close reading of a film & historical background that can test the patience on its first viewing. It's also clear how this film influenced film-makers like Leone.

I loved the setting of the austere desert, almost biblical landscape, harsh, cruel and devoid of water (spirituality, humanity). The film doesn't possess a traditional narrative, but it is basically two lengthy sequences where the lead protagonist, Manuel, and his wife, Rosa, come under the influence of a false prophet and then a psychopathic revolutionary before heading into an uncertain future where a man must listen to his own voice.

A film dominated by striking images such as the path up to Monte Santo, the massacre of the Monte Santo innocents & subversive images such as the shadow of Rosa's knife & das Mortes' gun crossing on the wall in an ironic reversal of the Communist symbol.

The film is filled with many memorable characters such as the prophet Sebastian & his followers (Bergmanesque hysteria), the vengeful Corisco, the bounty-hunter, das Mortes, & Manoel & his wife Rosa - and the blind minstrel Julio. I also enjoyed the sung musical narration .

The most memorable scene for me occurred early in the film: Manoel's vision of Sebastian and his followers. The rest of the film becomes a fable about disillusion, both spiritual & revolutionary. In the film, Manoel becomes entranced first by the mystic, revolutionary fervour of Sebastian, bordering on the hysteric, and then a willing accomplice in Corisco's crimes. Both Sebastian & Corisco manipulate Manuel into committing violent acts: the ritual murder of a child and the brutal emasculation of a young man. Disoriented by his experiences, Manuel can only exclaim: "Is the only way to get justice by shedding blood?"

The film is about faith, fanaticism & extremes. In a world where the government & traditional Church suppress the poor, faith and revolutionaries offer hope, but, in turn, descend into extreme behaviour. Antonio das Mortes, the agent of conservative forces, also undertakes a journey of doubt, parallels Manuel.

The story reminded me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' where the revolutionaries turn out to be as violent as the repressive government forces they fight against. 'Black God, White Devil' is probably best regarded as 'heightened cinema' akin to the 'magical realism' of Latin American literature.

The best Brazilian movie off all the time.

[dbaltz2003 · 10/10 · 16 July 2004]

I'm very pleased to comment this picture. It treats about all the hard life of Brazil's northeast population in 60's. Every person should have this knowledge, to understand why Brazil's people are so strong. Even if many people didn't understand, the picture is very realist.It's the fight for life in a place where there is no hope, unless you make justice with your own hands. There is a significant way of showing how poor people survive in extreme conditions of weather. Another thing that it should be said about this wonderful movie is that there is no political structure able to stop life, as it is demonstrated in the scenes of the movie.This is a movie to anyone who wants to have a better idea about real life.

Too noisy

[lso-soares · 6/10 · 5 February 2022]

Another movie from the first phase of Cinema Novo that I watched for the course I'm taking, online, at Cinema com Teoria. This time, Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol, written and directed by Glauber Rocha, with actors Geraldo del Rey (Manuel), Yoná Magalhães (Rosa), Othon Bastos (Corisco), Maurício do Valle (Antônio das Mortes), Lídio Silva (Sebastião) and Sônia dos Humildes (Dadá).

Filmed in black and white in the interior of Bahia, in the municipality of Monte Santo, far from the studios. The population of the Bahian city participates as an extra in the film. Lígia Pape is responsible for the typography of the signs and credits.

Manuel, to defend what is his and his wife, kills the owner of the land where he works, which leads him to leave the region, going to Monte Santo to follow the blessed Sebastião. There, he is indoctrinated into the sect and becomes convinced that his wife, Rosa, is possessed by the devil. Rosa's purification scene is a carnage, with the sacrifice of an innocent in the name of a bad god. There follows a real massacre undertaken by Antônio das Mortes, who spares only Manuel and Rosa, who continue wandering through the sertão, being led by a blind man, who takes them to meet Corisco and Dadá, remnants of Lampião and Maria Bonita's gang, who had recently been murdered by the Bahian police. Manuel joins the gang. There are looting and rape in the city, until Antônio das Mortes arrives at the place where Corisco, Dadá, Rosa and Manuel are. The meeting is busy, with scenes that look like a western.

It was the third time I saw this movie. The interesting thing is that I see it, without planning, every twenty years. The first of them was in the 1980s, in Belo Horizonte, on VHS tape, just dazzled by the cinema, wanting to see everything that was classic film. I didn't like what I saw. The second, already in the first decade of the 2000s, in Brasília, in a projection for young people between 16 and 25 years old, was a project related to my work. In the room, in a public school, there were about 30 teenagers. As the film progressed, more and more young people left the room. There was only two of them left at the end of the film.

On this occasion, I had new eyes for the film, making a more accurate analysis of the time in which it was filmed (before the 1964 coup), the agrarian question, the messianism that took advantage of the ignorance and simplicity of the interior population, especially the Northeast. But I still had reservations about the film itself.

Finally, in 2022, I saw him for the third time. More studied, seeing technical details, observing the set of social situations of the time, reading texts about Cinema Novo in preparation for the class on the sertão trilogy that would be taught, online, at Cinema com Teoria, on 02/03 /2022, I've already started to like the movie a little more, but it still doesn't make me enthusiastic. I get very uncomfortable in the chair for any movie that has excessive noise. And that's what happens in Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol, the noise bothers me, whether because of the litany of the faithful who follow the blessed, or because of Rosa's screaming, which is confused with the wind in the place, or by the shots of the shotguns, or by the racket of Corisco's flock.

When writing these lines, I wondered if the intention was really to cause discomfort in those who watch the film. If not for the images, or for the script, then for the sound. It may even be, when it comes to Glauber Rocha.

How I finally understood why Brazilian Cinema is amazing in incorporating the political into art!

[AdGuzman00 · 9/10 · 18 December 2017]

I kept thinking about Black God, White Devil but I couldn't gathered the right thoughts on it at first. For me discovering this film makes clearer the way Brazilian Cinema has become one of the most prolific and true to its own context cinemas in the world. I really believe that once an art manages to emancipate from the chains of the mainstream culture begins an honest art-form that is difficult to evade.

I must admit that I had to pause the film in order to get some of the terms used trying to get the most from it. I had issues with the ample of the religious themes, but being from México another country in Latin America that has its history re-written in clerical ink gives me the notion the manner in which catholicism has permeated the Latin American countries' culture, and how was set to control the mind and acts! of the oppressed.

The very first shots are overwhelming, we're being forced to grasp the world of the common folk, the amount of work to produce food for a day. To truly know these people's town through their quests, to learn about their struggle with corruption, fake prophets and their search for purpose, or simply a different life.

The narrative is quite beautiful put, like a modest parable presents the story of Manoel who after killing his dishonest boss leave his home with Rosa, in his search for peace and justice stumbles upon with two different forces, the first from the "realm of god", a leader who promises a land full of everything the sertão is lacking, but the cost to it includes acts of utter violence; the second one offering to fight the system but with no honor, both asking for blind obedience and servitude. In the middle is Rosa, the voice of reason that we rarely give the credit deserved. The arc of Manoel and Rosa ends just how it began with they leaving behind everything they know, everything we came to know, with nothing but uncertainty about their future. Perhaps that's the commentary Rocha is offering us, that in a putrid system it is no good to trust rigid and tyrannical figures, and sometimes that in which we attribute power is leaving us empty.

For me the cinematography felt as a part of the narrative, the overexposed takes are fascinating, the contrast between black and whites makes you feel the rawness of that arid space the characters are into.

Perhaps is not a film for everybody not because the author made the effort to distance its oeuvre for a 'type of moviegoers' conceivably it has more to do with how we're used to learn only about our own struggles without reaching beyond the familiar, if you choose to ignore the history of other countries and detach yourself from their struggle surely you'll find this film 'boring', I think is time to learn about each other and be sensible about it.

Such a chaotic movie!

[fsevdecoskun · 8/10 · 11 November 2019]

Spoiler alert--

I found "White God Black Devil" to be very chaotic with all those immediate transitions between hand-held camera shots and long shots such that vivacity and peace was following one another after each scene. The camera was very dynamic. The dynamism was achieved through shadows falling on the characters, if not through the camera movement, in the scene where the male character was having meal. Then the chaos continued with the noises of people and the wind after the pilgrimage and cut in the middle, though, with a silent and long shot scene coming afterwards. One disturbing thing was the continuous attribution to religion starting from the sculpture of Christ and the first scenes with all those celestial optimistic sayings and crosses everywhere. I was very annoyed from Sebastian's such didactical speeches. What was the point, anyway? The male character was dragged from one kind of slavery to another kind. One thing that I found interesting was that those who had power at certain scenes were shown with their shadows: Priest in the scene where he told the hit man to kill Sebastian, in the scene where Sebastian killed the baby, and in the scene where the killer came to the temple. Was it to emphasize a certain thing about their characters, or maybe that was a coincidence which I exaggerated.

Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol (1964) Deafening silence

[claszdsburrogato · 10/10 · 19 November 2023]

God and the Devil in the Land of the Sun is an impactful film. A film that knows how to perfectly approach what it wants. When it is necessary to use violence, he is not afraid to use it. Violence is very recurrent throughout the entire film and used in a very intelligent way. Brutality is essential in this film. Everything has a symbolism behind it in this film. Each dialogue is beautiful and meaningful. Glauber Rocha manages to develop a plot very well and take advantage of very simple things like silence. Silence is a tool widely used in the film. It's incredible how each scene where you hear nothing but the ambient sound can tell us so many things. It's an interesting adventure filled with violent scenes, but they are never inserted with the sole aim of shocking the viewer.

Masterful, philosophical masterpiece

[martinpersson97 · 10/10 · 25 November 2023]

This incredible drama, by an acclaimed an ever incredible director, is often considered one of the best films of all time, and for good reason. This critic can do nothing less than completely agree.

The actors all do an incredible job, truly career defining, which is no faint praise, to say the least. All of this accompined by a stellar script, very philisophical, very meaningful and ever splendidly written in every sense of the word. It is one of the more indepth, metaphorical and real depictions you will find.

The cinematography, cutting and editing is incredible, and truly accompines this tone gracefully. It is indeed very beautifully put together.

Overall, truly a masterpiece, that every lover of film should watch!