''O Cangaceiro'' (lit. "The Cangaceiro"; also known as ''The Bandit'' and ''The Bandits'') is a 1953 Brazilian

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film directed by

Lima Barreto Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto (13 May 1881 – 1 November 1922) was a Brazilian novelist and journalist. A major figure in Brazilian Pre-Modernism, he is famous for the novel '' Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma'', a bitter satire of the first ...

. 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 1953 6th Cannes Film Festival, for Adventure Film Award. 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 Alberto Ruschel (21 February 1918 – 18 January 1996) was a Brazilian actor, producer, and director. He appeared in more than 30 films between 1947 and 1981. Selected filmography * '' O Cangaceiro'' (1953) * ''Pride'' (1955) * '' Cara de ...

as Teodoro * Marisa Prado as Olívia * Milton Ribeiro as Galdino * Vanja Orico as Maria Clódia *

Adoniran Barbosa Adoniran Barbosa, artistic name of João Rubinato (6 August 1910 – 23 November 1982), was a noted Brazilian São Paulo style samba singer and composer. Biography Early years João Rubinato was the seventh child of Francesco (Fernando) Rubinat ...

as Mané Mole

Production

In 1950, Lima Barreto joined the film studio

Companhia Cinematográfica Vera Cruz Companhia Cinematográfica Vera Cruz was an important Brazilian film studio founded in 1949 and closed in 1954. Located in São Bernardo do Campo, it was created by the industrialists Franco Zampari and Francisco Matarazzo Sobrinho. The compa ...

invited by its then president

Alberto Cavalcanti Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti (February 6, 1897 – August 23, 1982) was a Brazilian-born film director and film producer, producer. He was often credited under the single name "Cavalcanti". Early life Cavalcanti was born in Rio de Janeiro, ...

. After releasing two documentaries successfully for the studio, ''Painel'' and ''Santuário'', Barreto get the chance to direct a feature film. With the idea to shoot a film about

Lampião "Captain" Virgulino Ferreira da Silva (), better known as Lampião (older spelling: ''Lampeão'', , meaning "lantern" or "oil lamp"), was probably the twentieth century's most successful traditional bandit leader. The banditry endemic to the Brazi ...

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 Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (sta ...

and did some research there, it was shot in

Vargem Grande do Sul Vargem Grande do Sul (Portuguese for "Southern Great Lowland") is a municipality in the northeast of the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population is 43,110 (2020 est.) in an area of 267 km². The elevation is 721 m. Access through state r ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

, 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 films—a feat uncommon in that time. It led it to be considered Vera Cruz's "high point" and its "most important production" by

Georges Sadoul Georges Sadoul (4 February 1904 – 13 October 1967) was a French film critic, journalist and cinema writer. He is known for writing encyclopedias of film and filmmakers, many of which have been translated into English. Biography Sadoul was ...

, author of ''Dictionary of Films'', and by ''

O Estado de S. Paulo ''O Estado de S. Paulo'' (; ), also known as ''Estadão'' (; ), is a daily newspaper published in São Paulo, Brazil. It is the third largest newspaper in Brazil, and its format changed from broadsheet to berliner on October 17, 2021. It has t ...

''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 The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) is a film festival that runs for two weeks in June each year. Established in 1947, it is the world's oldest continually running film festival. EIFF presents both UK and international films (all ti ...

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 Sertão and makes this story lively and suspenseful". After praising its cast performances and its "thrilling" musical score, Bosley Crowther of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' said, "This '' Cangaceiro'' is a picture that will cause the Western fans to rub their eyes." However,

Cinema Novo Cinema Novo (), "New Cinema" in English, is a genre and movement of film noted for its emphasis on social equality and intellectualism that rose to prominence in Brazil during the 1960s and 1970s.Dixon & Foster, 293. Cinema Novo formed in respo ...

representants—mainly

Glauber Rocha Glauber de Andrade Rocha (; 14 March 1939 – 22 August 1981) was a Brazilian film director, actor and screenwriter. He was one of the most influential moviemakers of Brazilian cinema and a key figure of Cinema Novo. His films ''Black God, White ...

—would 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 ''

cangaço ''Cangaço'' () was a phenomenon of Northeast Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This region of Brazil is known for its aridness and hard way of life, and in a form of "social banditry" against the government, many men and women d ...

'' 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 Carlos Coimbra (1925 – 14 February 2007) was a Brazilian film editor, director and screenwriter. His film '' A Morte Comanda o Cangaço'' was entered into the 11th Berlin International Film Festival The 11th annual Berlin International ...

's ''

A Morte Comanda o Cangaço ''A Morte Comanda o Cangaço'' is a 1960 Brazilian Western action film directed by Carlos Coimbra and Walter Guimarães Motta. Shot in Pernambuco, it stars Alberto Ruschel, Aurora Duarte, and Milton Ribeiro in a fiction about ''cangaço''. I ...

'' (1960), '' Lampião, o Rei do Cangaço'' (1964) and '' Corisco, o Diabo Louro'' (1969), and Aurélio Teixeira's '' Os Três Cabras de Lampião''. It also established ''cangaço'' as a subgenre in Brazilian cinema; subsequently, ''cangaço'' would be featured as a theme from comedy—such as '' Os Três Cangaceiro'' and '' O Lamparina''—to ''

pornochanchada Pornochanchada () is the name given to a genre of sex comedy films produced in Brazil that was popular from the late 1960s after popularity of commedia sexy all'italiana. By the 1980s, with the wide availability of hardcore pornography through cl ...

'' films—'' As Cangaceiras Eróticas'' and '' A Ilha das Cangaceiras Virgens''. Also, Ruschel and Ribeiro would reprise the role of "good ''cangaceiro''" and "bad ''cangaceiro''" in other films.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cangaceiro, O 1950s action drama films 1953 films 1953 drama films 1953 directorial debut films Brazilian black-and-white films Brazilian action drama films Brazilian Western (genre) films Films directed by Lima Barreto Films shot in São Paulo (state) Films about outlaws 1950s Portuguese-language films Films about cangaço