Black God, White Devil (1964)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Backlands End

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Glauber Rocha's Black God, White Devil — the original title was Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol, or "God and the Devil in the Land of the Sun" — is a strange film, both of its time and blisteringly immediate. Considered one of the greatest films in Brazilian cinema history, Rocha made it when he was 24 or 25 and it has an experimental quality; one wonders if he had seen any Godard. It's realistic, shot in gritty black-and-white, and yet it has a magical realism quality, or perhaps, more correctly, an unreal quality.

It tells the story of Manoel (Geraldo Del Rey), a poor laborer in Brazil's backlands who kills his cheating boss and goes on the run with his wife Rosa (Yoná Magalhães). They begin following a wandering, self-appointed saint Sebastião (Lidio Silva), who speaks out against wealthy landowners, but also preaches violence. Next they wind up in the gang of bandit Corsico (Othon Bastos), who also fancies himself something of a legend. During all this, bounty hunter Antônio das Mortes (Maurício do Valle) is on their trail. (The character would return in his own film, Rocha's 1969 Antônio das Mortes).

Rocha favors a kind of tableau filmmaking, with characters slowly wandering circles around one another, as if trying to determine their positions in the pecking order, and it can be mesmerizing, but one also might find one's mind wandering during some of the longer passages. Regardless, the movie's themes — blind faith, false leaders, class divide, authoritarianism, etc. — are startlingly relevant in 2024. And the twin figures, one pious and one criminal, strike a startling juxtaposition; they're opposites, but the same. It's a rebellious, uncommercial work, and it can be rough going for a casual viewer, but it's an important and admirable work.

The Criterion Collection's two-disc Blu-ray release is impressive, and incredibly thorough. Disc one includes a beautiful restoration of the film, with a commentary track by restoration producer Lino Meireles, who presumably watched the film countless times. Bonuses include a new interview with film scholar Richard Peña (22 minutes) and "Memória do cangaço (1964), a thirty-minute documentary on the origins of cangaço, a form of social banditry in northeastern Brazil. Disc two includes a feature-length documentary on director Rocha, "Glauber the Movie, Labyrinth of Brazil" (2003); another feature-length documentary on the Brazilian film movement, "Cinema Novo" (2016), and a trailer. Film scholar Fábio Andrade provides the liner notes essay. Recommended.