Twenty Years Later (1984) User Reviews

A tragic events who didn't killed a rural leader only, it was devasted a whole family and all members involved for good!!!

[elo-equipamentos · 8/10 · 23 November 2022]

This acclaimed documentary made by Eduardo Coutinho is filled of good intentions also well-done having the respected by the international press and so on, what was meant to be a movie about an deadly ambushed against a rural work's leader João Pedro Teixeira in April 1962 who helped founded a rural syndicate at small village called Sapé in Paraiba state in Brazilian northeast one most poorest place in our country due the extensive drought that ravages such dry place, after that a local enquiry took place finding two policemen as perpetrated of the crime and also the mastermind who was a powerful landowner.

Coutinho had a plan to recount the whole story with all originals rural workers using the João Pedro's widow Elizabeth and their children, just replace João Pedro already dead for an actor, the idea was use the same place where everything come to pass in Sapé, however another clash between both sides ends up in a slaughter, then Eduardo Coutinho moved the whole crew to Galiléia in nearby state Pernambuco, after they barely begun the shooting in April 1964 broke up the military government who overthrew the civil regime.

After that the Paraiba's Army stepped in the rural syndicate and arrested all members including the widow Elizabeth, the filmmaker Coutinho and crew slipped away left behind all shooting equipment even the original screenplay and notes, who recover later, many of syndicate members were hardly tortured by Paraiba's authorities, some have fulfilled eight years in prison, afterwards all policemen were acquitted unanimous and the mastermind got a chair in chambers of deputies after four of them had resigned, even the instigator has been the fourth standby, unbelievable.

Just in 1981 Coutinho starts all over again, nonetheless now as documentary after the amnesty law took affect in 1979 and the opening of democratic rights, he had interviewed all remainders of those era, sadly Coutinho found another scenery, the country changes a lot, the labor law already had reach in those camps, apart the struggles of the rural workers, sadly the whole family of the old widow Elizabeth had paid a high price, all the eight brothers split all around the country, even to Cuba, they stayed adrift moving all time, each one for yourself, today they weren't connected anymore, perhaps a quick appointment if so.

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 2022 / Source: DVD / How many: 1 / Rating: 8.

A proof of why good ideas are hard to kill and a good documentary

[Rodrigo_Amaro · 7/10 · 14 May 2011]

In 1962, director Eduardo Coutinho decided to make a film about peasant leader João Pedro killed on an ambush after some rivalry between his union movement and his bosses in Brazil's Northeast. The film had to be interrupted after the Military Dictatorship in 1964, part of the material was confiscated considered of its subversive content by the government, many people involved were arrested and other things happened too. In 1982, twenty years later, the director decided to continue with the movie but this time instead of a feature film he decided to do a documentary telling the story about the figures involved with that film. "Cabra Marcado Para Morrer" (known around the world as "Twenty Years Later") shows how things changed after the repressive government take over the country and the force of a film and an idea that couldn't die.

Coutinho interviews the actors of the original film, workers and people who knew the peasant leader and João Pedro's widow Elizabeth Teixeira and their family, tracking down all of their sons that followed different directions after Elizabeth's prison after she takes over her husband's function at the syndicate. The remaining images of the film filmed in 1962 are often shown with images of the 1980's documentary showing how these people were affected by countless things after the brutal years of political repression. They're old, tired, ordinary people that passed through a lot of things but still fighting against social and political problems, making a good country. They tried but now many years later from this film we're still seeing that many things that union fought to change haven't changed around the country. This is still a country where dissemblance reigns.

Now comes my vision of watching this film. It is a relevant work if you want to know more about the hard years of Military Dictatorship in Brazil; a small story you won't find in history books; and the contrast between time and experiences are fabulous to see. The stories told by João Pedro's widow are very impressive and along with the narration of Ferreira Gullar is the most comprehensible and interesting part of the film.

In terms of opinions of what people say about this is film I found it an overrated documentary, sometimes it loses its point very easily, a film was made, interrupted, other was made to state a poignant thing about how politics can ruin a film but they keep interviewing people with some random question that goes almost nowhere; it is very tiresome, and the version I watched was extremely incomprehensible, the sound was awful during the testimonies of some of João Pedro's sons, the dialect used and the way they talked was too fast and inaudible to understand. It wasn't such a nice experience but it was a memorable one.

10 star rating for it? I don't think so! I'm still about to see a really great documentary about this dark era. It deserves praise and recognition for showing how powerful the cinema media can be, can survive through decades and years and have great things to say about one people and a nation. In the end, the film lasted while the regime haven't, it was dying when this film was started again. 7/10

A History Undone

[akoaytao1234 · 9/10 · 4 September 2022]

The most interesting take on documentary in the longest time I had watched. Twenty Two Years Later is a film about a group of actors/activist who had happened to have planned to make a film to commemorate a fallen member of a peasant revolt.

With the revolt pretty much fallen into failure, entirety of the original cast had moved on and try to piece together a history of broken dreams. From a mother and her family apart by corruption, a lone wolf who had to face the repercussion of the fight or a a fight undone. In a way the film works as an inversion of what Kiarostami's initial film had strived for

Twenty Years Later is a document of a bitter fight, that still goes on for the marginalized. [4.5/5]

The Neverending Brazilian Story

[claudio_carvalho · 10/10 · 9 July 2005]

In 1962, in the country city of Sapé, Paraíba, the peasant leader João Pedro Teixeira is executed by those affected by his attempt of organizing the explored men of the field. In 1964, the CPC of UNE (a group of the students) and the Movimento de Cultura Popular de Pernambuco decide to make a movie about the life and death of João Pedro. On 26 February 1964, begins the shootings in Engenho Galiléa, Pernambuco, with the wife of João Pedro, Elizabeth Teixeira, performing the role of herself. Thirty-five days later, on April 1st 1964 – the day of the military coup-d'état and beginning of the military dictatorship, the location is invaded by the Brazilian Army, searching for subversives and Cubans and arresting the local leaders and crew-members. Seventeen years later, director Eduardo Coutinho returns to the location, and interview the survivors, looking for the members of Teixeira's family, shattered by the former regime.

"Cabra Marcado Para Morrer"is an amazing awarded Brazilian documentary, with impressive testimony of a political period of the shadows of our contemporary history. Although living presently in a democracy, it is sad to see that the same problems in the field remains unchangeable in the present days, or maybe worse than in those period. Even with a president former worker originated from the lower classes, the problem in the country remains unresolved. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "Cabra Marcado Para Morrer" ("Dude Marked to Die")

Extremely Honest Documentary

[brasil-3 · 10/10 · 18 June 1999]

A very fine and poignant documentary. Rarely does one see such brutally honest self-criticism in a film. No doubt, one of the best Brazilian documentaries.

Brazil is more than Rio and the rainforest.

[danielpoeira · 10/10 · 3 April 2000]

Brazil is more than Rio and the rainforest. Sometimes I wish it wasn't, like when I watch this movie. In the early 60s, farm workers in Pernambuco organized themselves against labor exploitaition. Some people tried to make a movie about it. But when the military dictatorship came, they have all been arrested. The movie was banned, people arrested, equipment taken, and the leader of the workers was murdered. In 1985, the original movie crew went back to the place and found the people, interviewing them to find out what happened through all these horror years.

The history turning on a story turning on the history

[983714 · 10/10 · 7 August 2003]

This is the best documentary I'd ever seen. Show in a carnal way how the press work to a government, and how the paranoid take care of it, with barbarous consequences. An unique movie, with a dramatic self-history, that is the dramatic self history of a country and all a continent. Art in pure state.

amazing movie

[guilhermeoficial-47697 · 10/10 · 17 September 2021]

The turn in the plot is just fucking incredible, a brazilian masterpiece.

Insightful Brazilian history lesson

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 19 August 2022]

"Cabra Marcado Para Morrer" or "Twenty Years Later" is a Brazilian documentary movie from 1984, so this film is almost 40 years old now and with the way time flies, it also won't be too long anymore until the film is half a century old. The writer and director is Eduardo Coutinho here and he himself was half a century old when he made this one, so it is not surprise that he is no longer with us, but died back in 2014. This film was neither from the beginning nor from the end of his career, but one of his earlier efforts nonetheless because he was very prolific during the last 15 years of his life. If you look at the awards recognition he scored in Brazil throughout his career, you will quickly understand that he is maybe even among his home country's most admired filmmakers of all time, even if outside of South America the nominations and wins were not too frequent. Almost not existent. So don't worry if you have never come across the name. Neither have I. But I saw this film being shown here at a local rather indie cinema again and then I saw the really high imdb rating, way over 8.0 and got curious and took the chance to see it. I did not really regret it, even if I was not totally won over and my mind sometimes also wandered off for different reasons. Had nothing to do with the film at hand. The movie stays only a few seconds under the two-hour mark, so it is a pretty long film, but not extremely long. The duration felt right and accurate to me and if at all, I would not have cut more than ten minutes. Maybe from those parts when the film moves a bit away from the key subject we have here. Or key subjects I should say because it amounted to more than just one crucial inclusion at the center of the story. The international title is "Twenty Years Later" as I stated earlier and that is of course not the literal translation of the Portuguese-language original title. The literal translation would be something like "a man destined to die".

From that you already realize that it is a pretty serious documentary. It is the story of a man who stood up to support countryside workers in Brazil and led them in their fight against the mighty back then. The consequence was massive. Lethal even. He upset too many antagonists and made too many enemies. One night, armed forces came to his home and took him with them. Legally. So there were people in official positions behind all this. The consequence is that he died under dubious circumstances and from what we know today, it was definitely not a natural death. You only have to look at what they say about the way his corpse looked. Still, there were legal consequences for the alleged killers or those involved with the man's death. However, the entire scenario was so uncertain that they could never be sure if they got the right ones. Surely, they did not catch everybody. But the consequences for the killers or those who made sure it happened were also much more serious than just mere prison terms. If I remember correctly, it said in the movie that it took only a few hours for them to disappear after they got released from jail and bodies were found later on that could not be identified, but you don't need to be a genius to understand that those were the ones missing. Coutinho's connection with all this is that he planned to shoot a film in the 1960s, a film connected to the man who got killed because he got too inconvenient. There were a few shots and sequences filmed, but the unstable situation of all of this was just too much and the film could never get completed because of the military police.

The consequence was that Coutinho, back when all this happened also only at the age of 30, decided to return and try to find everybody attached to this situation who was still alive 20 years later in the 1980s. He had some success and the interviews you see during this documentary indicate that and give an insight into the entire situation, even if two decades are between it. The interviewees' minds and memories are really as clear as you could have hoped for. Despite all these serious contents and the tragedy it is all linked to, there are a few moments here and there when you will laugh a bit or at least smile with the ways how the interviewees tell certain anecdotes from the past that linked them to the events. It is a great deal about situational comedy there and it felt really authentic which I loved and was maybe one reason why many perceived this as a great and not just a good documentary. I myself would go for the latter still, but there was never any doubt at all for me and I knew I would give the outcome here a positive rating from the very beginning pretty much. Of course, this film is in Portuguese, no other language here, so you will need subtitles if you are not fluent. A vital component of the entire thing is the partner, maybe wife already back then I am not sure, of the man who got killed. She was still alive 20 years later, no surprise obviously, even if she also died a long time ago now. But this makes sense if you look at when this documentary here got made. I would almost call it two films in one pretty much because the original film never got made, but with all the scenes included here and all the footage they could use that did not get destroyed, it is to some extent really two movies you get to watch, even if the snippets from the first film are not essential for this second film. For Coutinho, the film in the 1960s back then would have been one of his first career efforts, but with the chaos he went through there I am really glad he did not give up on filmmaking altogether, but the opposite became true obviously. It seemed these circumstances shaped him so much that he did not only turn into a prolific moviemaker, but all this stayed so much on his mind that he returned eventually many years later to find closure somehow and the result is this film. One of his most known.

I mentioned the wife. Well, she is of course the one closest to the action because she lived with the deceased back then and first-hand witnessed the events from that fateful night when her man was taken away. There is also a lot about the couple's children, which were really many, a double-digit amount even if I remember correctly. They also talked a bit about all that happened afterwards and how this crime and the unstable situation did not only took the father from all these children, but destroyed the family altogether if you look at the contact between the mother and the kids in the following years. There's also interviews with some of the children or at least Coutinho tried his best to find them somewhere. Turned out to be a real endeavor. I also liked about this film that Coutinho always stays in the background. It never feels as if he focuses on his own past more than necessary with how he wanted to make the film back then, but he found the right balance and ingredients to include his motivation back then and now (or "now" as I mean the 1980s of course) and made 100% sure we understand who should be seen as the key players in this film. Most of all, I am of course talking about João Pedro Teixeira. I have not mentioned his name yet, but I 100% have to because if there is one key component to the film, then that his name must not be forgotten and that times like those must not return. I mean there is a lot of trouble in Brazil right now in the 21st century too with who leads the country at this point, but I do not want to elaborate on that. Just one thing to those who maybe speak very harshly of Bolsonaro. Even in times like these that are considered among the darkest in a while (and we must not forget that Bolsonaro was democratically elected, also other countries who deem themselves tolerant and understanding must not forget that), we are still as far away as it gets from the situation that Brazil had in the 1960s back then when this horribly gruesome murder happened.

Overall, I would say that these two hours we have here are a must-see or really close to a must-see for people from Brazil to understand their history. For people from other countries, maybe other continents even like in my case, it is still a good watch and I am happy to understand that this film apparently has managed to not get forgotten a long time after the deaths of the protagonists (not counting the children) and also after the death of the man who directed this film back in the day. We must be grateful that he did and if you get a chance to get a hand on his release here, I strongly encourage you to do so. It is insightful, shocking, haunting, touching and funny too. The people who absolutely must watch it are Brazilians who were already alive back then, younger generations too in order to succeed at understanding the times during which their ancestors lived, but especially for those who already lived back then, it is almost a priceless experience I am sure and it will make them really nostalgic and bring back many memories no matter if they are still in Brazil now or moved elsewhere. If the latter is the case, maybe they even find the wish to return for a few days or weeks, so the film certainly achieved something. And I say that very well aware of the fact that times were really dark back then in Brazil 60 years ago and maybe a little brighter already 40 years ago. Teixeira got killed in April 1962 aged 44, so this act of violence happened over 60 years ago now and it is far from forgotten and I hope the same will be true if we add another 40 years or even another 60 years and people will still remember what happened back then. Oh yeah, one thing I can add at the end of my review here is that this documentary is in color. Not to be taken for granted given when and where it got made, but by the 1980s South America also produced in color mostly. Of course, those scenes from 20 years earlier even are in black-and-white. That is all then. You should really watch this film. Thumbs-up.