Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
49
2012
41
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
84
Avatar![]()
69
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
53
Blind Side
53
Book of Eli, The
55
Christmas Carol, A
57
Daybreakers
43
Dear John
27
Did You Hear About the Morgans?
55
Edge of Darkness
45
Extraordinary Measures
83
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
42
From Paris with Love
65
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The
74
Invictus
57
It's Complicated
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Leap Year
33
Legion
42
Lovely Bones, The
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
34
Ninja Assassin
19
Old Dogs
xx
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
39
Planet 51
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Princess & the Frog, The
64
Road, The
57
Sherlock Holmes
27
Spy Next Door, The
36
Tooth Fairy
44
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
83
Up in the Air![]()
43
Valentine's Day
25
When in Rome
71
Where the Wild Things Are
xx
WolfMan, The
63
Youth in Revolt
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
46
44 Inch Chest
83
Ajami![]()
73
Amreeka
xx
Barefoot to Timbuktu
19
Bitch Slap
24
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
76
Broken Embraces
64
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
84
Cove, The![]()
84
Crazy Heart![]()
21
Crazy on the Outside
48
Creation
xx
Daddy Long Legs
81
Damned United, The![]()
68
Departures
62
District 13: Ultimatum
85
Education, An![]()
71
Eyes Wide Open
24
Falling Awake
81
Fish Tank![]()
56
For My Father
xx
From Mexico with Love
43
Frozen
68
Girl on the Train, The
52
Killing Kasztner
74
Last Station, The
43
Little Traitor, The
51
Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, The
73
Me and Orson Welles
76
Messenger, The
57
Missing Person, The
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
xx
My Name is Khan
49
Nine
63
North Face
59
October Country
67
Off and Running
52
Paranoids, The
49
Pop Star on Ice
49
Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The
xx
Promised Lands (Re-release)
69
Red Riding Trilogy, The
29
Saint John of Las Vegas
69
September Issue, The
36
Serious Moonlight
63
Shinjuku Incident, The
77
Single Man, A
xx
Still Bill
76
Terribly Happy
74
That Evening Sun
19
To Save a Life
68
Town Called Panic, A
59
Until the Light Takes Us
57
Videocracy
65
Waiting for Armageddon
82
White Ribbon![]()
43
Women in Trouble
xx
Word is Out
64
Young Victoria, The
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Carandiru
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Crime | Drama | Foreign
Written by:
Hector Babenco
Fernando Bonassi
Victor Navas
Dráuzio Varella (book Carandiru Station)
Directed by: Hector Babenco
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 14, 2004
DVD: September 21, 2004
Running Time: 146 minutes, Color
Origin: Brazil / Argentina
Language(s): Portuguese (with English subtitles)
Summary
RATING: R for strong bloody violence/carnage, language, sexuality and drug use
Starring Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos, Milhem Cortaz, Milton Gonçalves, Ivan de Almeida, Ailton Graça, Maria Luisa Mendonça, Aida Leiner, Rodrigo Santoro, and Gero Camilo
Based on a true story, Carandiru is an adaptation of the book Carandiru Station by Drauzio Varella. Through the eyes of a doctor who worked in So Paulo's infamous Casa de Detneco, over twelve years, it tells stories of crime, revenge, love and friendship, culminating in the fateful massacre of 1992. (Sony Pictures Classics)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Kiss of the Spider Woman
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A prison movie of unusual richness and jarring power.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Carandiru, which ends with actual footage of the prison being demolished in 2002, marks a terrific comeback for Babenco - it's the roughest picture of life behind bars since "Midnight Express."
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust
Carandiru is Babenco's fourth film set inside some type of incarceration facility and meshes his documentary style and fondness for realism with the escapism of storytelling found in "Kiss of the Spider Woman." It plunges us deep inside a corrupt system and its sincere empathy creates a stirring mix of emotions.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly John Patterson
Babenco's kindly, concerned eye seeks out the humanity in even the worst of his characters, and by the time he re-creates the massacre, with shocking power and force, one has been equally captivated and appalled at the world he shows. The result is one of the richest prison movies in years.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Exudes a throbbing flesh-and-blood intensity so compelling that it's impossible to avert your eyes.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
No element in the story, or collection of stories, has much novelty: yet the picture grips, because we sense that the director clearly knows he is treating familiar material and forges ahead out of passion.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
The film splits the difference between the brutal reality of the cable-TV prison series "Oz" and the romanticized fantasy of "The Shawshank Redemption" and provides a vivid, well-rounded gallery of inmate portraits.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
It is Carandiru's ability to humanize its central characters ... that gives the movie its wrenching, tragic power
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
The movie is powerful, if numbing. What movie about a massacre isn't?
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
It has the resonant feel of myth, buoyed by simultaneously vicious and compassionate performances from the men on both sides of the bars.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Angry and tragic, Carandiru is finally, in its own way, uplifting.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
The warden implores the prisoners to relinquish their weapons, and out of the cells come flying a zillion blades of all sizes. In a Mel Brooks movie, this bit would be funny. Here, it sums up the chilling situation in five seconds.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Lays on the compassion a little thick, yet its heartfelt squalor stays with you.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
In a prison filled with vivid, Dickensian characters, several stand out. There is, for example, the unlikely couple of Lady Di (Rodrigo Santoro), tall and muscular, and No Way (Gero Camilo), a stunted little man. They are the great loves of each other's lives.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The movie observes and dramatizes, yet seeks no overriding social moral.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Babenco does a better job with place than with people: His explosively overcrowded jail is a teeming tenement, which makes the inevitable climax feel, finally, like something real.
Read Full Review >Premiere Aaron Hillis
Stylistically, Carandiru is definitely less monochromatic than an "Oz" rerun.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
A sprawling prison drama that seeks, by turns, to endear itself and then traumatize its audience.
Read Full Review >Variety Deborah Young
A low-structure, high-involvement Brazilian free-for-all destined to take its place among hellish prison films, Carandiru plants a fist in the viewer's stomach.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Staff (Not credited)
A large, magnificent cast brings this story vividly to life, supported by superb art direction and technical contributions. Capped by Babenco's vigorous, often ferocious direction, the film is a towering achievement, offering an unforgettable portrayal of the lives and plight of the forgotten.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
This film's rhythms suggest nothing so much as a weirdly macho telenovela, full of family drama, isn't-it-ironic humor and maudlin twists of cruel fate.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jessica Winter
Carandiru's every scene is cut from factory-issue prison-genre cloth to fit jailhouse stock characters.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Director Hector Babenco's sentimental, unconvincing adaptation of Varella's book, is a soft, simplistic look at a tough, complicated subject.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Babenco's hard work is undercut by his squarely theatrical notion of realism: Specifically, how did the touring company for "West Side Story" wind up in such an awful spot?
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
chitra v. gave it an8:
This is a movie which is a compelling depiction of humanity:who decides whom to judge and why ? Glad this prison is closed now but what about the international prison Guantanomo..three hundred Pakistanis alone there taken in connivance with the country's government!
Barry S. gave it a9:
Near masterpiece - ignore those jaded critics who mark it down.
Penelope P. gave it a 7:
Interesting and tragic film with only the smallest glimmer of hope. Albeit characters can appear stereotypical its characters evolve within this film, not always for the best. It asks the viewer for compassion for charcters regardless of their crimes and status. It is touching and powerful- definately worth viewing.
