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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
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.
