Four Days in September: Bruno Barreto

My favorite scene in Bruno Barreto's Four Days in September comes near the end when Fernando Gabeira, a young member of the MR-8 group, pulls a gun on his hostage, the American ambassador to Brazil Charles Burke Elbrick. But for some reason, Fernando doesn't kill Elbrick. Afterwards, Elbrick looks up says very gently, "In my fear, I allowed myself a moment of incontinence. Could you help me?" Fernando helps him off the bed he had been confined to for days and into a bathroom. We then see Elbrick, a man who until now had been a paragon of levelheadedness and control, quietly burst into tears. Why is he crying? Is he afraid for his life? Or is it something much simpler: that he allowed himself to be degraded in the eyes of his kidnappers? This speaks to the film's greatest strength: it never loses sight of the people at its center. I grow weary of so-called "political films" where directors lure you in with the pretense of a story only to assault you with long political speeches and diatribes. Films like Jean-Luc Godard's Tout va Bien (1972) and Andrzej Wajda's Man of Iron (1981) are two of the worst offenders. But Four Days in September remembers that at the heart of every revolution there are good people who are forced to do bad things. The film is based on the aforementioned kidnapping of an American ambassador in Brazil in 1969 by revolutionaries who wanted the release of political prisoners. And yes, every one of the revolutionaries believes in their cause...but not necessarily their tactics. And yet, they join the group knowing that they may have to cross that final line and kill in cold blood. Are they willing to pay that price, horrific as it may be? I know many politically-minded friends who would scoff at such dilemmas. But Bruno Barreto doesn't. And neither do I.

9/10