Marighella, despite Seu Jorge's brilliant interpretation, seems like a character suspended in the air; the Brazilian situation and the dictatorship that he was fighting, a fine background, almost unimportant. The acts of the guerrilla and his organization, the Ação Libertadora Nacional (ALN), seem self-motivated, as do those of repression. And so, the film about Marighella thus becomes an action thriller of heroes against villains, without historical support for the heroism of some and the villainy of others: they are on opposite sides, but their reasons are hardly touched. This "hang in the air" is also notable in the ideological field. There are several references to communism, it's true - but almost always from repression, in the form of insult, and almost never from the guerrillas, who only describe themselves as "communists" at the beginning of the film, when Marighella confronts a member of the " The party".
It is also notable that the guerrillas - who in real life suffered defeats, it is true - hardly have their victories explored in the film; they are constantly up against the wall, trying desperately to react and being crushed, almost as if martyrdom is for the guerrillas a choice, not a possibility. The exception is the takeover of Radio Nacional, but events like the kidnapping of Ambassador Charles Burke Elbrick, for which 15 political prisoners living under torture were released, are just another brushstroke of the background. This made the ALN seem like a small group, completely cut off from the masses (which do not exist in the film, except as an expectation, a dream of Marighella) and from the political disputes that, despite the dictatorship, unfold in the country. Anyone watching the film cannot imagine that, in 1968, the ALN had at least 50 militants in São Paulo (not to mention other states), that it carried out agitation and propaganda actions among the masses and that it still had some inherited bases of PCB (Brazilian communist party), especially between metallurgists and railways.
From a strictly artistic point of view, Marighella is a great movie. In addition to exquisite photography, interesting shots and an exciting soundtrack, there are sensitive details in the choice of actors - shepherd Henrique Vieira as Friar Fernando, for example, or Maria Marighella, the guerrilla's granddaughter, playing his first wife. However, none of this reverses the fact that the script leaves Marighella's story still untouched in the list of "stories that history will someday tell", just when, perhaps, we most needed it well told.
Review adapted from: Histórias que a História qualquer dia contará: Crítica de "Marighella", Revista Opera, by Pedro Marin.
