The disappointment I had with this movie wasn't huge but it was still a disappointment since director/writer João Batista de Andrade had a great historical
theme to use as a major background that wasn't seen in the movies (the Lieutenants' Movement of 1922) and mix it with the Diretas Já movement of 1984 where
the similarities of both only happen because it were movements from the masses of population who wanted a change on each corrupt political leaderships
of their particular era. Too bad that the film's speech is incoherent, lacking in a proper development and almost nothing is interesting.
At the twilight of his life and with death approaching, the old retired General Gui (Paulo Autran) has only two concerns of which alienates him from,
everybody including his own family: to spend some good time with his grandson (Henrique Christensen) and to revisit his past as a young lieutenant during the
early years of democracy in Brazil where he and comrades in arms fought against the bad politics of their time, creating their revolution back in the 1920's.
While the grown men of his family have to deal with an important business matter with the company one of them work, and the old man was an important
figure to such business due to his connections and they need him desperatly, the old man rejects everything because he's too worried about his past, trying
to figure out if he was a traitor to the revolutionary cause, as a friend of his (Buza Ferraz) told him one tme in life and then as a ghost from the past
that haunts Gui in his visions.
Through countless confusing flashbacks we are taken back to an initial revolutionary act that took place in the south of Brazil, which was
successful, and then later to the Lieutenant's Movement in Rio which was squashed by the forces allied by the government. In the 1984 segment where a new
revolution is on the rise, and this time coming from the majority of people rather than the military since now they were in charge of government and of
something Gui was an integral part, the old general faces a family crisis when his grandson disappears mysteriously and media and police authorities
believe in a possible case of kidnapping by opposite forces. But does the man care all that much about the boy? Slightly, the ghosts are more important.
It's like he needs a validation or some form of redemption for past actions - way later it's revealed that he changed positions during another planned
rebellion, this time supporting the Vargas regime and what was probably kept him in good terms with the military hence why he became a general.
Andrade's film was ambitious in its purpose but not in its presentation. Confusing, vague and cryptic in its criticism of the political periods, and
it's a shame since he's a resourcel filmmaker/documentarist who covered in great details many facades of Brazil's history. It's a pity that he jumps from
the revolutionary acts of the 1920's to the then establishment of the 1980's without showing the military coup of 1964 where most likely Gui was already a
general, and to eliminate this period and only addressing that the man was a key figure in the world of economics and his contacts rather than a deeper
involvement in the dirty deeds of the military was too-simple minded. A man like him couldn't been just involved in logistic and strategies; he might have
been involved in killings and tortures or at least giving orders to such while getting rid of opositors.
Yet it's not a total loss. The presentation of the Lieutenant's Movement and the previous revolutionary act before that made the film worth seeing.
A territory that was never explored before, it was interesting in understanding what it was all about and how they tried to make it work in order to grant
freedom and democracy to the country, even though they had many differences inside their own groups. Had the movie just this presentation with more battle
scenes rather than a weird reminiscences exposition then we'd have a far superior movie than we had. Watching the old man ignoring everybody, barely
walking out of his own letargy and everybody else doing with the boy's disappearance (which by the way, it's never quite explained and it's all played out in
an unreasonable way since the rich man lives on a big mansion that somehow is so glued with a poor community that the unfortunate kids manage to play around
in his backyard along with the lonely rich boy), it's all dull, empty and without any meaning that could connect past and present.
Frustrating because it doesn't know where to go and what kind of message has to say, "The Country of the Lieutenants" is also a disappointment
on its casting department despite the great names as Autran, Ricardo Petráglia, Cassia Kiss, Giulia Gam and Antônio Petrin. It's not a case of bad
performances but mostly because they're given so little to show that everything becomes quite ordinary. The only who had some special spotlight was Buza
Ferraz as the idealist military, stealing the show in the brief moments he appears. Sadly, legendary Paulo Autran didn't get a chance to shine in a leading
role where he became a background character who only mumbles a couple of lines here and there, without having a chance to deliver a spectacular moment or to
have a memorable line. He only brings the necessary requirement of appearing as an important figure who had a great and long life experience, even though the
character is only presented as someone out of touch with the current reality. A pity. 5/10.
