Elephant Boy (1937) Review: The Good, The Bad & How to Watch

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  Elephant Boy (1937) Review: The Good, The Bad & How to Watch  British Film, Adventure Venice Film Festival, 1937- 2 wins including: Best Director National Board of Review, 1937- Winner: Top Foreign Films Long before CGI could conjure up entire jungles at the click of a button, cinema had to rely on the real deal. In 1937, Robert Flaherty and Zoltan Korda teamed up to deliver Elephant Boy , an adventure film that stands as a fascinating bridge between raw documentary realism and classic Hollywood storytelling. More on Wikipedia or Mubi The Raw Magic of Elephant Boy  The movie is adapted from "Toomai of the Elephants," a short story out of Rudyard Kipling’s iconic The Jungle Book . It follows a young, spirited Indian boy who dreams of becoming a great hunter, just like his father and grandfather before him. When a massive elephant hunt is organized, Toomai sets out to prove his worth, forming an unbreakable bond with a legendary, giant elephant named Kala Nag. W...
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Watch O Cangaceiro (1953)

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O Cangaceiro (1953)
Brazilian Film, Adventure, Western
English title: The Bandit or The Bandits

Winner: Adventure Film (International Prize) 

O Cangaceiro (lit. "The Cangaceiro"; also known as The Bandit[2][3] and The Bandits) is a 1953 Brazilian adventure western film directed by Lima Barreto. After some reluctance by its studio Vera Cruz, Barreto shot it in 1952. After its release it was a national and international success, and won several awards, including the Adventure Film Award at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival. It was poorly received in retrospect despite being praised by the time of its release and started a subgenre in Brazilian cinema. 

'Capitão', a bandit, terrorizes poor villages in the Northeast region of Brazil, looting and frequently killing with his armed gang, until he kidnaps and becomes attracted to a beautiful schoolteacher, creating discord in his group. 

Beautifully photographed, this Brazilian variation on the western is a strange mix. On the positive sides the images are very striking, and there are scenes of emotional intensity and violence, especially around the film's climax that are amazingly well staged and acted.

On the other hand, there's not a lot of depth to any of the characters or their motivations. They're more archetypes than full people. (It also falls into that cliché of the better looking an actor is, the better human being his character is.) Certainly that's common in this genre, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. More on Wikipedia or Mubi

Cannes Film Festival, 1953- Winner: Adventure Film (International Prize), Special Mention
Berlin International Film Festival, 1990- Official Selection 

Full Film (English subtitles) 

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