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armin1980
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O Mecanismo (2018)
Who said what???
UPDATE 2, 2020: Well, if all that has happened since 2019 wasn't enough: turns out the former super-hero judge is now former Attorney General for Bolsonaro, and he did not get a Supreme Court seat after all. He thought going against his former boss was going to create an opportunity for him to run for President in 2022. However at least so far that has not panned out. BUT, it gets better: ALL executives of the mega-corrupt construction company are 100% jail-free and got to keep millions of dollars from their corrupt dealings. How is that for fighting corruption? And the former super-hero-anti-corruption-crusader-judge who basically forced that same company go quasi-bankrupt is now, believe it or not, going to work as an executive for the consulting firm that has been put in charge via court order to lead the construction company out of bankruptcy! The real-life twists and turns have been just too insidious and sinister to be taken on by such a mediocre attempt that is this series.
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UPDATE in 2019, with REAL-LIFE "SPOILERS" so to speak:
Well, turns out the real-life "heroes" portrayed in this series were frauds afterall. There has just been a major leak published by The Intercept in Brazil that exposes private conversations and collusion between the judge and prosecutors to manipulate due process for political purposes. Basically the judge had a pre-established verdict in search of an indictment, and his motives were self-serving and political. Make no mistake, the implications have been huge: they basically explicitly worked for and were successful in steering the 2018 presidential elections in Brazil, resulting in Bolsonaro getting elected, and the judge getting the position of the equivalent to AG in his cabinet, with a promise to eventually get a Supreme Court seat! THIS IS NOT speculation: their motives have been well documented by themselves through chats that have been leaked.
Like I said in my original review: there was a new Mechanism in place. Actually, more like one huge democracy-corrupting machination.
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Imagine someone decides to make a docudrama series loosely based on the 2016 presidential election in the US. Now imagine they have characters and situations loosely based on real-life people and real-life events.
Lets say they have a Trump-like character, a Hillary-like character, a Bill Clinton one, and so on.
Lets also say there is a scene in the series where two men are inside a bus, and their lewd conversation about grabbing women by their private parts is being recorded, and later is leaked.
We all know what really happened in real life. We also know that, in a docudrama, one can introduce fictional situations as a form of artistic expression. That's all good.
But what if, in this docudrama, the creator decides to place the Bill Clinton character, instead of the Trump character, in that bus, saying that infamous phrase?
Most know about Bill Clinton's original sexual scandal, and maybe others. But why would anyone feel the need to also attribute to him, albeit "fictionally", Trump's sexual scandals? What could the motivation possibly be?
Well, depending on whether you are a Hillary, or a Trump, or a Sanders supporter, or none of those, your reaction to something like this may differ. I personally would have been outraged and think it would have been a gross manipulation of reality.
I give this as an example because the events of the 2016 US elections are well-known to most people even outside the US, whereas the events prior to the Car-Wash operation in Brazil, which is what The Mechanism really tries to cover, are not well-known to those outside of Brazil.
Unfortunately "The Mechanism" resorts to that kind of distortion, quite a few times, to manipulate the narrative of the real-life events, and for political reasons.
There is just too much background involved to attempt to detail in this review the underlying history and politics depicted in the series.
Of course, one could always just treat this series as a pure source of entertainment, without any need to know or care about what this is really based on in real life.
I just think it may be important for those viewers outside of Brazil to be aware of, or at least research for themselves if they care, how distorted this docufiction is from reality.
And the reason I consider this to be relevant is because the creator of the series does seem to be intent on manipulating the perception of politics in Brazil by the foreign audience, based on several interviews he gave where he talks about his motivation for creating it, and how he hopes it will be what "folks in England and other countries" will use as the source to "comprehend" what happens in Brazil.
Yes, there was a Mechanism in place. And now there is a new one.
Polícia Federal: A Lei é para Todos (2017)
lopsided, one-dimensional piece of propaganda
This movie covers real-life events of the so-called Car-Wash operation, the largest corruption scandal and investigation taken place in Brazil's history. While it has certainly been an event worthy of being portrayed as a motion picture, there are two big problems with the premise of this movie:
- the operation is *still* under way, with recent developments completely invalidating and making a mockery of its title and tag-line (i.e., the premise that "No One Is Above the Law");
- the narrative is politicized and one-sided, through intentional omission and lack of depth;
The lopsidedness is not just a matter of whose perspective the plot is told from (which is obviously that of the "good guys" from the Federal Police). The problem is that the movie actively manipulates or omits facts, as an attempt to solidify the confirmation bias of its target audience (the right-wing Brazilian middle class). It also attempts to manipulate the perception of what really took place by those with little to no knowledge of the actual events.
There is a very complicated backstory, not only to the real-life Car Wash operation, but to the making of the movie itself, whose investors decided to remain anonymous. For example, actors had illegal access to classified information and to official police equipment for the purpose of "researching" for the movie. Is there any mention of the politically-charged statements and attacks on the "villain" character, which many of the portrayed police officers and prosecutors had made over time, even before the operation took place? Not at all, and that omission is intentional. Would it be relevant, had this operation taken place in the US, to let the audience know that a prosecutor indicting a Democrat politician is a heavy partisan of the Republican party? Not to the makers of this movie.
I am no fan of the main "villain" character, who happens to be a former President of Brazil and had a spectacular fall from grace, from his 80%+ approval rating right after leaving office, to being indicted and sentenced as part of the Car Wash operation.
The main sin of this movie is to pretend that a good fight against corruption, and not ruthless political warfare, was the biggest motivator of the actions by the portrayed "heroes".
Having witnessed over the last two years the relentless and scornful political machinations by part of the press, politicians, members of the police and judiciary in Brazil, into what amounts to one giant lawfare-tactics operation, it only makes one nervously laugh at the idea that "No One Is Above the Law" in Brazil of 2017.