Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

'The Secret Agent': Exploring a Vibrant, yet Violent Brazil (2025)

theasc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 98 posts

Re: 'The Secret Agent': Exploring a Vibrant, yet Violent Brazil (2025)

#81

Post by aristofun »

One of the boring and meaningless movies I ever seen. No arc, no coherent story, (almost) no humor, no development, no intrigue, nothing.

Only nice picture - then it qualifies as a good YouTube video, not really a movie. Because movies have some laws of the genre, this thing doesn’t even break any laws like great art does sometimes. It just presents a series of visially appealing but fundamentally dumb clips.

I envy people who have so much spare time to waste it on this so called art.

Re: 'The Secret Agent': Exploring a Vibrant, yet Violent Brazil (2025)

#83

Post by rurban »

zemvpferreira wrote: post #36

I found it unsatisfying. Such a strong opening let down by a meandering movie with no payoff. Made all the sadder by great moments and performances spread thinly through the 2-something hours. I remember coming out of the movie theatre thinking there was a really enjoyable film buried underneath the crud if they could have had more restraint in the editing room. To each their own I suppose.

I found it the 2nd best movie of the year, right behind House of Dynamite.

Brazil has so much to catch up compared to Argentina, which jailed most of the generals. This one tries it differently, not directing the blame directly, but one bystander who took advantage. Much better than I'm Still Here. But the Argentinian fascism era movie are much better still. El bunaerense, Crónica de una fuga,...

Re: 'The Secret Agent': Exploring a Vibrant, yet Violent Brazil (2025)

#84

Post by kranke155 »

marcosdumay wrote: post #37
forinti wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely like that film, especially the acting and the music, but I think that, as with most material that covers that era (arts, history, journalism), it focuses on the middle and the upper classes. The poor get a footnote: what happened to Zezé? But the poor were the biggest losers of the dictatorship. It was at the precise moment that the country needed to modernise that the coup made everything stop and the f…

It's just now starting to become common knowledge that the military dictatorship didn't industrialize Brazil. On most circles, saying that it deindustrialized the country will surprise every single person, and get immediately rejected as false by a large share. Propaganda is a hell of a thing. We are not even close to start that discussion, so it mostly won't appear anywhere.

The Brazilian dictatorship did both. Just like the rest of Latin América they lost it all to high interest rates in the 70s and 80s. They lost so they quit.

Re: 'The Secret Agent': Exploring a Vibrant, yet Violent Brazil (2025)

#85

Post by marcosdumay »

kranke155 wrote: post #84
marcosdumay wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just now starting to become common knowledge that the military dictatorship didn't industrialize Brazil. On most circles, saying that it deindustrialized the country will surprise every single person, and get immediately rejected as false by a large share. Propaganda is a hell of a thing. We are not even close to start that discussion, so it mostly won't appear anywhere.

The Brazilian dictatorship did both. Just like the rest of Latin América they lost it all to high interest rates in the 70s and 80s. They lost so they quit.

You mean it first industrialized and then deindustrialized the country?

Because if so, not really. Most of their industrializing policies had the opposite effect. What they really achieved was to reduce the industrialization pace to snail-speed, and then to turn it negative.

On the first half, it was not for lack of trying, though. It was just for lack of competence.

Re: 'The Secret Agent': Exploring a Vibrant, yet Violent Brazil (2025)

#86

Post by Mobius01 »

pearlsontheroad wrote: post #5

Having grown up in Brazil in the 70s, I thought the cinematography of "The Secret Agent" absolutely nailed the aesthetics of that era.

I grew up in the 80s/90s further south, and still the film was very much a high fidelity memory playing on-screen. The production design will never be fully appreciated by people that didn’t live that time, it was truly special.

Re: 'The Secret Agent': Exploring a Vibrant, yet Violent Brazil (2025)

#88

Post by lisdexan »

iammrpayments wrote: post #75

I liked it, but I didn’t understand how it became so successful abroad. A lot of the plot makes no sense if you’re not familiar with Brazil.

Not really familiar with Brazil (although I am with military juntas) but I think the spy misdirect helps a lot. If you are slightly observant you will get the gist by the middle of the movie. The spy thriller aspect avoids making the uncertainty frustrating until then.

Obviously by judging the comments it doesn't work for everyone, specially the leg scene confusing a lot people, which I didn't expect tbh. Gay bashing cops isn't a dictatorship only thing.

Re: 'The Secret Agent': Exploring a Vibrant, yet Violent Brazil (2025)

#89

Post by lisdexan »

aristofun wrote: post #81

One of the boring and meaningless movies I ever seen. No arc, no coherent story, (almost) no humor, no development, no intrigue, nothing. Only nice picture - then it qualifies as a good YouTube video, not really a movie. Because movies have some laws of the genre, this thing doesn’t even break any laws like great art does sometimes. It just presents a series of visially appealing but fundamentally dumb clips. I envy…

>One of the boring and meaningless movies I ever seen. No arc, no coherent story, (almost) no humor, no development, no intrigue, nothing.

I understand finding the movie too long or difficult to follow without historical context, or even just not feeling it. But if this is your conclusion after the last scene, you either didn't watch it or are being contrarian.

Re: 'The Secret Agent': Exploring a Vibrant, yet Violent Brazil (2025)

#90

Post by lisdexan »

elzbardico wrote: post #69

It is a shame, but culturally Brazil can't let the 60's go. Americans may complain about their boomers, but American boomers can't handle a candle to the obstinate grip Brasilian boomers have on the brazilian imaginarium and culture. Imagine if every single hollywood movie done nowadays was kind of a pastiche of Antonioni's Blow Up, and if the Grateful Dead were the great gatekeepers of popular culture. Every single…

Chilean here, totally understandable by paying attention. I didn't even know Brazil was under dictatorship in '77. The whole point of the secret agent framing is that it works better if you don't know much about the setting.

Are you sure your opinion isn't being colored by culture war bullshit?

Post reply on HN