Black God, White Devil

Saw Black God, White Devil, a Brazilian film about a very poor cow-herd, Manuel. Manuel has a hard and meager life and dreams of better days to come. One day he sees a religious procession in the desert and believes it to be an omen of a miracle. The next day, after his landlord tries to cheat him, he runs from his life into the desert with his wife, to join the religious group. He has abandoned the exploitation of regular society for a life of religious pursuit.

The film now follows two chapters which mirror each other: Manuel with the religious group, and later following a dangerous outlaw. These two pursuits are the white Devil and black God of the title. It would seem that the black God would be preferable but the religious group has an oppressive, cult-like feel to it. The outlaw forces Manuel to do terrible things but the religious group inspires him to voluntarily do very similar terrible things. There are some other connections which imply that neither group is really much better than the other. Both talk of a time when the desert becomes an ocean. For the religious group this is a symbol of faith and the great heaven to come. For the outlaws the desert becoming the ocean is the day they stop robbing. The symbol for them is one of cynical impossibility. They also both try to separate Manuel from his wife. The cult via religious mania, the outlaws by straightforward seduction.

I can't help but think this film is about subjugation and exploitation. I'm on thin ice here but I think many Spanish-language films from the 60s dealt with communism (although a quick google yields discouraging results for this theory.) My thought process is that Manuel leaves the exploitation of capitalist society and tries out the religious communism of the cult and then the anarchic barbarism of the outlaws. Despite capitalism's serious failing of Manuel, neither alternative seem much better.

The film also has these jarring action sequences. Most of the film is 1960s art-house, with lots of staring women and deafening background noise. But then there's a choot-out and people run around frantically, shooting and jumping as frantic guitar music fills up the soundtrack. It's almost self-parodying and seems to be making fun of it's own sudden tone-shift. Weird. Fairly slow film but interesting if you can keep awake.