Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

paul2001sw-1 Prisons are a sign of the failure of our society. Society fails in that it is unable to prevent the original crime; and then again, in locking up those criminals in a world of squalor, drug abuse, and violence, ruled, in effect, by the criminal hierarchy whose delicate co-operation with the authorities is necessary to maintain any semblance of order. 'Carandiru', based on the memoirs of a prison doctor in Brazil, is a fairly conventional prison movie, telling us the criminals' stories (as told to their medic) of life both outside and inside the bars; but it's still an absorbing tale, with moments of humanity flashing through the holes in a very grim backdrop: the ending feels like overkill until you learn the sobering statistics of the real event on which it was based. Of course, the poverty of Brazil undoubtedly contributed to the terrible nature of the (now demolished) Carandiru; but this week the British government triumphantly announced its plan to build four new mega-prisons, another story it's hard to see ending well.

Roland E. Zwick On October 2, 1992, a riot broke out at the Sao Paolo House of Detention in Carandiru, Brazil. By the end of that day, 111 prisoners lay dead, the victims of the riot police who stormed the facility and brutally massacred them - even after they'd surrendered their weapons. Perhaps the most striking aspect about Carandiru is that it doesn't hit us over the head with its subject matter - at least not initially, that is. For roughly the first two-thirds of its nearly two-and-a-half-hour running time, the film focuses on the lives and struggles of the prisoners, as seen through the eyes of the compassionate doctor whose book on the subject served as the basis for the film. Without passing moral judgment, Dr. Drauzio Varella, who has been sent there mainly to help stem the spread of AIDS in the facility, listens sympathetically to the stories the men tell regarding the crimes they committed (mainly murder) which led to their incarceration (these we see acted out in numerous flashback sequences). Although the prison is tremendously overcrowded and drug use and disease run rampant through the corridors, the conditions don't appear to be quite as harsh or hellish as we might have expected them to be before seeing the movie. For one thing, the men seem to be treated rather decently by the guards - who seem to exist in surprisingly small numbers, actually - and the prisoners appear to have more freedom to walk around and interact with one another than we are used to seeing in American prisons (or, at least, in movies about American prisons). In fact, so much time is spent exploring the relationship problems between the men in their prisons and their loved ones on the outside that Carandiru often feels more like a "novela" set behind bars than a gritty depiction of life in a human hellhole.But all that changes in the last half hour of the film after the riot has begun and we see the prisoners gunned down in cold blood, many of them while cowering in their cells. It is a brutal and terrifying display of raw, inhuman savagery, one that far surpasses anything we have seen perpetrated by the prisoners themselves. However, writer/director Hector Babenco (along with co-authors Fernando Bonassi and Victor Navas) does not attempt to sanctify or glorify the convicts either, for much of what they do to their fellow human beings is not too many moral steps removed from what the riot squad members eventually do to them. Although the filmmakers' sympathies clearly lie with the prisoners, who are at least presented to us as flawed, three-dimensional human beings, he is not afraid to show the evil side of these men when he needs to as well. The acts of violence that the prisoners perpetrate on their victims and each other are conveyed by the filmmaker with a dispassionate efficiency and awe-inspiring swiftness that are indeed chilling. As a drama, Carandiru could have benefited from a bit of tightening in its earlier stretches, for the film feels a trifle unfocused and meandering at times. Still, by concentrating so intently on the everyday minutiae of these men's lives in prison, Babenco certainly helps the characters to become more real for the viewer, thereby intensifying the sense of loss when the tragedy occurs. Blessed with a large and gifted cast, Carandiru offers a long, sometimes touching, sometimes painful look into a world and an event that would otherwise have remained hidden from the eyes of the world.

Æthelred Héctor Babenco is a great director, but I grew bored with Carandiru. It's overlong (2 hours 20 minutes; should have been 50 minutes shorter). And it's largely a parade of prison-movie clichés. You have the tough but fair prison director, Senhor Pires; prisoners divided into saints and scoundrels (the latter, naturally, meet all sorts of gory fates); the inevitable riot; the murderous response of the riot squad, etc. And it's told through the eyes of a doctor whose character lacks depth, and whose connection to the plot is tangential. Save it for free viewing on the Independent Film Channel. If you want to see better gritty, downbeat Brazilian films, I recommend Ônibus 174 (Bus 174) or Central do Brasil (Central Station) instead.

jdesando 'Carandiru' is a mess, not just the blood flowing over the steps of the infamous São Paulo prison that was razed after a prisoner riot and slaughter in 1992. In 145 minutes, Hector Babenco ('Pixote,' 'Kiss of the Spider Woman') has too many episodes about different inmates that only tangentially and sometimes superficially relate to the central subject of AIDS prevention; frequently they are standard flashbacks to what the prisoners did to merit incarceration. A secondary and successful purpose is to reveal a highly structured prisoner society where justice is swift and not always wrong, where the only mistake is to give in to the civilian authority, at which point any freedoms are lost. Despite the crowded and unsanitary conditions, inmates are usually safer and healthier inside rather than out. The story is told mainly from a prison doctor's point of view as he interviews the inmates for AIDS screening and hears about their lives. Although he is way too happy in his work, he represents a humanistic attitude lacking in the prison officials and the world outside. Homosexuality, while appropriate for any prison tale, seems to dominate the entire long movie (145 minutes) and throw into relief the director/ writer's interest in the subject that began at least in 'Kiss.' One of the most affecting scenes is the marriage of a devoted, physically mismatched couple and the subsequent attempt by the smaller 'husband' to protect his bride. Babenco and the actors manage to relay dignity and gravity in a situation that could be laughable if not at least clichéd. Babenco was inspired to write this screenplay by a doctor who saved his life, a doctor who wrote about his experiences in this prison in 'Carandiru Station.' Although HBO's 'Oz' prison series was more insightful, no account could be as loving and socially concerned. Famous prisoner Oscar Wilde wrote in 'De Profundis,' 'A day in prison on which one does not weep is a day on which one's heart is hard, not a day on which one's heart is happy.' Babenco caught the hard sadness of prison life in 'Carandiru.'