My opinion about Portuguese cinema has never been the best: except for the great films of fifty years ago, and some rare good recent productions, I have always considered that Portuguese filmmakers can only make two types of films: ultra-intellectual films with many complicated stylistic devices that never leave the festival circuit because they don't have any appeal to the public and the goofy or greasy comedies, full of cheap humor and easy laughter, that the general public consumes easily but that lack any kind of artistic quality. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those who prefers everything that's foreign, but I've always wanted to see Portuguese filmmakers and actors committed to the task of learning what is well done abroad, so they can improve what is done here.
Seeing this film, by chance, on television, was a pleasant surprise for me: far from easy laughter and sexual or eschatological appeals, virtually without a single swear and with a lot of intelligence and irony, this is a high quality comedy, the kind of comedy I've always wanted to see in our country. It was an excellent debut for João Leitão, a name that I could only associate with a few humorous TV programs (which were also quite interesting). I don't know if he will want to continue to apply his efforts to the cinema, but it would be interesting if he did, and some more works of similar quality could emerge from his work.
The script is set in the middle of the last century and abuses the irony by creating a masked hero for the Portuguese dictatorship, in the best style of the North American comics, even with a silly partner! Any resemblance between Captain Falcon and figures like Captain America, Batman or Zorro is entirely intentional. The film does not give in to the simple criticism of the regime that ruled Portugal for fifty years, nor to the cheap praise of democracy that followed it: it prefers to make an incisive social critique of a misogynist and closed society and a suspicious, gray government, obsessed with the dangers of communism which, moreover, was really seen as a threat not only in Portugal, but in other countries such as France, USA or United Kingdom, at that time. The biggest irony, of course, is in the confrontation between the film and what we know that actually happened.
The cast is full of well-known names in Portuguese dramaturgy, with big names appearing even in small and unimportant characters. Gonçalo Waddington deserves to be congratulated for his work. I already knew him from the television, and I had already observed his ironic and sharp comic vein, but I think it was the right choice to bring the Portuguese hero to life. The choice of José Pinto to give life to Salazar also seems happy, insofar as they are sufficiently similar, and the actor managed to give the infamous ruler a certain sympathetic dignity. I also liked the choice of David Chen Cordeiro to bring us the (virtually mute, but action-packed) hero's sidekick. The film also has the good and notable participation of Miguel Guilherme, Matamba Joaquim and Nuno Lopes. In addition to these names, the film brings us worthy efforts by Carla Maciel, Rui Mendes and an extremely young Miguel Luna, as well as an honorable cameo by Ricardo Carriço, in his iconic character Major Alvega, far from his glory days.
It is in the technical aspects that the film suffers the most, being highly conditioned by a limited budget and an extremely televised project vision, little oriented towards the big screen. This conditions, for example, cinematography and all the editing and post-production work. Filmed entirely in a studio, the film made good use of the atrium of the Instituto Superior Técnico for some scenes, but the scenes where the hero drives his motorcycle are so absurdly false that the green screen is not even disguised. The sets and costumes are decent enough, but still give the film the visual aspect of a long-running comic TV show. The soundtrack, by Pedro Marques and performed by the Lisbon Philharmonic Orchestra, works reasonably.
