Andrade João B O Homem que Virou Suco[1981]1cd

User Reviews

Smashed Like Orange Juice in the Big City
6 September 2009 | by Claudio Carvalho (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) – See all my reviews

In São Paulo, during the celebration of the party of the model worker, the awarded employee of the Ashimi Mobile do Brasil S.A. José Severino da Silva (José Dumont) stabs the American owner Mr. Joseph Lousey three times with his dagger and kills him. Meanwhile, the poet Deraldo José da Silva (José Dumont) that has just arrived from Paraíba and is unemployed and without documents, the police mistakenly takes Severino as the criminal and is hunted. He escapes and finds sub-employment to survive in the civil construction, houses and subway of São Paulo, discovering how the poor and illiterate immigrants from the North and Northeastern of Brazil lose their roots and identities and are smashed like oranges in the big city, with the juice being dragged by the sewers.

"O Homem que Virou Suco" is a direct criticism to the industrialization process and to the prejudice and poor conditions of the workers that arrive from the North and Northeastern of Brazil, losing their roots and identities in the big city. There are ironical lines, like for example when Maria tells that everything she got in the slums was fruit of the hard work of her husband; or when the proud Ceará tells that his bar is fruit of hard work and starvation for a long period; or when the foreman offers minimum wage to Dearldo.. Dominguinhos in the beginning of his successful career is another attraction of this awarded movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Homem que Virou Suco" ("The Man that Became Juice")