Antonio das Mortes

Antonio das Mortes (O Dragão da Maldade contra o Santo Guerreiro, 1969) is Glauber Rocha's Brazilian political western, and you can watch it online on iFILM. A cornerstone of the Cinema Novo movement, it took the Best Director prize at Cannes.

The story plays out in the parched backlands of the sertão. Antônio das Mortes is a hired gun, the same one who once cut down rebels for the landowners. A blind rancher summons him again: a new band of cangaceiro outlaws has risen under Coirana, and they must be wiped out. Antônio beats his man in a duel, but after walking the dying bandit back to his ragged followers and seeing how the peasants live, something in him gives way. The killer turns his machete and rifle on the masters who paid him.

Maurício do Valle plays the gunman as a slab of contradiction, part executioner, part saint. Rocha shoots none of this as realism but as ritual — blazing color, sung cordel ballads, dance and blood fused into something close to opera about revolution in Latin America. This is dense, symbolic art cinema rather than an easy night in, made for world-arthouse fans and anyone digging into film history. Stream Antonio das Mortes (1969) online on iFILM.