Editing Four Days in September

{{short description|1997 film directed by Bruno Barreto}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2017}}
{{use dmy dates|date=October 2015}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Four Days in September
| image          = OQEIsso.jpg
| caption        = Original film poster
| director       = [[Bruno Barreto]]
| producer       = Lucy Barreto<br>[[Luiz Carlos Barreto]]
| writer         = [[Leopoldo Serran]]
| based_on       = {{based on|''O Que É Isso, Companheiro?'' |[[Fernando Gabeira]] }}
| starring       = {{Plainlist|
* [[Alan Arkin]]
* [[Pedro Cardoso (Brazilian actor)|Pedro Cardoso]]
* [[Fernanda Torres]]
* [[Cláudia Abreu]]
* [[Luiz Fernando Guimarães]]
* [[Caroline Kava]]
* [[Fisher Stevens]]}}
| music          = [[Stewart Copeland]]
| cinematography = Félix Monti
| editing        = Isabelle Rathery
| studio         = Filmes do Equador<br>Luiz Carlos Barreto Produções Cinematográficas
| distributor    = RioFilme<br>[[Miramax]]
| released       = {{film date|1997|4|19|df=yes}}
| runtime        = 110 minutes
| country        = Brazil
| language       = Portuguese
| budget         = 
| gross          = R$1.8 million<ref name=ancine>{{cite web |url=http://oca.ancine.gov.br/media/SAM/DadosMercado/2102.pdf |title=Filmes Brasileiros Lançados - 1995 a 2012 |publisher=Ancine |access-date=2 June 2014 |language=pt |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327102342/http://oca.ancine.gov.br/media/SAM/DadosMercado/2102.pdf |archive-date=27 March 2014 |url-status=dead |page=33 |df=dmy }}</ref>
}}
'''''Four Days in September''''' ({{langx|pt|'''O Que É Isso, Companheiro?'''|lit=What Is This, Comrade?}}) is a 1997 Brazilian [[Thriller (genre)|thriller]] film directed by [[Bruno Barreto]] and produced by his parents Lucy and Luiz Carlos Barreto. It is a dramatized version of the [[1969 kidnapping of the United States Ambassador to Brazil]], [[Charles Burke Elbrick]], by members of [[Revolutionary Movement 8th October]] (MR-8) and [[Ação Libertadora Nacional]] (ALN).

It was nominated as Best Foreign Language Film at the [[70th Academy Awards]].<ref name="Oscars1998">{{Cite web|url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1998 |title=The 70th Academy Awards (1998) Nominees and Winners |access-date=13 October 2015 |work=oscars.org|date=5 October 2014 }}</ref>

==Background==
The film is "loosely based" on the 1979 [[memoir]] ''O Que É Isso, Companheiro?'' (in [[English language|English]]: ''What Was That, Man?''), written by politician [[Fernando Gabeira]].<ref name="holden"/> In 1969, as a member of [[Revolutionary Movement 8th October]] (MR-8), a student [[guerrilla]] group, he participated in the abduction of the United States ambassador to Brazil, negotiating to gain release of leftist political prisoners. MR-8 was protesting the recent takeover of Brazil by a military government and seeking the release of political prisoners. But, the military further increased its repression of dissent, MR-8 and ALN members were tortured by the police, and democracy was not re-established in Brazil until 1985.<ref name="holden"/>

Gabeira later became a journalist and politician, elected as congressman from the [[Green Party (Brazil)|Green Party]].

==Plot==
The film is a fictionalized version of the dramatic events of the [[1969 kidnapping of the United States Ambassador to Brazil|abduction]] of the American ambassador [[Charles Burke Elbrick]] (played by [[Alan Arkin]]). Elbrick was kidnapped in Rio de Janeiro by the [[Revolutionary Movement 8th October]] (MR-8) with the help of the [[Ação Libertadora Nacional]].  Gabeira (played by [[Pedro Cardoso (Brazilian actor)|Pedro Cardoso]] and named Paulo in the film) as a student joins the radical movement after Brazil's military [[1964 Brazilian coup d'état|overthrew]] its government in a 1964 coup. In 1969, he and his comrades decide to kidnap the American ambassador to protest the Brazilians' coup; the film busies itself with the group's conspiring and execution of the crime. Paulo is portrayed as "the most intelligent and uncertain of the kidnappers."<ref name="ebert"/>

The film explores Paulo's love affair with Andréia, the guerrilla leader. It suggests a kind of friendship developing between Paulo and Elbrick. The ambassador is portrayed as a decent man who shares some of his kidnappers' frustrations regarding the [[Military dictatorship in Brazil|Brazilian military dictatorship]], and one who fulfills his duty to his own government.

==Cast==
The main characters include:
*Paulo / [[Fernando Gabeira]] ([[Pedro Cardoso (Brazilian actor)|Pedro Cardoso]]) - member of the MR-8 guerrilla group and one of the kidnappers.
*Andréia / Maria ([[Fernanda Torres]]) - the beautiful and tough MR-8 [[guerrilla]]-group leader who falls in love with Paulo/Fernando.
*[[Charles Burke Elbrick]] ([[Alan Arkin]]) - the American [[ambassador]], who forms a bond with Paulo/Fernando.
*Jonas / Virgílio Gomes da Silva ([[Matheus Nachtergaele]]) - member of ALN guerrilla group
*Marcão / [[Franklin Martins]] ([[Luiz Fernando Guimarães]]) - second in command to the MR-8 guerrilla group and one of the kidnappers.
*Renée / Vera Sílvia Magalhães ([[Cláudia Abreu]]) - member of the MR-8 guerrilla group and one of the kidnappers.
*Toledo / Joaquim Câmara Ferreira ([[Nélson Dantas]]) - member of ALN guerrilla group. He's a Spanish expatriate in Brazil that fought the dictatorship of [[Francoist Spain]]
*Henrique ([[Marco Ricca]]) - former [[Brazilian Navy|Navy]] enlistee and member of the [[National Intelligence Service of Brazil]]
*Brandão ([[Maurício Gonçalves]]) - member of the National Intelligence Service of Brazil
*Júlio / Cid Benjamin ([[Caio Junqueira]]) - member of the MR-8 guerrilla group and one of the kidnappers.
*César / Oswaldo ([[Selton Mello]]) - member of the MR-8 guerrilla group, arrested prior to the kidnapping of the Ambassador.
*Dona Margarida / Elba Souto-Maior ([[Fernanda Montenegro]])
*Lília ([[Alessandra Negrini]]) - wife of Henrique
*Mowinkel ([[Fisher Stevens]])

==Reception==
===Critical response===
The film had mixed reviews, in part because of its fictionalizing Brazilian history, and its uneasy portrayal of terrorist activities by student radicals. ''Four Days in September'' has an approval rating of 59% on [[review aggregator]] website [[Rotten Tomatoes]], based on 17 reviews, and an average rating of 6.5/10.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/four_days_in_september | title=Four Days in September | website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] }}</ref>

[[Stephen Holden]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote, "''Four Days in September'' is an uneasy hybrid of political thriller and high-minded meditation on terrorism, its psychology and its consequences."<ref name="holden">[ STEPHEN HOLDEN, Review: ''Four Days in September''/"The Political Kidnapping Of an Ambassador Retold"], ''The New York Times'', 30 January 1998, accessed 24 January 2014</ref> He noted that the film suggests the kidnapping was followed by worse political events, with increased repression, and torture of MR-8 members. He describes Cardoso as the most complex character.<ref name="holden"/>

[[Roger Ebert]] gave it two stars, saying the film was marked by a "quiet sadness" and the "film examines the way that naive idealists took on more than they could handle."<ref name="ebert">[http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/four-days-in-september-1998 Roger Ebert, Review: ''Four Days in September'' (1998), 6 February 1998, Roger Ebert website]</ref> He suggests that the film tries to humanize both sides but seems muddled. Ebert writes, "The point of view is that of a middle-age man who no longer quite understands why, as a youth, he was so sure of things that now seem so puzzling."<ref name="ebert"/>

===Awards===
Internationally, the film was nominated for many awards, including [[Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film|Best Foreign Language Film]] by the [[Academy Awards]]. Brazil entered it into the [[47th Berlin International Film Festival]].<ref name="Berlinale">{{cite web |url=http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1997/02_programm_1997/02_Programm_1997.html |title=Berlinale: 1997 Programme |access-date=2012-01-08 |work=berlinale.de}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of submissions to the 70th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film]]
* [[List of Brazilian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://preview.reelviews.net/movies/f/4_days.html James Berardinelli review: ''Four Days in September'']
*[https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/four-days.shtml ''Four Days in September''], BBC
*{{IMDb title|0119815}}
*{{Mojo title|fourdaysinseptember}}
*{{rotten-tomatoes|four_days_in_september}}

{{Bruno Barreto}}
{{Brazilian submission for Academy Awards}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Four Days In September}}
[[Category:1997 thriller films]]
[[Category:1997 films]]
[[Category:1990s Portuguese-language films]]
[[Category:Brazilian thriller films]]
[[Category:Films about the Brazilian military dictatorship]]
[[Category:Films directed by Bruno Barreto]]
[[Category:Films set in Brazil]]
[[Category:Films set in Rio de Janeiro (city)]]
[[Category:Films set in 1969]]
[[Category:Films shot in Rio de Janeiro (city)]]
[[Category:Films scored by Stewart Copeland]]
[[Category:Films about kidnapping]]
[[Category:Films about hostage takings]]
[[Category:Films about diplomats]]
[[Category:Thriller films based on actual events]]
[[Category:1990s Brazilian films]]
[[Category:Portuguese-language American films]]