Obrigado a Matar

"Obrigado a matar", by João Amorim (2004) Seriously, I came to this film because of so many memes and scenes exculachachada on social media pages. Some considering "The worst movie ever made". With 43 minutes long, "Obrigado a matar" is a delight to watch, from beginning to end, with bizarre performances, rotten script and non-existent direction, with no notion of cuts in editing or even decoupage. But put that way, it sounds like the movie is pretty bad. Yes, it sucks, but that's its great quality. Who knows the reasons why the director and screenwriter João Amorim made his film so clumsily, maybe even for lack of technical knowledge, but the truth is that the film is too funny and worth being seen with friends, it will be a session at least to make the belly hurt from laughing so much. What you see on the screen is that João Amorim, who also stars, does everything with a lot of love and passion for cinema. He called friends who are not actors and decided to have a big party. The film is shot in Lages, Santa Catarina. João Amorim returns home after months away. He is reunited with his wife and daughter. However, bandits from the region arrive out of nowhere, kill his wife and injure João. Three months later, João has recovered and decides to take revenge. It is impossible to describe here the amount of anthological scenes in this film. Anthological in the sense of being crude. Actors who memorize lines and don't act, dialogs without notion, cuts in editing without clippings, ubiquitous backcountry soundtrack. And for even more fun, João still sings! Don't be embarrassed, the film is a lesson in the love of cinema. Lack of money is no reason not to make movies! João Amorim say so!

Short film viewed on June 10, 2021.

Took off 1 star, because it ends.

Whata a masterpiece. One of the greatest directors of all time. The best western-musical i had ever seen.

John Amorim is a brilliant director, the film has a brilliant philosophy, which makes us think that life has a different meaning, the audio is well balanced, there are notes of perfection in the soundtrack, for me it deserved an Oscar, the violence is well explored, just like that, just perfect, you felt like you were inside the movie, just brilliant, the good use of the editing makes it look like a classic hollywood action, the actors acting as if they were really there, the sets are well chosen, the costumes match the interior of Brazil, the plot twist fits at the right time in the script, well that's it.

"Obrigado a Matar" is a slap in the face to Hollywood, directed and starring one of the greatest legends of Brazilian music and cinema, João Amorim, author of critically acclaimed classics such as "Caliber 12", "Chumbo Grosso" and " Jango Bravo", the latter being responsible for the inspiration of the movie "Jango Unchained" that would come out years later.

The film tells the revenge story of João Amorim, a man who, after losing his wife and suffering a heartbreak, enters into a deep sadness, in his moment of lamentation the group responsible for the death of his beloved returns to kill him and he feel obliged to kill.

This work shows the perfect execution of the seventh art and has 44 minutes of pure action and drama, with charismatic characters that have great backgrounds, all this accompanied by an exciting soundtrack and a robust cast, with acting geniuses such as Bombacha , Chitãozinho, Abel, Chaves and Moacir, in addition to being directed and scripted by none other than João Amorim.

First of all, "Obrigado a Matar" translates to "Forced to Kill", as in "I have no other option but to commit a murder". The word "obrigado" means both "forced to" and "thank you" in Portuguese, so don't get that mixed up!

Now for the movie...

It's really hard to understand what was going on during the production of this. One thing for sure is that nobody knew exactly what they were doing. The best way to describe it is to compare it with any home made short movies that kids would do for school, but with adults.

This 40 minutes "masterpiece" is extremely obscure by movie standards, but its opening scene became widely popular in Brazil due to its amazingly bad acting and special effects. How did it made its way to the internet I have no idea, because it was probably released for a very small public in the town of Lages, a rural area of Brazil. Whatever the case, though, everybody should watch at least its opening scene once, even if you can't understand the (hilariously poor written) dialogue.

I mean, it's amazing. How someone could possibly gather so many ordinary people to act as if they were in a real movie goes beyond any explanation I could give. It's fascinating how nobody starts laughing during this whole thing, everybody just acts as if this is the real deal. The passage of time in this movie also makes absolutely no sense; If I understood it right (which frankly no one can really tell), in a matter of 3 months João Amorim's daughter grew, like, 10 years or so! Or maybe he has two daughters, but the movie makes it as clear as the bottom of the ocean. And even worst, both Amorim and his daughter apparently suffer from a severe case of amnesia during a very critical moment of the movie. How the hell couldn't they remember something that should have marked their lives forever?! It gets really awful!

I don't want to get into spoilers here, but man that ending is something. Oh, and it's a musical too! Every time Amorim starts singing it is the most obvious dub you could possibly imagine, but it fills me with delight. It's a shame this movie may not be as funny to people from other countries as it is for Brazilians, but I just love it. It's the most awful thing I'll ever see in my life! And don't even try to tell me that another movie is the best at being the worst without watching at least this movie's opening.

The Room got nothing on this golden turd.