O Homem que Virou Suco

The amazing first scene of "The man who was turned to juice" indicates that this is not an ordinary movie, but a very special film which should be much more remembered and referenced. That impression was not false at all. This is the story of the funny main character, Deraldo, brilliantly portrayed by always excellent actor José Dumont, who is accused of murder. While trying not to be arrested, Deraldo survives with difficulties but does not accept the subordinate position that is expected from a poor guy like him, who came from Brazilian Northeast to huge and urban São Paulo town to improve his life (tough also living in bad conditions and suffering prejudice). This is a clever movie about class and labor relations, about center x periphery (or also modern x traditional), about salaried work, about the subordination of citizenship to formal inclusion. Other issues are also well treated concurrently, such as the macho culture, misogyny, illiteracy, the persecution of street workers, the values of military dictatorship and repression against unions, the generation contrasts, spectacularization of poverty, Brazilian economy... Both the dialogues and cinematography are great. The soundtrack is very well chosen, representing both Northeastern culture and the social and economic issues treated in the movie. All the actors do a great job but, as already mentioned in this review, José Dumont performs in a higher level, he is nothing but superb! Both he and the movie itself won international prizes. Nobody can deny that is is absolutely deserved. To resume, is there a place for poetry in this harsh world? Is there a place for rebellion? How not to be smashed?

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")

Beautiful title, very significant, beautiful film, very representative, the scene in which José dreams of incarnating and staging Virgulino, the poet's dream, reminded me of the recently watched "Rato's Fever" and "O Quinze", retreatants' dreams and artists... The translation of Pelego and X9 in one man, Severino...

HIstorical context: between the 1950s and 1980s, with industrialization, millions of Brazilians migrated from the impoverished, rural Northeast, to the big cities in the Southeast, specially Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. They found diverse blue collar and menial jobs, suffered discrimination, but ultimately settled for a better life in the cities, even though they missed their roots, small town life, and the family values of their regions of origin.

The theme of the contrast between a dehumanisizing life in the big cities devoid of the humanity and the "authentiticy" of life in the countryside goes back to the ancient times, but became more common with the industrial revolution. After all, it is not only the city life that homogenizes people, but also the machine-like jobs they perform. The filmmaker here took this perennial motif and used a clever title, that became semi-proverbial in Brazil "The Man Who Became Juice". It refers simply to migrants from the poor, rural, Brazilian northeast, who come to Sao Paulo searching for a better living, and end up in the "dehumanizing" works in factories or construction. As the protagonist says, it is like an orange becoming orange juice.

The fact that the motif is not so original does not mean it is not cleverly treated. We expect the protagonist to be the one who "becomes juice", but his stubborn personality saves him from his fate. It is his highly obedient look-alike (the striking similarity is never explained) that suffers this fate. In the beginning, the protagonist's doppelganger is portrayed as evil, but in the end he becomes a tragic figure, and the protagonist, who is a skilled writer of "cordel" (narrative poems typical of the Brazilian Norheast) becomes his chronicler. It is fitting - and in my opinion intentional - that the "double" is named Severino, while the protagonist has a less usual name. As anyone in Brazil will tell you, Severino is the name of choice for someone who stands for all the Northeasterners.

Intentionally or not, the movie shows that not all is hopeless. There is an alternative to "becoming juice" or being crushed by the system. The protagonist is defiant and clever, and through a lot of struggles he walks the fine line between being a rebel who tells his employers where to shove their jobs and being an outright criminal. In the end he toes the line and is able to live from his art, which is what he intended. It is implied that this would be impossible in his famished home state.

The title "O Homem que Virou Suco" is due to the continuous crushing, squeezing people that the big city does, leading to the disappearance of what defines the human: their ability to think, to become a single individual and to express themselves. In other words, men are objectified and homogenized. Deraldo is one of the millions of northeastern migrants, but he is contradictory and turbulent. He leads to the question of what is identity and what is to be a citizen. He also represents the search for better living conditions, based on the premise that individuals living under the same laws should have the same rights. Deraldo doesn't want to be turned into juice, so he struggles against oppression suffered from the choice of work (artistic professions were not considered worthy by those suffering the same intolerance he) and even violence in the city that does not distinguish his singularity and marginalizes him. Moreover, he always carries the feeling to defend the culture of his homeland and that it is more important than the imposed working conditions.