The appearance of circus performers in any film not by Fellini usually bodes ill, and it does so here.

| Apr 1, 2010

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 30, 2006

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jul 3, 2005

a family saga told with all the muscle of the best Sergio Leone western.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 12, 2003

A sumptuously filmed parable on the futility of violence.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 12, 2003

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 8, 2002

A family blood feud between neighbors over land in the rural sugarcane fields of the Brazil of 1910.

| Original Score: C | Sep 27, 2002

A bleak, beautiful cinematic fable driven by the brutal logic of blood feuds and transformed by an overpowering sense of wonder.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 20, 2002

Gets away with its shortfalls almost solely on the basis of its cinematography.

Full Review | Original Score: 73/100 | Jul 13, 2002

The first time I saw the Brazilian Behind the Sun, there were no subtitles, and I couldn't understand a word. The second time, it had subtitles, and, to tell you the truth, the first time was better.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 11, 2002

Poignant and touching.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 15, 2002

[An] example of how old-fashioned cinema can still be quietly thrilling.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 4, 2002

Salles' movie taps into matters that are at once ancient and mythical and, needless to say, headline-fresh.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 3, 2002

Salles starts with the loudly trumpeted theme, then tacks on a slim plot to justify the clamour.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 3, 2002

As a story about two warring families, it is poignant, beautifully shot, and powerful. As an allegory reflecting on the cycles of violence that threaten all of our futures, it is absolutely necessary.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 26, 2002

Becomes nothing more than a waiting game -- an annoying, endless deathwatch.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Apr 24, 2002

Full of poetic imagery, dazzling photography and heartfelt performances from a mostly unknown cast.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 22, 2002

There isn't a line that doesn't echo with heavy meaning or a character that has a life outside his or her dramatic purpose in this allegory.

| Original Score: C+ | Apr 19, 2002

A lovely journey, but it's like a picture book whose text is merely incidental.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 19, 2002