Capital’s Appropriation of the Revolutionary Figure: An analysis of Marighella (2019)

Abstract

This article analyses the film Marighella (2019), a biopic of the Brazilian communist guerrilla Carlos Marighella (1911-1969), to understand the representation of the revolutionary, bearing in mind that this work is a product of O2 Filmes and Globo Filmes, Brazil’s major capitalist film production companies. Based on the premises that audiovisual works express specific worldviews and that these are related to the production group, we argue that, although Marighella is about a famous revolutionary figure, the narrative expresses an anti-revolutionary discourse, positing him as a terrorist. It does so by reproducing the style that this large production group has made hegemonic in the representation of violence in Brazilian cinema, namely, ‘cruel naturalism’. We, therefore, discuss the implications of this aesthetic on the plot, addressing the effects it has on the representation of the revolutionary and of violence, as well as on the construction of the narrative point of view and political discourse.