Details
Movie Description
A Special Forces officer returns to his home town to find his high school overrun with drugs and violence. He trains the 12 worst students in Capoeira, a South American martial arts style, and soon has an army to fight the druglord supplying the drugs.
Synopsis
Ex-Green Beret Louis Stevens returns to his old high school in Miami and takes on his toughest assignment yet: whipping a group of the school's worst juvenile delinquents into shape. Stevens, a master of the graceful, potentially lethal form of Brazilian martial art known as capoeira, decides to put the kids through a rigorous training program. The unruly youths improve by leaps and bounds as they gain self-respect and a sense of empowerment through the discipline of the sport. Using their newfound skill, the boys, with the help of Stevens, take on the vicious neighborhood gang that is terrorizing their school -- the leader of which just happens to be an expert in capoeira.
Film Notes
Color by Consolidated Film Industries.
Feature film debut for gymnast and soap opera actor Mark Dacascos.
Capoeira fight choreography by Joselito "Amen" Santo.
Capoeira is a martial art developed by Brazilian slaves in the 17th century. Because they didn't want the slaveowners to understand that they were practicing a method of fighting that could help them gain their freedom -- lest it be forbidden -- the slaves disguised their sparring as a dance, honing their skills to the music of the berimbau, an instrument of Angolan origin, and singing as they played.
Capoeira was outlawed in later years, briefly falling into disrepute when thieves used it as a means of plying their trade (including placing razors between their toes to make their kicks more deadly), but in the early 20th century a teacher named Mestre Bimba organized the form in a manner that resembled Eastern martial arts: he formalized the names of the different moves and created a standard method of teaching. As with karate, students must go through tests to get promoted, and they receive colored belts that indicate their level of proficiency.
It is now considered the Brazilian national sport, and a source of cultural pride.
Despite its grace and dancelike beauty, capoeira is deadly.
Soundtrack available on Fox Records.
Shot in Panavision, and in Eastmancolor.
Rated BBFC 15 by the British Board of Film Classification.
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Additional Release Material:
Theatrical Trailer
Industry Reviews
"...Dascascos bears some physical resemblance to the late Brandon Lee and possesses some of the same easy charm..."
Variety - Brian Lowry (09/06/1993)
Quotations
"You've just done what professionals haven't done in five years. You've got their attention." -- a teacher to Louis Stevens (Mark Dacascos)
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