Bacurau is one of my favorite movies from the past few years, so it was always a candidate for a “Drink & a Movie” post, but it became a mortal lock a couple of months ago when I was flipping through the PDT Cocktail Book. I could hardly have failed to notice the drink called a Rio Bravo before because that’s also the name of a Howard Hawks film I love. It never jumped out at me as something to make, though, because while I’ve been a fan of the Brazilian spirit cachaça since my friend Thiago introduced me to it in college, it isn’t something I typically stock. This time, however, I was struck by an amazing coincidence. Hawks is one of the chief influences on John Carpenter, who was such a big inspiration to the makers of Bacurau that they named a school after him:
And cachaça is, of course, the national spirit of Brazil, so I picked up a bottle of Novo Fogo Silver and started mixing. When the Rio Bravo unsurprisingly turned out to be delicious (everything in PDT is!) the only thing left to do was to get writing. The drink, which was created by Nidal Ramini in 2006 while he was working at the London bar Dusk, is made thusly:
2 ozs. Cachaça (Novo Fogo Silver)
3/4 ozs. Lime juice
1/2 oz. Orgeat
3 quarter-sized slices freshly peeled ginger
Muddle the ginger and orgeat in a mixing glass. Add remaining ingredients, shake with ice, and strain into a vessel like the one Lunga (Silvero Pereira) drinks out of in Bacurau. We call them “pizza glasses” since we usually have red wine in them when that’s what is on the menu.
In addition to serving his rendition in a chilled coupe, Ramini also employs an orange twist garnish, but we omitted both to better match this image:
The glassware is pretty close, yeah? The orgeat in the drink also evokes the cashew milk that Domingas (Sonia Braga) serves Michael (Udo Kier) later in the film:
Anyway, my favorite thing about the Rio Bravo is probably the ginger, which gives the drink a real kick. This is a great showcase for orgeat as well. We use a recipe from Smuggler’s Cove that contains both orange flower and rose water, which complement the floral notes in the cachaça. The orgeat contributes sweetness and a creamy texture to balance out the acid from the lime juice and vegetal qualities of the spirit as well. Overall, the Rio Bravo is a refreshing, invigorating concoction that is perfect for sipping outside on a spring or summer afternoon. Or inside while watching a movie! Speaking of which, here’s a picture of my Kino Lorber DVD release of Bacurau:
It can also be streamed via most major platforms for a rental fee, and some people may have access to it through Kanopy via a license paid for by their local academic or public library.
In addition to the school, John Carpenter is also directly referenced in Bacurau via the song “Night” from his excellent Lost Themes album which plays over a capoeira scene in advance of the film’s climactic showdown:
His presence can be felt all throughout the movie, though, most interestingly to me in its setting “a few years from now.” Carpenter’s Escape from New York, which was made in 1981, begins with a title informing us that in 1988 “the crime rate in the United States rises four hundred percent.” That film’s action takes place about a decade later after the American government has responded by turning the island of Manhattan into a giant prison, but the plot of Bacurau seems to be unfolding *during* society’s dystopian transformation. There are a few overtly sci fi touches, such as its opening in space:
The retinal scanner which corrupt mayor Tony Jr. (Thardelly Lima) offers as an alternative to going to the polls to vote for him in person:
Or a UFO-shaped drone:
Mostly, though, this mood is created via small touches at the edge of the frame like this television news broadcast about public executions resuming in São Paulo:
Bacurau culminates in a bloody confrontation between the inhabitants of the eponymous village and a band of foreigners led by Michael who have apparently paid Tony Jr. for the right to hunt them down as part of some sort of twisted “The Most Dangerous Game” fantasy camp. In typical ugly American fashion, everything they see and hear only confirms their preconceived notions about the place they are visiting. Thus, they fail to correctly interpret things like this bullet-riddled police car as signs of Bacurau’s rebellious past until it’s too late:
This leads to one of the movie’s most darkly humorous moments when Tony Jr. comes to collect them. He knows that they have literally wiped Bacurau off the map, as teacher Plinio (Wilson Rabelo) and his students discovered when they attempt to locate themselves using Google Maps:
I love the kid on the left who is staring directly at the camera! Anyway, Tony Jr. arrives in a luxury van complete with complementary bottles of spring water:
But instead of thirsty “gringo tourists” eager to return home after a massacre, he encounters the wrath of a populace which is still very much alive led by Lunga and his no-longer-former comrade in arms Pacote (Thomas Aquino), who Manohla Dargis memorably describes as having “bedroom eyes”:
This does not end well for Tony Jr.:
The most enjoyable part of Bacurau are the glimpses into the town’s unusual social dynamics and traditions, including funeral rituals like singing Cinema Novo director/composer Sérgio Ricardo’s haunting “Bichos Da Noite” during the procession:
Or waiving white handkerchiefs in unison during the burial:
A museum celebrating the village’s defiant history which gets a new permanent exhibit to commemorate its most recent violent episode:
And of course the psychotropic seed they all consume:
As a librarian I applaud this film for making the shabby treatment of books synonymous with villainy:
And as someone who has a deep, decades-long relationship with The Searchers, I feel compelled to call out the startling three-shot sequence in which Joshua (Brian Townes) appears out of the darkness, which directors Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles have confirmed is a deliberate reference to Scar abducting Debbie:
Speaking of westerns, I very much hope this dog received hazard pay for being placed directly in the path of stampeding horses:
And whoever designed these outfits hopefully saw an enormous uptick in sales following the release of this movie:
Finally, I’m an absolute sucker for beautiful sunrises and sunsets, so I’d be remiss if I didn’t highlight two additional three-shot sequences, this one:
And this one:
Above I talk about some of the affinities that I think a Rio Bravo has with Bacurau. One thing I did not mention is that homemade orgeat doesn’t like to STAY mixed with things. You probably won’t have problems with it separating unless you, too, are trying to get a perfect photograph of whatever you put it in. But this definitely is a cocktail to drink, in the immortal words of Harry Craddock, “quickly, while it’s laughing at you!” In this it is quite *unlike* Bacurau, which only gets better the longer you spend with it.
Cheers!
All original photographs in this post are by Marion Penning, aka my loving wife. Other entries in this series can be found here.
The Prodigal Cinephile 