This film deals with the question of celebrity, more specifically the incapacity of talented people who come from lower level classes to really grasp an unique opportunity to ascend to an upper social and economic class, although having acknowledged this chance and desired very much to realize it. Rudo and Cursi demonstrate, in fact, their incredible blindness as to the many dangers they would eventually meet in their way to popularity and affluence. Being so terribly incapable, socially and psychologically, of recognizing those threats, they are easily entangled in them, finally sinking again into the poverty and the mediocrity they had come from.
As in Mexico, also in Brazil and most of Latin American countries, soccer is one of few routes a boy who comes from the lower classes has, in order to improve his and his family's life conditions. And if he is a talented player as well as intelligent, determined and has the right contacts, we can imagine that he will really amplify his chances of success.
However, this happy end is nothing more than an exception: the recurrent story we witness in all of these countries is that, without a minimum psychological structure and proper guidance, these youngsters – like Rudo and Cursi – are hardly able to take advantage of such an opportunity, and will almost inevitably become preys of those vultures – pseudo-friends, self-seeking lovers, dishonest coaches, drug dealers, clumsy or incompetent relatives, swindling partners and intolerant and sadistic fans – who tirelessly and possessively hover all the time around their victims.
A short sequence in the film that, in my opinion, synthesizes a paradoxical point in the relationship between celebrities and their fans. The sequence has no more than one minute, and occurs at 1 hour and 11 minutes of the beginning: in front of a hotel, the soccer player Cursi is approached by two fans. Although they ask him an autograph, these men paradoxically also threaten the player's physical integrity, unless he succeeds in scoring against the opponent team, Nepaleros, in the decisive game, the next day! What is quite interesting in this scene is the fact that, being a famous soccer player in a country in which this sport is so popular, Cursi is inevitably surrounded by many of these frightening hooligans, who may be able to declare their total love to the player provided he never fails, but may also be implacable with him at the slightest fault.
My theory is that we can recognize nowadays in the world of soccer not one, but two somewhat different categories of hooligans – although both are characterized by an irrational violence against their opponents. The first and most common category of hooligan is the "traditional" one, in which the individual is a proud member of an "army" formed around the soccer team he worships, aimed to systematically fight the adversary teams. These delinquent fans basically imagine themselves as "warriors" invested by their beloved organization with the mission of destroying Evil, represented by the other team. "Hooligans", a film made by Lexi Alexander in 2005 with Elijah Wood in the main role clearly exemplifies this category of criminal.
A "second level" of hooliganism exists, however; and, although it may be less frequent, it is somewhat more complex: an additional psychological component may be present in his profile, besides the mentioned proneness to perform collective acts of violence. What I mean is that there is a special type of soccer fan who is so fanatically involved with fighting his team's enemies that the slightest possibility of failure in this mission is simply unbearable to him.
My guess is that this particular kind of hooligan is mainly found in poor and emergent countries. Raised up in the local society's lowest socio-economic levels, many of these individuals had experienced poverty, abandonment, lack of values, violence and even abuse for the most part of their lives, in the miserable slums in which they grew up. It shouldn't, therefore, be a surprise to anyone that they come to show an abnormally great necessity of something – for instance, his belonging to such a group of "warriors" – to be strongly tied to.
Add to this frame an permanent (and understandable) feeling of frustration, an intimately restrained rage and some not so conscious believes such as: "The world is evil", "I deserve more", "Nobody is reliable" and/or "The enemy is everywhere", and the scenario is ready for a violent reaction of such a fan against an insubordinate idol who eventually fail to correspond to this fan's paranoid expectations.
Having written this, it is almost impossible for me not to remember the tragic murder of Andrés Escobar, central back of Colombia at the World Football Cup of 1994, who scored against his own team, leading to the opponent's – the USA – victory. Some time after that game, when leaving a nightclub in his own country, Escobar was shot eleven times by four men. Perhaps, in "Rudo y Cursi", poor Cursi was aware of this episode, when he eagerly tried to please those two fans who asked him an autograph!
As in Mexico, also in Brazil and most of Latin American countries, soccer is one of few routes a boy who comes from the lower classes has, in order to improve his and his family's life conditions. And if he is a talented player as well as intelligent, determined and has the right contacts, we can imagine that he will really amplify his chances of success.
However, this happy end is nothing more than an exception: the recurrent story we witness in all of these countries is that, without a minimum psychological structure and proper guidance, these youngsters – like Rudo and Cursi – are hardly able to take advantage of such an opportunity, and will almost inevitably become preys of those vultures – pseudo-friends, self-seeking lovers, dishonest coaches, drug dealers, clumsy or incompetent relatives, swindling partners and intolerant and sadistic fans – who tirelessly and possessively hover all the time around their victims.
A short sequence in the film that, in my opinion, synthesizes a paradoxical point in the relationship between celebrities and their fans. The sequence has no more than one minute, and occurs at 1 hour and 11 minutes of the beginning: in front of a hotel, the soccer player Cursi is approached by two fans. Although they ask him an autograph, these men paradoxically also threaten the player's physical integrity, unless he succeeds in scoring against the opponent team, Nepaleros, in the decisive game, the next day! What is quite interesting in this scene is the fact that, being a famous soccer player in a country in which this sport is so popular, Cursi is inevitably surrounded by many of these frightening hooligans, who may be able to declare their total love to the player provided he never fails, but may also be implacable with him at the slightest fault.
My theory is that we can recognize nowadays in the world of soccer not one, but two somewhat different categories of hooligans – although both are characterized by an irrational violence against their opponents. The first and most common category of hooligan is the "traditional" one, in which the individual is a proud member of an "army" formed around the soccer team he worships, aimed to systematically fight the adversary teams. These delinquent fans basically imagine themselves as "warriors" invested by their beloved organization with the mission of destroying Evil, represented by the other team. "Hooligans", a film made by Lexi Alexander in 2005 with Elijah Wood in the main role clearly exemplifies this category of criminal.
A "second level" of hooliganism exists, however; and, although it may be less frequent, it is somewhat more complex: an additional psychological component may be present in his profile, besides the mentioned proneness to perform collective acts of violence. What I mean is that there is a special type of soccer fan who is so fanatically involved with fighting his team's enemies that the slightest possibility of failure in this mission is simply unbearable to him.
My guess is that this particular kind of hooligan is mainly found in poor and emergent countries. Raised up in the local society's lowest socio-economic levels, many of these individuals had experienced poverty, abandonment, lack of values, violence and even abuse for the most part of their lives, in the miserable slums in which they grew up. It shouldn't, therefore, be a surprise to anyone that they come to show an abnormally great necessity of something – for instance, his belonging to such a group of "warriors" – to be strongly tied to.
Add to this frame an permanent (and understandable) feeling of frustration, an intimately restrained rage and some not so conscious believes such as: "The world is evil", "I deserve more", "Nobody is reliable" and/or "The enemy is everywhere", and the scenario is ready for a violent reaction of such a fan against an insubordinate idol who eventually fail to correspond to this fan's paranoid expectations.
Having written this, it is almost impossible for me not to remember the tragic murder of Andrés Escobar, central back of Colombia at the World Football Cup of 1994, who scored against his own team, leading to the opponent's – the USA – victory. Some time after that game, when leaving a nightclub in his own country, Escobar was shot eleven times by four men. Perhaps, in "Rudo y Cursi", poor Cursi was aware of this episode, when he eagerly tried to please those two fans who asked him an autograph!