Capoeira in Popular Culture

Films

The 1993 action film, ‘Only The Strong’, is the only Hollywood film that shows Capoeira all the way through. However, this film is rarely used to showcase the sport as it is thought to be low quality, especially as it gives a completely unrealistic impression of Brazil.

Two more recent popular films which have featured Capoeira are ‘Meet the Fockers’ and ‘Ocean’s Twelve’. In ‘Meet the Fockers’, ‘Capoeira’ is shown as a useless but amusing joke martial art, but in ‘Ocean’s Twelve’ one character uses his proficiency at Capoeira to bypass an advanced laser-based security system.

Bob, a character in the anime ‘Tenjho Tenge’ practices Capoeira and, in the film ‘The Rundown’, ex-wrestler, ‘The Rock’ fought several Capoeiristas. Jean-Claude Van Damme’s film, ‘The Quest’, a Brazilian fighter, Cesar Carneivo, uses Capoeira in his fights during the tournament of the Golden Dragon.

A number of Capoeira scenes were featured in director Robert Wise’s film ‘Rooftops’.

In one of the final scenes of the film ‘The Mighty Quinn’, Denzel Washington playing Xavier Quinn, a Chief of Police of a Caribbean Island fights his childhood friend, Mabee, played by Robert Townsend, who is the chief suspect in a murder. In one of the first scenes, Xavier performs a rasteira, a signature leg sweep.

Mestre Amen Santos, who was in ‘Only the Strong’, portrays a Capoeirista fighter in the tournament in ‘Kickboxer 4’. For the film ‘Catwoman’, Halle Berry trained with Mestre Boneco of Capoeira Brazil so that some Capoeira moves could be shown in some of the fight scenes.

A fight scene was filmed in Hogwarts for ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ by Mestre Ponciano Almeida from Cordão de Ouro, London. Capoeira is central to the plot of a 1977 futuristic Brazilian movie, called Cordão de Ouro. Several well-known mestres star in the film, including Nestor Capoeira and Mestre Camisa.

‘Death Trance’, the 2005 martial arts film, directed by Yûji Shimomua has a fight scene which uses a highly stylized version of Capoeira Contemporânea and incorporates curved blades jutting from the sides of the shoes against a swordsman. These blades probably come from the fact Capoeiras hold blades between their toes when fighting in the street. .

Other films which have Capoeira scenes include the 2005 Thai action movie, ‘The Protector’; the 2006 film ‘Idlewild’; the 2006 film ‘Dead or Alive’; the 1997 film ‘Mortal Kombat: Annihilation’; ‘Hellboy II: The Golden Army’; the 2008 film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; and Transformers.

Actor Wesley Snipes, practices several martial arts including Capoeira, so many of his films include scenes involving Capoeira.

The actor Joey Ansah explains how he warms up for fight scenes by performing Capoeira in the bonus feature, ‘Planning the Punches’ on the DVD of ‘The Bourne Identity’.

Television

In season 1, episode 13 of the American television series, Kung Fu, Kwai Chang, played by David Carridine meets Isaac Montoya, played by Moses Gunn, who is an Afro-Brazilian businessman trained in Capoeira.

The first advertisement in the UK to show Capoeira being performed was the 2000 advert for Nokia Mobile, in which Mestre Sylvia and Contra-Mestre Marcos of the London School of Capoeira performed Capoeira movements on a beach.

The profile of Capoeira was raised in the United Kingdom in 2002 when one of the BBC ‘Rhythm & Movement’ indents showed a Capoeira dance. This indent increased the interest in Capoeira but more sceptical capoeiristas say that they misrepresented what Capoeira really is.

Several capoeiristas from the Grupo Axé Capoeira are used in Stargate SG-1. These include Mestre Barrão and several professors, instructors and students, who are used in stunt choreographies and played a race of alien beings who practice a martial art which is based on Capoeira. Mustba, the martial art style used by the Jaffa people serving Imhotep, is based on Capoeira.

In the microseries, ‘Immortal Grand Prix’, Liz does ‘image training’ that involves Capoeira.

Capoeira is used a lot in manga and anime films ‘One Piece’, ‘Samurai Champloo’, ‘Death Note’.

In the fight scenes in the animated version of ‘Fullmetal Alchemist’, the homunculus Envy uses many Capoeira-style attacks. In the penultimate episode, he uses it during his fight against the series protagonist and in the ending credits of the fourth season and in a mid series episode, he uses Capoeira in his fight with Greed.

One of the main protagonists in the martial arts cartoon ‘Xiaolin Showdown’, Raimudo, practices Capoeira and in the ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ series, the Black Ranger, Zach, uses a martial art style he calls “Hip Hop Kido” which includes dance.

Comics

In the Batman comics, the character is said to be trained in all “127 major martial arts”. Capoeira is mentioned by name in the DC Ultimate Guide as one of these major martial arts as it is Greg Rucka’s novelization of the “No Man’s Land” story arc. Capoeira like movements are also used by other characters in the Batman comics. Cassandra Cain, the most recent Batgirl, has no dominant style but her natural ability at reading movement and her reactions are very similar to the principals of Capoeira.

Many of the anime and cartoon characters now in film started out as characters in comic books, including the characters from ‘One Piece’, ‘Death Note’ and ‘Tenjho Tenge’.

Music

The berimbau, the Capoeira drum has featured in several rock and pop albums by the artists Soulfly, Sepultra, Ben Harper, Leftfield and Gjalarhorn.

Mazda, the car company, uses the song Zum, Zum, Zum which is a Capoeira song in their advertisements.

Pop singer, Ricky Martin has showcased Capoeira in many television interviews round the world. He has trained in Capoeira with the Capoeira Abolicao group in Miami, Florida.

The 2006 album “The Audience’s Listening” by artist tuntablist Cut Chemist includes the song “The Garden” which features a berimbau, singing in Portuguese and a traditional Capoeira beat.

Music videos which feature Capoeira include “The Obvious Child” by Paul Simon; “Mas Que Nada” by Black-Eyed Peas and Sergio Mendes; “Vifta Med Handerna” by Basshunter; “Dirrty” by Christina Aguilera; “Maria Maria” by Santana and Wyclef Jean; “4 Page Letter” by Aaliyah; “I Don’t Care” by Fall Out Boy; and “Freak Me” by Another Level.

Nelly Furtado uses Capoeira words such as ginga and roda in her song “Explode” on her “Folklore” album and Brazilian singer, Daniela Mercury uses Capoeira rhythm, a berimbau and Capoeira chant in her song “Levada Brasileira” from the “Bale Mulato” album.

Dance

Breakdancing which was developed in the 1970s has many Capoeira style moves. Brazilians, who had immigrated to the US, especially to New York, practiced Capoeira in the streets and so influenced the new dance form. The original breakdancers of the early 1970s had actually based their moves on Asian kung fu films not Capoeira.

Capoeira was also the foundation of the early 1980s “slam dancing” developed by the hardcore metal scene in Southern California. Slam dancing uses many of the basic traditions of the roda and volta-ao-mundo with the dancers engaged in Capoeira at 144 to 180 plus beats per minute. It is mainly the fans of bands such “Bleeding Through” and “Audora” who dance in this style, which is also known as “playing the clown” as the fans look like clowns when compared to those who dance in the more legitimate and inventive styles of hardcore music and subculture.

When she did a large show in Hong Kong, the Cantonese pop star, Denise Ho, hired Instructor Berimbau of Grupo Axé Capoeira to teach her and choreograph a piece.

Many of Janet Jackson’s videos from the “Rhythm Nation” album involved Mestre Amen.

Video Games

Capoeira has come into its own with its introduction into a number of computer games and this has introduced the sport to millions of teenagers and twenty-something adults.

Two capoeiristas, Eddie Gordo Tiger Jackson and Christie Monteiro, fight in the popular games “Tekken 3”, “Tekken 4”, “Tekken 5” and “Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection”.

“Street Fighter II” has one of the earliest references to Capoeira as Blanka’s fighting style is attributed to Capoeira. The character, Soiree Meira uses Capoeira as his fighting style in “King Fighters: Maximum Impact” and “King Fighters 2006”. Another early video game to use Capoeira was the 1993 Sega Genesis 2D-fighting game, “Eternal Champions”, where Trident, the Atlantian warrior, used the technique with several genre-typical supernatural attacks. Trident’s biography in the “Information” section gives a brief history and description of Capoeira.

The female lucha libre wrestler, Lisa “la Mariposa” uses the Capoeira style in “Dead or Alive 4”. In the game “Street Fighter III”, Elena fights using Capoeira. Other games that include Capoeira fighters include “Urban Reign”; “The Bouncer”; “Fatal Fury”; “Rage of the Dragons”; “World of Warcraft”; “WWE Smackdown”; “Bust a Groove”; “King of Fighters XI”; “Legacy of Kain: Defiance”; “Digital Devil Saga”, “Capoeira Fighter”; “Saints Row 2” and “Capoeira Legends: Path to Freedom”.