Few actors have had as much experience playing monsters in cinema as the great Udo Kier. But while he did play horror icons like Count Dracula and Dr. Jekyll, his scariest role is actually human, with nothing supernatural about him. The late German legend gave one of his best and most haunting performances in the 2019 Brazilian thriller Bacurau as the main villain, a hunter named Michael. The thing is, while Kleber Mendonça Filho‘s film certainly has its fair share of supernatural and surrealist inclinations, Michael isn’t one of them, and his “hunting habits,” behavior, ideology, and unpredictability make him scarier than any other role in Kier’s curriculum.
Udo Kier’s Michael in ‘Bacurau’ Is a True Monster in Every Sense of the Word
Bacurau is a truly unique film, blending genres like thriller, Western, and sci-fi to tell a story that feels almost personal for Brazilian audiences. It follows the people of the small village of Bacurau, in Northeastern Brazil, as they find themselves suddenly being hunted by a group of Americans for sport. This is monstrous in itself (and not that fictitious, unfortunately), as most of them are there for the “thrill” of killing people or blowing off steam from their ordinary lives, but things get a whole new dimension when we’re introduced to Udo Kier’s Michael, the leader of the group.
A German native, Michael stands out from the group in every way and doesn’t seem to be in Bacurau for any of the same reasons as his colleagues. He is calm, collected, and composed; while other members of the team enjoy machine guns and drones, Michael clearly has a better grasp of hunting, opting for sniper positions, small pistols, and knives. This is someone who knows what he is doing and is prepared for anything, and has the upper hand even compared to the youngest members of the team. When called a “Nazi,” for example, he even explains that he hasn’t been in Germany for 40 years and, therefore, is “more American” than anyone else there.
The thing is, Michael may not be a Nazi, but his whole worldview is indeed built on entitlement and dehumanization. He describes Bacurau as a “little innocent sh*thole town” during a briefing and has no respect for the townspeople or natives in general. He gradually loses his respect even for his colleagues, once it becomes clear that they aren’t as serious as him about what they are doing, and starts preying on them, too. This behavior indicates someone who genuinely believes he’s above others. For him, a small village could be wiped out with no remorse or consequence, and people who aren’t as serious as he is aren’t worth hunting with.
Udo Kier Elevates a Role That Could Have Easily Become Cartoonish
What makes Michael so unsettling is not only the monstrosity of his actions, but how Udo Kier approaches the character. As offended as he may get when called a Nazi, Michael could very well have been an officer in the SS for how his apparent civility and passion for his own distorted notion of hierarchy mask an underlying wildness. Kier imbues him with a sharp edge, especially in the way Michael speaks and looks at people, with what he says usually being as piercing as what is left unsaid, and this mix of intensity and flamboyance builds a lingering sense of menace around Michael.
Kier finds that edge in Michael by playing him with a level of control that borders on chilling. His line readings are quiet, deliberate, and unsettlingly polite. His posture is straight but relaxed, giving the impression of someone who feels completely untouchable. Most importantly, though, is how Kier uses stillness as Michael’s greatest weapon. He rarely raises his voice, making most of the talking through his cold gaze. The few moments when we hear him shout or lose his temper are when his wildness surfaces in moments when he is personally confronted.
In lesser hands, Michael could have become something else entirely—a stereotypical Nazi archetype, a cartoonish villain, or even a comically tragic one, given the nature of his deeds and intentions. In Udo Kier’s, however, Michael becomes an antagonist who’s simply impossible to sympathize with or root for. There is nothing “morally grey” about him, only a sort of restrained evil that turns him into a predator with a purpose. For all his experience playing literal monsters and morally complex characters, Michael is arguably the most evil that Kier ever played.
Udo Kier’s Brilliance as a Michael Is Proof of How Well He and Kleber Mendonça Filho Worked Together
From his very introduction, it becomes clear that Michael stands out in his surroundings. He is silently portrayed almost as an actual predator, with the camera usually following him from behind and lingering a little longer on him even when he is quiet, as if waiting to see what he will do. This gives off a feeling of unpredictability that is not only a product of Udo Kier’s presence and gravitas, but also directors Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles‘ stylistic choices, who have a clear idea of who and what Michael is supposed to represent as a foreign hunter who preys on a small village in the Brazilian countryside.
Bacurau is the first of two collaborations between Kier and Mendonça Filho, the other being the actor’s final role as Jewish refugee Hans in The Secret Agent. However, Bacurau allows Kier way more time and room to shine as a kind of villain (and monster) different from everything he had played before. The restraint in Kier’s performance certainly elevates the tension in the movie, but without ever overshadowing it, and the directors make perfect use of it. It’s just a pity that Kier’s partnership with Mendonça Filho was allowed time only for two films, as we would love to see what more they could do together.
Bacurau is available to stream on Kanopy in the U.S.
- Release Date
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March 6, 2020
- Runtime
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131 minutes
- Director
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Juliano Dornelles, Kleber Mendonça Filho
