With his fury at official corruption, and reckless bruised integrity, this rebel Oslo cop looks well placed to secure the loyalty of Stieg Larsson fans.
Another theory is that the rebel group has played a "bad cop, good cop" role, seizing hostages as a means of getting its political message out, then releasing them in expectation of earning goodwill.
Having killed Besouro's mother, Gordilho worships at her shrine and, when the local rebel comes calling at the cop shop, Gordilho is enticed into taking part in the capoeira rituals with predictably fatal results.
The first is a long-haired, unshaven, multi-earringed rebel – that is Kennedy the undercover cop in his role as eco-activist "Mark Stone".
In the classic Hollywood movie, whether the hero is cop, cowboy, private eye, rebel or drifter, there comes a moment when this solitary, self-sufficient loner faces the bad guys all by himself.
There's a cop, a football coach, a businesswoman, a tattooed rebel.
We find, for example, the flower-chucking rebel youth of yore, throwing his Molotov bouquet to a fabulous lady cop.
Now the rebel faction on the building sites is silent – no Islamists they – while the pseudo-cops keep their mouths shut.
(There are references to aerobics and Madonna.) Nevertheless, the stultifying social order Harold and Maude were rebelling against in 1971, personified by all the usual authority figures -- mother, shrink, cop and soldier -- has been replicated here (minus the soldier).
