Don't try to find assets in the script or dialog (amateurish), production values (poor, except for Claudio Tovar's very creative wardrobe), acting (caricatures all of them, wasting good actors like Flavio Migliaccio and Reginaldo Faria) or direction (nope!). "Os Machões" is just a cliché-ridden film that -- in spite of itself -- has become a curio 30 years later as a time-capsule about sexual behavior.
It's Rio de Janeiro in the early 70s: at the height of the military regime in Brazil, with censorship in all the media and torture routinely applied to political prisoners, there comes this non-political sunny farce with pretentious ambition at melodrama. It doesn't succeed either as a comedy or drama, but is very revealing of a specific social context that's now considered "politically incorrect".
The plot: three straight men in their late 30s are having the ultimate macho existential trouble -- that is, finding women to have sex with for free. As it's usual in these comedies, they lead the "easy life" - meaning they're allergic to work -- and they're out of money. One of them is wooed by a "strange" woman to go to "her" apartment - his buddies also come along and the three guys dispute "her" attention until they discover the awful truth: that "she" is in fact a man in drag (well, they're probably short-sighted too) and they beat "her" up as a punishment (btw, this is supposed to make you laugh). The beaten-up-she-male-with- a-heart-of-gold apologizes (!!) and helps them (!!!) get jobs as hairdressers/masseurs (This is was before "Shampoo", mind you). What follows is a kind of "La Cage aux Folles" in reverse: the 3 men discover it's easier to get laid by pretending they're gay, since nobody will raise suspicions, so they have lessons on gay mannerisms with the "transvestite" (complete with ballet lessons, lilac Lycra tights, scarves, make-up, arabesque gesticulation, the inevitable lisping, etc).
Their destinies are sealed: Telecão (famous pop singer Erasmo Carlos) becomes a gigolo for wealthy ladies and meets a tragic finale; Didi (actor-director Reginaldo Faria, who gets most of the footage) seduces an "older" woman (in fact it's Neusa Amaral, just a few years his senior in real life) in order to have sex with her daughter (Kate Hansen) in a near-raping scene (the ultimate macho fantasy, isn't it?); and Juca (the always sympathetic Flavio Migliaccio) falls hopelessly in love with a girl (Tania Scher) but finds himself impotent and fears he has indeed "turned" gay. At last, he finds the "cure" for his "manlihood" when he cross-dresses (!!), finally able to get laid (not with the girl he loves, but with another woman).
The amount of sexual prejudice in this film is enough to fill up ten essays on psychology or anthropology. It's interesting to notice that this was one of the first Brazilian movies to deal openly with the gay theme (although in a very derogatory way, of course, and always linked to cross-dressing) and it's amazing to think that conventional society's perception of gay men may have been something like that in 1972!
Of note only to Brazilian movie-goers: this is beautiful Kate Hansen's first film (where is she now?); Erasmo Carlos makes fun of his life-long music partner Roberto Carlos' mega-hit "Detalhes" by singing it in affected falsetto; hunk Danton Jardim (as Kate Hansen's boyfriend) shows his fine body wearing only a slip; some of the hottest Brazilian women of the 70s appear in minor roles (Rose di Primo, Elke Maravilha, Rosa Maria, Vilma Vermon); Mario Benvenuti's turn as a hairdresser queen is the funniest of them all, a cross between Clovis Bornay and Clodovil; and Claudio Tovar's costumes are really creative and amazing!
The film as entertainment: 3/10; but if you see it as a time-capsule on Brazilian macho/gay stereotypes in the 70s, the rating sure goes up.
