Antonio das Mortes, legendary killer of cangaceiros, is hired to kill what is apparently the only cangaceiro he hasn't yet slain. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who loses duels, especially in films where he's the titular character, so he does in fact kill the alleged bandit in front of the singing crowd of peasants that rally around the cangaceiro.
However, the killing throws him into existential despair. He is particularly affected by the presence of the female Santa (spiritual leader) who arrives with the peasant crowd and seems to make Antonio conscious of the exploitative nature of his employers. Meanwhile, the wealthy landowners who hired him are preoccupied with trying to murder one another. Development and land reform are on the horizon, so that probably informs Rocha's (a radical leftist) absurd representation of them.
The crowd of peasants, in contrast, are depicted as a mass that is less human and more spirit. Their songs (and dance) are quite incredible in fact; I immediately went back to listen after I finished the film. There is no doubt where Rocha's sympathies lie.
Everything in the film feels staged and the political dialogue has an essayistic quality. If that sounds like a Godard film, that is indeed the comparison my unsophisticated mind would make, though if I cared to watch an Oshima film, maybe I would say him. The political complexity of those two directors led to them only flirting with "organized" leftism before disilluisonment. The ending here perhaps signifies something similar for Rocha, as the landowners and their hired men are killed in a political and spiritual victory. But Antonio is last seen dazed, wandering by the side of the road as trucks drive by, and we aren't left with any sense that development in Brazil will bring hope.
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