"Faroeste Caboclo" is a song composed by Renato Russo

Renato Russo

Renato Russo was a Brazilian singer and songwriter. His first band was a punk rock band called "Aborto Elétrico" . The band then broke up and split in two different ones: "Capital Inicial" and "Legião Urbana"...

 and recorded by Brazilian rock

Brazilian rock

Brazilian rock refers to rock music produced in Brazil and usually sung in Portuguese.-Overview:Rock entered the Brazilian music scene in 1956, with the screening of the film The Blackboard Jungle, featuring Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock", which would later be covered in Portuguese by Nora...

 band Legião Urbana

Legião Urbana

Legião Urbana were a Brazilian rock band formed in 1982 in Brasília, Distrito Federal. The band primarily consisted of Renato Russo , Dado Villa-Lobos and Marcelo Bonfá...

. Written in 1979, the song was released in 1987 in the album Que País é Este 1978/1987

Que país é este?

Que País É Este is the third studio album by Brazilian rock band Legião Urbana. Released in 1987, it has a heavier sonority than its predecessors, and most of the songs of the album were written by Renato Russo when he was still a member of his previous band Aborto Elétrico.One of the most...

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"Faroeste Caboclo" tells the story of João de Santo Cristo, a poor man from the Brazilian Northeast

Northeast Region, Brazil

The Northeast Region of Brazil is composed of the following states: Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia, and it represents 18.26% of the Brazilian territory....

 who moves to Brasília

Brasília

Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...

 in search of a better life, gets involved in drug trafficking, briefly abandons the life of crime for the love of a woman and is finally murdered by a rival.

Despite its unusual characteristics for a folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 song - 168 different lines, no chorus and 9 minutes of playing time - "Faroeste Caboclo" was a smash hit.

A movie based on the story of João de Santo Cristo is being produced with screenplay by Marcos Bernstein, Victor Atherino and Paulo Lins

Paulo Lins

Paulo Lins is a Brazilian author.Lins grew up in Rio de Janeiro and at the age of seven moved to the Cidade de Deus favela. He escaped the cycle of violence to become a successful writer....

. The films stars Fabrício Boliveira as João de Santo Cristo and Ísis Valverde as Maria Lúcia. Antônio Calloni, Marcos Paulo, Rodrigo Pandolfo and Felipe Abib also co-star in the film.