Bacurau features a strong emphasis on group identity and marginalization, casting its rural Brazilian community as heroic underdogs against outside oppressors. While the narrative is provocative and unique, some viewers may see the character roles and plot choices as built around social messaging over nuanced development, but not to the extreme level common in more overtly activist films.

The film takes a clearly critical stance toward traditional power structures (government, foreign intervention, authority) and idealizes communal resistance. Traditional values and authorities are generally painted as corrupt or irrelevant, and religious or family fundamentals are backgrounded in favor of collective action.

Bacurau mostly aligns its sympathies with the marginalized and makes the outsiders, the privileged and powerful, the clear villains. Dissenting or alternative social views receive little authentic treatment; traditional perspectives are largely absent or villainized, so the ideological messaging feels fairly uniform.