| |||||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
chilling, insightful documentary,
By
This review is from: Bus 174 (DVD)
On June 12th, 2000, a man boarded a bus in Rio de Janeiro with the intention of robbing its passengers. When the robbery turned sour, Sandro, the perpetrator, turned the driver and the passengers into hostages, threatening to kill them one by one if his demands weren't met. Carried live on Brazilian television, the event garnered national attention as the tense standoff between Sandro and the police played itself out. "Bus 174," a riveting documentary by Jose Padilha and Felipe Lacerda, is an account of that event.Not content to merely rehash the details of that day's experience, the filmmakers use their film as an opportunity to examine many of the social ills that laid the groundwork for the tragedy in the first place. The harshest criticism is reserved for the Brazilian government and the Brazilian people who look the other way when it comes to the hundreds of homeless children living on the crowded streets of Rio de Janeiro. Sandro was himself such a child, having witnessed the murder of his mother at a young age then turning to street life and street crime as his only means of survival. We learn that not only is the plight of such people routinely ignored by the vast majority of Rio's residents, but that both citizens and government officials have taken a proactive part in harassing and, in some cases, even killing these children. Sandro is clearly a product of his environment, and his actions on that day largely extend from the lack of a societal connection he's felt all his life. The directors also take swipes at an incompetent, corrupt police force, a brutal, dehumanizing prison system, and a sensation-seeking, voyeuristic public who feeds on the unfolding live tragedy as if it were a Hollywood action movie or some kind of lurid scripted drama. Interwoven with footage from the actual incident are interviews with various participants in the drama, ranging from police officials to SWAT team members to surviving hostages to tortured prisoners to social workers to psychologists to friends and relatives of Sandro himself. Through these interviews, Padilha and Lacerda weave a tapestry of Brazilian society that spares no one and indicts us all in one way or another. What is most impressive about "Bus 174" is how our emotions get all tied up in a knot, as we find our loyalties shifting back and forth between the various participants in the drama. At one moment we sympathize with Sandro and all the suffering he's experienced, and the next with the innocent hostages who simply want to escape this madman and return to their normal lives. At times, we find ourselves rooting for the befuddled cops, while at others, we are inclined to side with the downtrodden and see the law enforcement officials as the true villains of the piece. The events that occurred on that day shook a nation, serving as a wakeup call for a society that has attempted to sweep its injustices and social ills under a blood-stained carpet. Yet, this isn't a situation unique to Rio, by any means, for Sandro's story is representative of what happens in all major cities when poverty and misery are allowed to go unchecked and when indifference to suffering becomes the norm of the privileged classes. "Bus 174" is more than just a recounting of an isolated incident; it is a glimpse into the dark heart of Man that we all ignore at our own peril.
37 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The tragedy of Bus 174 made visible.,
By
This review is from: Bus 174 (DVD)
Bus 174 was hijacked in June of 2000 on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by Sandro di Nascimento, a young man who was one of the so called invisible street people living in the city. Almost immediately hoards of police and television crews appeared on the scene. Approximately 35 million Brazilians watched on TV as the dramatic events of the hijacking were captured on film and transmitted to the public.The fact that this event was being televised appears to have influenced the strategy of the police to control the situation and negotiate the release of the hostages. Instead of taking action to resolve the problem, the police talked aimlessly with Sandro for several hours as he ranted and raved, threatened to kill various passengers, made demands of the authorities, and in the end left the bus with a young woman tightly in his grasp as he pointed a handgun to her head. What followed was an all too predicatable series of events that left both the young woman and Sandro dead. If this factual documentation of the events of the Bus 174 tragedy were the entire story, this film would not have generated the notoriety it has received. Fortunately, director Jose Padilha realized that a much bigger story needed to be told. Consequently, he skillfully includes background material about Sandro and the so called invisible street people who roam the streets of Rio de Janeiro. The invisible ones start out like Sandro as young children with no place to go and no one to care for them. They live by wandering the streets searching for something to steal. They sleep in cardboard shelters, if they are lucky, or huddled together in nooks and crannies of public buildings or churches. The police regularly kill them or incarcerate them, often without trial, in the most dreadful prisons where they are jammed together in oppressive heat without even the most basic sanitary facilities. The general public in Brazil does not seem to be much concerned that streeet children are regularly being beaten, imprisoned, and killed. In fact, it seems as if some portion of the ruling class would prefer that the police kill more of these unfortunate children. Viewers will find it hard to consider Brazil a civilized country after watching Bus 174. The story is about Sandro, but it is clear that the hopelessness and despair that resulted in his futile and crazy behavior might just as well have been perpetrated by hundreds of street people just like him. The beautiful beaches of Rio and the thousands of rich tourists who flock to them stand in stark contrast to the desperate children who roam their fringes watching for a chance to steal a part of the dream they can see but not touch. Sandro's dream was more modest -- a home and family with a job to support himself. As the film suggests, he had no hope of realizing his ambitions. This documentary never condones his behavior, but helps us to understand the anger and rage that prompts it.
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thanks for giving away the ending to an EXCELLENT VIDEO,
This review is from: Bus 174 (DVD)
A word of advice: if you are going to review, please DO NOT give away the ending...I'm glad I read all these reviews after I saw the video...part of the film's power is the suspense.ANYway, I showed this video to my criminal justice class and we did a compare/contrast to the shootings at Columbine high school. Emotions in the class ranged from frustration to anger to sadness and students left the room talking about it! Although the film may be viewed as biased, there is no question to reality when one sees the interior of the jails and the treatment of the inmates, learns of the lack of training and sees it in the Rio PD, and observes the street kids as they huddle on cement in shabby blankets, sniff paint & glue from a plastic bottle, and don worn clothing with American sports logos. It is gritty, it is suspenseful, it is dark and eye-opeing and everything you would want in a documentary. The needless waste of human beings, the surreal world outside of the US and inside of a Rio jail, and the videos of the streets where "Sergio" survived is in your face without being preachy or judgemental. I highly recommend this video to other educators, and when you compare it to Columbine high school shootings, it brings it home with a look at culture, law enforcement, government, etc.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
