Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9446 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-09-20
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: Portuguese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 140 minutes

Synopsis
A documentary recounting the events of June 12, 2000 in Rio de Janeiro when several people fell victim to the hijacking of a bus. Unable to determine the motives of the hijacker, the authorities stood their ground for four hours whilst the television cameras recorded every second, capturing the attention of a nation for the duration of the stand-off. Portuguese dialogue with English subtitles.

Customer Reviews

The reality of life in Rio for too many people.
This is quite simply the most powerful documentary on the reality of life in Rio. I have been in a favela in Rio and although hardly an expert, I have seen firsthand the reality of life in Brazil for millions of people. ie. hungry, desperate and hopeless. Behind the media image beauty of copacabana and all the holiday brochure stuff, Rio is a VERY dangerous and poverty stricken city.

This documentary beats any fictional film you can imagine. Its completely engrossing and the tension couldn't be matched by Alfred Hitchcock.
The ending left me speechless and numb. An incredibly powerful film that I think will never be beaten by anything Hollywood would ever invent.

An absolute must-see for anyone interested in Brazil.

He escaped violent death, only to find it later, in a different way.
"On July 12, 2000, the Rio de Janeiro police trapped a man who was trying to rob a bus. He took eleven hostages, and the local SWAT team was called. This incident became known in Brazil as the Bus 174 affair". That is the way in which this Brazilian documentary, directed by Jose Padilha and Felipe Lacerda, begins.

Truth to be told, I was afraid it was going to be too violent. I wasn t wrong, but there is much more to "Bus 174" than violence. This documentary includes live footage regarding what happened, but also interviews with street kids that knew Sandro, the man who ended up as the main protagonist of this tragedy. He didn t have a purpose, he didn t ask for anything, he just was stopped in the middle of a robbery and ended up trapped in a situation he couldn t handle.

The documentary allows us to be witnesses to Sandro s life, and to the events that would take him from his home, to the streets, a reformatory, prison and finally bus 174. Some interviews with a social worker, a sociologist, a journalist and the mediator that worked in this case allow to shed more light on this event, and on Sandro s life. For example, we learn that Sandro never knew his father, and that he witnessed the murder of his mother at a young age. After that, he ran away from his home and started living in the streets, joining a gang of "meninos da rua". Sandro was also one of the survivors of the "Candelaria massacre" of children that lived in the street, that happened in the early 1990 s. He escaped violent death, only to find it later, in a different way.

In general, I think that the directors are trying to point out that the reason why Sandro, a victim of the "Candelaria massacre", became the perpetrator of another tragedy is not circumstantial, but has to do with a system that allows many children to be invisible to those that are well off, until the children grow and confront them with violence. In my opinion, that conclusion may be pertinent for Brazil, but it is also relevant for many other countries. Social exclusion and disregard are never valid answers.

All in all, highly recommended.

Belen Alcat

no movie can match real life
a very important insight ito brazil's social system based on the unfortunate events of a hostage situation.

on the surface it appears to be a nutter taking a bus hostage but once the journalist digs deeper we found out about the troubled lives of thousands of orphans kids who grow up on the streets, stealing to eat 1 meal a day, many addicted to glue and cocaine before they reach 13. And the way black people are treated in poorer/underdevelopd brazil

the hostage footage is very up close and personal.....a must see for anyone!

once we find out about his past it feels as if he then becomes the victim