Bus 174 (2003)

Fantastic!

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I will not add to the numerous positives reviews of the film. Really, I do not understand the negative critiques who expected something like "an action movie" of the kidnap of the bus. I was fortunate to see the film on TV and lost the first 5 minutes or so. I think the movie would have been better without this first 5 minutes which tells you important facts in Sandro (the kidnapper) life which are essential to the drama that unfold after that. And the same details are developed during the film. I prefer this "developing approach" that by luck I had the opportunity to see, just for missing the first minutes. Anyway, to add what have already said in other commentaries, I would stress another think. How Sandro did not want to kill anybody. He is a complex character, trying to be tough with his negotiators but reluctant to pull the trigger, you can understand it on all his vacilations. As far as I remember (I was living in Brazil at those time, the kidnapping was an unintended consequence of a failed robbery to the passenger in the bus. Is like Sandro got in an spiral of situation that he couldn't manage. And all of his ferocious negotiation had an only objective. He did not want to come back to jail, a nightmare in Brazil and in most Latin American country (more than the nigthmare that is in EVERY country). I suggest to anyone who want to make the experiment, to see the film skipping the first 6 or so minutes... you will have a complete different experience of the film (sharing feelings of the crowd surrounding the bus, and then softening your position if you are compassionate enough).

Having a good subject often already is half of the work, for any documentary. This movie has a pretty good and intriguing subject, that besides does a good job at exploring and dissecting its subject thoroughly, from as many different angles as possible.It's not simply a documentary that tries to tell things as they happened but also one that goes deeper into things and explores the background of those involved. It gives the documentary multiple layers and also plenty of depth.It's one that shows how acts have consequences and how a vicious circle can have great consequences, when it keeps spiraling down. It perfectly shows the situation in Brazil at the time and puts the finger on the sore spots. It criticizes but without condemning anyone. It's a real fair documentary in about every way imaginable; to the police, to the hostages, to the hostage taker and everybody in between, that was in one way or another linked to the events or to the people involved with it. It tries to create an understanding for all of the different sides involved and most of the time it succeeds at this.It's what makes this a very compelling documentary, that is giving you a lot of inside information and makes you look differently at this particular event and maybe just even crime and violence in general and the involvement of the media.It's a documentary that uses both real archive footage of the hostage situation as well as freshly shot interviews with some of the people involved. There is a good balance between these two different things and the archive footage strengthens the interviews and vice versa as well. It doesn't really mater if you already were familiar with the subject of this movie or not. If you weren't; it's giving you all of the information you need and if you were; it's giving you lots of new stuff to ponder about and perhaps makes you even look at it differently, even if you already had a very strong, preset, opinion towards it.Simply a good documentary that handles its subject very well and interesting.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This is a commendable, compelling Brazilian Documentary about a kidnap stand off with the police, when a man takes a hostage at gunpoint on a bus. It is 2 hours long and works both as a documentary and drama-esque film.In 2000, Sandro di Nascimento is probably high off drugs and ends up taking hostages on a Bus in Rio, Brazil. This stand-off with surrounding police lasts all evening, as he threatens to kill passengers at 6pm. TV crews and untrained police forces swarm around the vehicle, waiting for developments and their chance to intervene. All of the TV footage is used, mixing it in with an interesting and shocking history on Sandro's past, living as an orphaned street child in Rio amongst poverty and crime. 35 Million viewers watched this shocking scene as the hijack hostage situation was broadcast live.This award winning documentary film, uncut for DVD release, is over 2 hours long and so can get a bit testing, but it is a commendable insight into Brazil and the shocking events that occurred there in 2000. The ending and story is also shocking and makes the piece of film powerful and poignant.

Bus 174 is a documentary based on the hold up of a bus by a young man named Yvonne Bezerra De Mello in Rio De Janeiro in the year 2000.This is a shocking but truthful story of a young man with a troubled life. Bus 174 was a very well shot and organised documentary, although violent and crude, very well done. It was a very real feeling while watching it.Real footage was used for the majority of the documentary other parts are fictionalPros Realistic, Well filmed.Cons none