Bus 174

I find it hard to believe that the Brazil S.W.A.T. team had never before lost a hostage (only if every prior hostage- taker eventually surrendered would I believe that.) Instead of putting the lives of the hostages ahead of the criminal, they allowed him to fire two separate shots (including a long, well-aimed shot where they should have immediately acted.) Unfortunately, there was not a man or well-trained woman on the bus to disarm this jerk, as it would have been relatively easily by someone of equal strength or training. Extremely aggravating to watch S.W.A.T. fail to act. The end-result was just added tragedy to the fact that a decent S.W.A.T. team could have easily ended the event with a well-placed rifle shot when he had his head out the window (no danger of the heavy glass window deflecting the bullet) and with his gun also out the window and not to his hostage's head. Instead of crying about the bad guy's past, I would have liked to know how and when he got the gun, how many prior crimes he committed with it, the life, hopes and dreams of the innocent women on the bus, .i.e. less attempt to make the bad guy a folk hero. And Liberals want to have us totally depend on Law Enforcement for our safety!

This film often does pull its viewer in different directions. At times you feel so angry at Sandro, but his background makes you consider the many facets of the society that breeds such street people. The massacre of the street kids was especially horrendous, and I think they give the event fair representation in this documentary. I think that the filmmakers tried very hard to remain unbiased while criticizing a government that does not always work. As a few people have mentioned, this is a very long documentary, but I personally think that it needs to be this long to do the story justice. Overall, it is very poignant and heart wrenching, but in the end it will make you reconsider the way that society isolates specific groups of people, and it may cause you to question the way you yourself profile people.

I first heard about Bus 174 in a law seminar on human rights and culture. For a high school class I am teaching on human rights, I was looking for films to show. Bus 174 is an excellent film in its own right (well directed and edited, etc). But it will certainly prove educational in my class. The film asks the viewer to consider to what extent the state is responsible for lawlessness when lawlessness is a result of the desperation that springs from poverty and social marginalization. Given insufficiently trained police and their resultant tendency toward brutality, and a criminal detention system in which prisoners live under inhumane conditions, how can anything but anger and violence amongst prisoners and ex-convicts result? Hard questions confronted by the robbery/hostage incident aboard Brazil's Bus 174; an incident depicted exquisitely by this film.

This terrifying real-life nightmare is like watching a car accident in slow motion. The unending cycle of poverty in Rio creates the conditions for such an atrocious crime. Yet it's also understood this could happen most anywhere similar social dynamics exist. More than anything else, the film posits, Sandro feels forgotten and invisible- he wants to be recognized, wants others to feel and acknowledge his anger at being discarded and neglected for so long. Leading up to its shattering conclusion, the film makes us watch what otherwise we'd too readily avoid, and in the end, Sandro gets his wish.

I gave this movie three stars because the police had every opportunity to end the situation but didn't. This is actually happening, and you have people walking around the bus which should have been blocked off, the police are so close to the suspect a couple of times that they could have shot him themselves.

Bus 174 has to be one of the best documentary films I have seen in a long time. I recommend it to anyone that likes documentary or Portuguese films.

This Item is a scam! I went to play the dvd and it does not work. I tried to play the dvd on three different working dvd players and nothing! Seller should be ashamed of themselves

ok

this was live! The situation went completely out of control

A great documentary film with some very interesting twists.

very good

Fine

quality