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Yvonne Bezerra de Mello, Rodrigo Pimentel, Luiz Eduardo Soares, Sandro do Nascimento

In June of 2000, a young homeless man, evidently high on drugs, made a failed attempt to rob a bus in a wealthy Rio de Janeiro neighborhood. When his plans went awry, the young man, Sandro do Nascimen... read more read more...to, armed with a pistol, took the bus passengers hostage. Soon, cops and reporters surrounded the bus. A SWAT team arrived. About four hours later, the incident came to a horrific and tragic end. Filmmaker José Padilha's documentary, Bus 174, explores the events of that day. The film uses a great deal of file footage of the event, in addition to interviews with hostages, policemen, reporters, and others connected to the incident and to the unstable and desperate young man at its center. The filmmakers explore social conditions in the city, along with the personal traumas that led Sandro to his desperate act. As a child, Sandro had witnessed the brutal murder of his mother, and had subsequently found himself on the streets at an early age. In 1993, he survived the infamous massacre of homeless youths at Candelária, which is widely thought to have been committed by police officers. Sandro was also imprisoned at a youth facility, and in a city jail, and the appalling conditions in those prisons are also depicted in the film. Bus 174 was shown at New Directors/New Films in 2003. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

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87% liked it

6,101 ratings

Critics

99% liked it

76 critics

R, 2 hr. 13 min.

Directed by: Felipe Lacerda, José Padilha

Release Date: October 8, 2003

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DVD Release Date: July 20, 2004

Stats: 398 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (398)

  • imrealgod
    May 17, 2011
    imrealgod
    The intentions behind making this documentary might be good (i.e. achieving an award :p), but it moves very briskly. The more-than-often-repeated threat by the hijacker to "Set the heat up" made my blood boil. Guess his vocabulary was limited. The documentary is bearable otherwis... read moree. And even if the documentary was made with pure intentions, I wonder how long will its message last (assuming that it's not being conveyed to deaf ears), if at all it does.
  • blacksheepboy
    September 28, 2010
    blacksheepboy
    A fantastically well-done and dilacerating piece of documentary that dives deep into an open sore in Brazilian society and exposes some of the most horrible social issues that have been bursting out of control in a city dominated by violence and indifference.
  • SirPant
    September 9, 2009
    SirPant
    The phrase 'Edge of your seat' is usually more commonly used to describe a thriller or suspense movie, not usually a documentary. Not the case here, the intense build up to the final conclusion is immense, its almost unbearable. This makes for one of the best documentaries I've e... read morever seen. Highly recommended!
  • gator681
    February 13, 2005
    gator681
    [font=Century Gothic][color=royalblue]"Bus 174" is a Brazilian documentary about a hostage crisis in a city bus in Rio de Janeiro in 2000. Several people were held hostage by a street person, Sandro do Nascimento. The police due to a lack of funding and training do not do a ver... read morey good job of containing the scene, so the media's cameras get a lot closer to the scene than would normally happen. Luckily, the makers of this excellent documentary, Jose Padilha and Felipe Lacerda, have bigger things on their mind than making a sensationalist film. By using Nascimento as a sample case study, they examine the precarious state of street people in Brazil and some of their individual histories. The prisons of Brazil are shown to be brutal hellholes but the police hesitate when at the scene of the hostage crisis. Which goes to show that the police may act a completely different way when there are other people watching them. [/color][/font]
  • wbgoose13
    November 9, 2006
    wbgoose13
    Perpetually depressing look at unfortunate reality of abandoned Brazilian youth.
  • RemiLogan
    April 21, 2011
    RemiLogan
    An incredibly infuriating and saddening plight of a homeless child escalating into a violent hostage situation over a decade later. Bus 174 is a documentary about Sandro do Nascimento, a homeless man raised on the streets of Rio who attempts to rob a bus, but when things go awry,... read more he holds the passengers hostage for four hours while surrounded by the local police, SWAT, several bystanders and a large flock of Brazilian media.

    I won't lie, this documentary left me angry and sad and also beside myself. While what Sandro did was clearly wrong, its hard reconciling it with the fact that society had a hand in making him who he was. Very few members of his society had an interest in rehabilitating him, sheltering him or trying to improve his way of life. He was basically kicked from one place to another, and that's when he wasn't being harassed or assaulted by the local authorities. Granted he lived a life of crime, what alternative did he have: lay in a corner and starve to death?

    My hats off to Jose Padilha and Felipe Lacerda for introducing this into the international film library and the world's consciousness. It shows that poverty is definitely a big factor in street crime and violence. Hopefully this film with its well-deserved successes sparked a debate at least amongst Sandro's fellow Brazilians to address the scores of homeless children living amongst them.
  • KLFilmmaker
    June 3, 2007
    KLFilmmaker
    Wow. Thought provoking and relentless. Real footage of the incident mixed in with interviews from people involved.
  • Hellshocked
    February 6, 2007
    Hellshocked
    This documentary is breathtaking, truly a powerful work, an incendiary cirticism of social neglect that uses the hijacking of a bus as its entry point.

    While the film begins with footage of the bus being taken over, it is quickly apparent that the hostage situation, despite it... read mores urgency, is merely the backbone. The film procedes to investigate Sandro's (the hostage-taker) life on the streets and it becomes immediately apparent how many institutions have failed and keep failing not just him, but hundreds of thousands of others like him. every day. Sandro's hijacking, while inexcusable (though he did not harm any hostages), was escentially a cry for help, and it is painful that someone would have to go to such drastic lengths in order to get the notice they deserve in their society.

    The police's mishandling of the situation is ludicrous, and what happens to Sandro in the end is unnecessary and tragic, all of which is either shown or explained in the film.

    Truly one to watch and ponder on.
  • HuskersNC949597
    June 8, 2011
    HuskersNC949597
    So Brazil has issues I guess. No solutions are made readily apparent, so what's the puprose of watching? "Reality", as the anonymous street criminal kept putting it? That's OK for a documentary, I guess, but I still wonder what they think the best way out would be.
  • ristrawn
    March 7, 2010
    ristrawn
    good & interesting & true story about a bus hijacker & his life & that of other street kids in Brazil... homeland security & law enforcement & reporters can learn lessons from this story...

View All Bus 174 (Ônibus 174) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Deborah Young
June 10, 2008
Deborah Young, Variety

A tense documentary with multiple layers of meaning. Full Review

Patrick Z. McGavin
May 8, 2007
Patrick Z. McGavin, Chicago Reader

Padilha allows neither easy answers nor ironic commentary, producing on both sides of the conflict a world of inconsolable grief. Full Review

Matt Weitz
February 5, 2004
Matt Weitz, Dallas Morning News

Interviews, images and events accumulate, driving the story to its sad end with the implacable momentum of a Greek tragedy. Full Review

Colin Covert
January 22, 2004
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Padilha edits the lethal standoff into a human tragedy, a journalistic thriller and a powerhouse social drama. Full Review

Robert Denerstein
December 12, 2003
Robert Denerstein, Denver Rocky Mountain News

Padhila's carefully assembled documentary has the fascination of a car wreck -- only any number of social themes ripple through this real drama.

Lisa Kennedy
December 12, 2003
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

A fluid and forceful indictment of a culture of neglect. Full Review

Carrie Rickey
December 12, 2003
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

It shows us the spectacle of what happened while explaining the many factors why. It is extraordinary in the way it balances the sensational with the sensible.

Stephen Hunter
December 5, 2003
Stephen Hunter, Washington Post

The movie brilliantly uses this intense narrative as a platform from which to observe some of the deeper flaws in Brazilian culture. Full Review

Desson Thomson
December 5, 2003
Desson Thomson, Washington Post

What starts off as a documentary about a hostage crisis in Rio de Janeiro deepens with every passing minute. By the end, you realize you've seen an extraordinary movie, easily one of the best of the y... Full Review

Wesley Morris
December 5, 2003
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe

This is patient filmmaking, trading sensationalism for the rewards of investigation. Full Review

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