Warning: these comments contain a couple of spoilers, albeit mild ones that don't give away very much.
In their documentary of a hostage standoff aboard a city bus that occurred in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 12, 2000, the creators of "Bus 174" ("Ônibus 174" in Portuguese) have created a memorable documentary that follows the best traditions of Errol Morris. The hours-long hostage seizure was shown live on Brazilian television and gripped the country as it unfolded, probably unleashing the same feelings of horror, frustration, and anger that were generated by the live coverage of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999. Mood-setting music accompanies footage of the drama and dénouement, which in turn is interrupted by interviews of eyewitnesses and of people familiar with the perpetrator's background and upbringing. The result is not the doctrinaire presentation and predictable condemnation that infect too many documentaries of this type. Though earnest, the filmmakers are fair: the police interviewees come across as intelligent and well-trained, and the film conveys the predicament that the police faced in how to deal with the psychotic hostage-taker and his captives.
The videotape of hundreds of infuriated people converging on the hostage-taker after the standoff ends, wanting to tear him limb from limb, is destined to become one of the classic crowd scenes in film. It's far more powerful than the celebrated "Odessa steps" crowd scene in Sergei M. Eisenstein's 1925 classic film "Battleship Potemkin" ("Bronenosets Potyomkin" in Russian). It would be worth seeing "Bus 174" for this footage alone.
One note on context: a number of downbeat films about Brazilian society have emerged in recent years, and if you've seen "Bus 174," "Central Station" ("Central do Brasil"), and "City of God" ("Cidade de Deus"), along with the older "Pixote," you could be forgiven for thinking that urban Brazil is hellish. That would be too simple. Though beset by high income inequality and far too much urban violent crime, Brazil is a complex country inhabited by millions of sophisticated citizens capable of operating at the frontiers of applied and pure technology and of producing great literature, music, and film. Moreover, the mentally unbalanced hostage-taker of bus 174 is hardly less addled, and hardly less cared for by society, than tens of people I pass by on a typical work day in San Francisco. In that sense, "Bus 174" is a cautionary tale about what could happen in first world cities like San Francisco that are overrun with mentally ill and/or drug-addicted street people.
In sum, highly recommended.
In their documentary of a hostage standoff aboard a city bus that occurred in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 12, 2000, the creators of "Bus 174" ("Ônibus 174" in Portuguese) have created a memorable documentary that follows the best traditions of Errol Morris. The hours-long hostage seizure was shown live on Brazilian television and gripped the country as it unfolded, probably unleashing the same feelings of horror, frustration, and anger that were generated by the live coverage of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999. Mood-setting music accompanies footage of the drama and dénouement, which in turn is interrupted by interviews of eyewitnesses and of people familiar with the perpetrator's background and upbringing. The result is not the doctrinaire presentation and predictable condemnation that infect too many documentaries of this type. Though earnest, the filmmakers are fair: the police interviewees come across as intelligent and well-trained, and the film conveys the predicament that the police faced in how to deal with the psychotic hostage-taker and his captives.
The videotape of hundreds of infuriated people converging on the hostage-taker after the standoff ends, wanting to tear him limb from limb, is destined to become one of the classic crowd scenes in film. It's far more powerful than the celebrated "Odessa steps" crowd scene in Sergei M. Eisenstein's 1925 classic film "Battleship Potemkin" ("Bronenosets Potyomkin" in Russian). It would be worth seeing "Bus 174" for this footage alone.
One note on context: a number of downbeat films about Brazilian society have emerged in recent years, and if you've seen "Bus 174," "Central Station" ("Central do Brasil"), and "City of God" ("Cidade de Deus"), along with the older "Pixote," you could be forgiven for thinking that urban Brazil is hellish. That would be too simple. Though beset by high income inequality and far too much urban violent crime, Brazil is a complex country inhabited by millions of sophisticated citizens capable of operating at the frontiers of applied and pure technology and of producing great literature, music, and film. Moreover, the mentally unbalanced hostage-taker of bus 174 is hardly less addled, and hardly less cared for by society, than tens of people I pass by on a typical work day in San Francisco. In that sense, "Bus 174" is a cautionary tale about what could happen in first world cities like San Francisco that are overrun with mentally ill and/or drug-addicted street people.
In sum, highly recommended.