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Bus 174

Universal acclaim
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 10 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Crime | Documentary | Foreign
Written by:
Directed by:
José Padilha
Felipe Lacerda
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 8, 2003
Running Time: 122 minutes, B/W / Color
Origin: Brazil
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Yvonne Bezerra de Mello, Sandro do Nascimento, Rodrigo Pimentel, and Luiz Eduardo Soares
In the summer of 2000, in Rio de Janeiro, a 21-year-old hijacked a commuter bus and held its passengers hostage. The police were flummoxed as local TV crews arrived en masse to cover the headline-grabbing events as they unfolded. BUS 174 balances this potentially sensationalistic material with accounts by the police, the victims, the witnesses and friends and family of the hijacker. (Film Forum)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site Film Forum Profile
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Village Voice J. Hoberman
Tense, engrossing, and superbly structured, Bus 174 is not just unforgettable drama but a skillfully developed argument.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
By the end, you realize you've seen an extraordinary movie, easily one of the best of the year.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
By the end, you realize you've seen an extraordinary movie, easily one of the best of the year.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
The results are as riveting as any action movie ever made.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ernest Hardy
Tough and relentless, dazzlingly researched and crafted. At its core is compassion for those who are angry, violent and uneducated.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Edited with an impeccable sense of timing and rhythm, with each new revelation and insight planted at just the right moment, Bus 174 examines an already gripping story from a moving and untold perspective.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
What results is a thoughtful, analytical yet still emotional film, meticulously investigated and absolutely compelling.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Far from being atypical, the events of June 12 and the litany of tiny nightmares that led up to that day are brutally obvious.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
A lot of ground for one film to cover, but this smart, absorbing movie, which has been sharply edited by Felipe Lacerda, never feels like it's spreading itself too thin.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
If you have seen the masterful 2002 Brazilian film "City of God" or the 1981 film "Pixote," both about the culture of Rio's street people, then Bus 174 plays like a sad and angry real-life sequel.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
It is to Padilha's enormous credit that he steadfastly kicks aside our own culturally imposed frames of reference, insisting that we see the truth, and the humanity, within this very real story.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Although it shares a bitter interest in slum desperation with last year's Brazilian-underbelly docudrama ''City of God,'' Bus 174 pulls ahead, I think, by not confusing cinematic pizzazz with the content of misery.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
So wrenching and absorbing that you can easily lose sight of the sophistication of its techniques.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Richard James Havis
This gripping Brazilian documentary shows a bus hijacking that spirals out of control because of police incompetence.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Alternating between the sad facts of Nascimento life -- which included a stretch at one of Rio's notorious prisons -- with the events unfolding outside the botanical garden, the film is a pulse-pounding piece of documentary reportage, and a terribly important account of a social problem in developing countries that won't be going away anytime soon.
Read Full Review >Empire Will Lawrence
This powerful film offers no excuses for Sandros actions, but his situation demands our empathy.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
It all adds up to a searing portrait of social misery.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
This is provocative stuff--and not just for its searing indictment of Brazilian society.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A unique portrait of modern crime and punishment, gives us terror without filters, a tragic event captured in all its initial immediacy and anguished aftermath.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It's a chilling tale that leaves us with the fear that Latin America's exploding social problems may well be beyond solution.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
A fascinating account, if less urgently compelling than it might have been.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
The drivel they call "reality TV" pales in comparison with the gripping big-screen documentary Bus 174.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
The film takes us behind bars to hear horror stories from prisoners. They're illuminated by a black light to hide their identity. The effect is like looking at an X-ray. Moments like this attest to Padilha's artistry as a filmmaker.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Patrick McGavin
Padilha allows neither easy answers nor ironic commentary, producing on both sides of the conflict a world of inconsolable grief.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Merle Bertrand
An amazingly powerful piece of cinema. Actually, it's more an amazingly powerful piece of news journalism; the kind of in-depth stories told in all their complexity that such fluff American network "news" magazines as "Dateline" could only dream about telling.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.4 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Swag V. gave it a10:
Haunting. While I can't say it's among the best movies ever made, it's one that has stuck with me afterwards as long as anything.
Candy gave it an8:
Amazingly shocking tale of a very sad and desparate young man with no specific agenda that escalated because no one was in control, not him, not the hostages, and especially not the police. The fact that the police killed him at the end was unavoidable but also inhumane. I put it up there with Munich for movies to watch just to get a glimpse into what someone is capable of doing when pushed to the point of no return and feeling no help from those who we pay our taxes for to help.
Rosie gave it a 10:
You cannot help but feel for Nacimiento. To think that there are so many kids just like him out there. Tired of being "invisible", his cry for attention got him killed.
Ola A. gave it a 10:
It's the best movie I've seen for a long time, Padilha's film like a truly important voice. A voice that should concern anyone, especially those of us living in larger cities, anywhere. I cried, which I haven't done for years in a theatre; not out of pity, this movie is so much more than just a poor melancolic flirt. I cried near the end as people are rioting, fighting to get hold of Sandro, to lynch him; the non-futility of how real problems are generally dealt with, so saddeningly apperent in that moment.. We live in a world where judgement is passed out from those of us who can afford it, with no consideration other than in the interest of keeping us separated from those who can not. As expressed so clearly in this film, they have no voice to begin with. It seems stories like that of Sandro, could have been told on so many occasions, stories that seem so banal to us they make no more than three rows in any paper. _This_ is the true horror? For once there is an attempt to give us a view with fuller perspective - go see this amazing documentary.
Donna J. gave it a 10:
It was compelling. As the credits rolled in the dark theater afterwards, there was total silence. Our breath had been taken away. We were waiting to exhale. I spent the next day at work, telling anyone who would listen, they had to see this film, and then we'd talk about it.
Mio O. gave it a 10:
The so-called "reality TV" pales in comparison with the gripping big-screen documentary "Bus 174."
