mailjohnw The movie is about the awful "policing", by the so-called police in Rio De Janeiro on this horrid day and night. The inept sniper is the guy who lost the woman's life. Making the attempt to shoot the maniac at that moment was beyond stupid when for HOURS the maniac seemed to almost offer himself as a target in all manner of positions inside the bus. Frustrating to say the least, because if there's one theme here--and for me it isn't the "explanation" and justification of Sandro's motives for doing this crazy crime, not the social precedents set by a life of abuse and poverty, it is the profound incompetence of the Rio police, in a third-world country pretending to live by the "rule of law".

tombrookes2007 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.

Swag Valance (witness-7) I've seen excellent documentaries about hostage situations before (e.g., One Day in September). While the storytelling, per se, was very good, it wasn't top notch. And sure, there are some heavy-handed messages and biases in the documentary. But on the whole, I thought the director inter-weaved different viewpoints on the events -- from middle class citizens to SWAT team members to prisoners who grew up in the favelas. But a few things about this film made it more memorable than many of the others.For one, the access to video coverage is astounding. The multiple angles, the slow-motion footage... combined with how this event played out provided the sort of visibility that many people wish we had for JFK's assassination.Another was the cultural context. There's quite a lot about the organization of the police force, the crowd reaction to the situation, the Brazilian conditions of poverty and homelessness, etc., that are very foreign to many Western ways of thinking.And oddly, some of the contributed footage of this film is stunningly beautiful. Using sweeping helicopter vistas of Rio, it's good and bad neighborhoods, it's churches and official palaces -- it all provided a vibrant and even loving context to the troubled city in which these events take place on a much smaller scale.

bob the moo In June 2000 a young man tried to rob a bus in Rio de Janeiro and ended up in a hostage situation as the police SWAT team surrounded the bus. However the police at first fail to control the situation, allowing crowds of the public and the media to gather right outside the bus – putting the story at the top of every channel's output. The police gradually bring the situation outside under control but inside the pressure cooker of the bus things are only getting worse as the young man demands grenades, a rifle and a driver for the bus before starting to set deadlines for killing the passengers one by one.I had never heard this story before watching this film so I had no idea where it was going or how it would end; in a way I suppose this makes it more engaging for me as a viewer because the main story was as good as the back story (the latter being the main thrust of the film). The opening credits sees the camera moving from the rich side of Rio down into the crowded and heaving slums and this start pretty much lays out the groundwork for a film that aims to highlight the total failure of any system in Brazil to deal with the rich/poor divide – a divide that is extreme beyond understanding. The main action on the bus is interesting but what the film does well is to build on this by looking at the background of Sandro – a background that is not uncommon among street kids. It deals with a complex range of issues and it poses many questions of the authorities.It is not cheerful viewing because it can find no answers and it can find nothing here to give hope for the future. The social work system fails but the real failure highlighted here is the legal system and the police. The response to the bus hijacking is a shambles which ends badly due to the police and allegedly ends with them murdering Sandro in the back of the police van – a crime which the jury found them innocent of. The point that nobody seems to care for the disenfranchised poor is further hammered home with startling footage of the prisons and a history of the Candelária massacre. The final credits shows that nothing really has happened and certainly a scan of the newspapers online suggest that not much has changed in the last six years. The contributions are mostly very good and everyone is pretty honest however the uses the archive footage to very good effect to present the hostage situation while also expanding the discussion to look beyond it.Overall then this is not a film to come to if you are looking for a fun night in. However it is a fascinating documentary that starts with one compelling event and uses it to look at the wider problems inherent in Rio's problems. Those that found City of God riveting should watch this as it does the job just as well but does it by raising the debate above street level and exposes the system failures that condemn poor to death or even brings it to them as the norm. Fascinating stuff but about as downbeat and hopeless as you could imagine.