In
the summer of 2000, a young man by the name of Sandro do Nascimento took 11
hostages on a Rio de Janeiro city bus after a blown robbery attempt. What
unfolded, as well as an exploration of the precursory events that made this
tragedy ultimately unavoidable, makes up Bus 174, a riveting piece of
documentary filmmaking by Brazilian director Jose Padilha.
           Credit
for this film must also be given to the Rio police force, whose spectacular
ineptness in securing the crime scene allowed the media shocking access to both
images and sound from the Bus 174 affair, which played out on live television.
           Mr.
Padilha takes this footage and threads it through interviews with law
enforcement, journalists, criminals, social workers, and the former hostages in
order to tell Sandro’s story and shine a light on larger problems facing Brazil
— most notably epidemic homelessness, gross police incompetence, and
horrifying prison conditions.
           The
serene flyover shots of gorgeous Rio that open Bus 174 belie the hardship that simmers beneath its sunny surface.
Sandro was one of thousands of Rio street kids — young people who must find
creative and often violent ways to stay alive. A drug addict and prison
escapee, Sandro never knew his father, saw his pregnant mother stabbed to
death, and was a witness at the 1993 Candelaria Church massacre which left
seven of his peers dead at the hands of undercover cops.
           That
he would subsequently — and inadvertently — realize his oft-told dream of
becoming famous is sadly not surprising.
           “This
ain’t no action movie!” Sandro reminds Brazil during the four-hour standoff.
The police stand around looking alternately bored and helpless while they cope
with the scariest kind of hijacker — the one who doesn’t want anything in
particular.Â
           Their
frustration is apparent in the interviews in which they bemoan the absence of
police radios at the scene (!) and their inability to let the police snipers do
their job because of orders from on high that Sandro be taken into custody
alive.
           The
strangely sympathetic former hostages, however, saw Sandro as a frightened,
probably strung-out kid who got in over his head and didn’t actually have it in
him to kill anyone — sentiments echoed by social workers, family and others
who knew him.
           The
actual viewing experience of Bus 174 can be confusing at times. It’s hard to know where to look. Not only is the
film subtitled, but there are unnecessary title cards, the initial
identification of the interviewees, and the occasional time code from the raw
footage of the hijacking. But as the film reaches its jaw-dropping yet
inevitable conclusion, the words become superfluous and the pictures break your
heart.
Willem Dafoe
has always
creeped me out. The one exception is his performance as Max Schreck in Shadow of the Vampire, where he still
made my skin crawl, though for the right reasons. I put the heebie-jeebies
aside as I watched The Reckoning, the film that answers the burning question,
“What would it be like if the Scooby gang investigated murder and necrophiliac
sodomy instead of the haunting of an abandoned theme park?”
           Set
in 14th-century England, The Reckoning focuses on a clergyman on the lam who joins up with a band of traveling actors
as they make their way to their next gig. The group gets embroiled in the death
of a young man and the fate of the woman accused of taking his life. What
follows is your garden-variety cover-up that goes higher than anyone thought,
and more deaths. All of this is brought to light Hamlet-like: The troupe puts on a show about the murder in hopes of
eliciting the truth from the close-mouthed locals.
           Shot
in England and Spain, The Reckoning is certainly a good-looking film. At times it looks like Braveheart crossed with REM’s video for “Losing My Religion.” But
the beauty on the screen wasn’t enough to distract me from the script (sample
dialogue: “I have nothing to lose!” “Except your life.”) that
somehow managed to get dumber as the movie wore on. The big confrontation scene
used a bunch of words and said exactly nothing. It left me wondering if I had
time to get to Stever’s for more bridge mix.
           Willem
Dafoe still creeps me out. He’s joined here by some top-notch talent from the
UK, including Paul Bettany (most recently screwed out of an Oscar nomination
for Master and Commander), Gina McKee
(most recently woefully underused in this movie) and the great character actor
Brian Cox, who gets to trot out his delightful brogue here. Normally that would
be cool, but unfortunately it serves to bring attention to Dafoe’s
now-you-hear-it-now-you-don’t-and-when-you-do-it’s-appalling attempt at a
Scottish accent.
           I
have a trusty formula that I often invoke when watching this particular kind of
movie: Biggest Star + Smallest Part = Bad Guy. I knew the minute I saw a
certain someone’s name on the screen that we would eventually be treated to a
scenery-chewing soliloquy about how he would have gotten away with it if it
weren’t for those meddling itinerant players.
           But
I love this actor — he’s dangerous, hot, and sometimes hammy. But he seems to
get saddled with the swaggering heavy role every time out. On the off chance he
picks up this review: Please choose more wisely in the future, mon ami. And
call me.
Bus 174 (NR) and The Reckoning (R) are
showing at the Little Theatres for one week only, Friday, April 2, through
Thursday, April 8.
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 6, 2004.
