Not that there aren’t fascinating details. This should be Sandro’s boyhood, culminating in a botched robbery and hijack of bus 174. The mishmash results in a lack of momentum for the main storyline. And there is confusion rather than mystery over who is the real mother. The plot is overcomplicated by having two boys of similar names. Characters outside their world of the dispossessed have little more than walk-on parts. We see mostly only slum boys, sleeping on pavements and selling their heavily-cut coke. But this film sadly gives us no context to draw such contrasts. The Rio city centre carnage should be shocking - since such things normally only happen, when they do happen, in underprivileged favela slums, not in the midst of a teeming financial district. You could imagine the anger if the bulk of mainstream film from the UK, for instance, portrayed nothing but Trainspotting and underbellies of drug orgies and football violence. Ones that deplore the way their multifaceted country is depicted as a violent, third-world outback. Additionally, my sympathies are moving towards some of the more art-house –type directors from Brazil. Yet, on viewing, I felt it had little new to say. I had been very much looking forward to Last Stop 174. The actual hijack is a relatively short segment at the end of the film - and it left me a little underwhelmed. It seems a good enough story yet is really a collection of interlocking pieces rather than a smoothly flowing whole. But does the film have more to it than just box office returns? Our young actors do well - on many an occasion - but at other times seem noticeably stretched. The pace doesn’t let up, and the central characters give a convincing demonstration of Brazil’s brand of smooth-talking hustlers. Meanwhile, Church and NGOs fight to save souls among such unworthy miscreants.Īs a straightforward action movie, Last Stop 174 is gritty and entertaining. Between the bloodbath of juveniles and the bus hijack, weave tales of maternal longing, desperate glue-sniffing, jailbreak and prostitution. A close shave with an infamous street massacre, just off Presidente Vargas, sees several children gunned down. They survive by armed robbery and dealing drugs. His life intertwines with another boy called Sandro as they grow up on the streets, doing coke and doing time. Young Alessandro (Sandro for short) is soon old enough to wield a gun. The gangsters that grab him violently are owed money by his coke-sniffing mama. Our action starts with Alessandro, rudely ripped from his mother’s breast (quite literally). It was made into the documentary, Onibus 174, which did rather well, and also inspired this film a feature thriller that culminates in the same event and has much to live up to. The famous 174 incident ended in bloodshed. If he had stopped, the chances of being robbed at gunpoint would have been high. The phalanx of charging youngsters scatters at the very last minute. It resembles a game of dare, but with deadly intent. Instead of stopping, he accelerates towards the children. Passengers rise in their seats, transfixed. I’m on my way back to the apartment after late night carousing. They run head-on towards us in a v-formation, attempting to make the bus brake hard or crash. About 20 young kids, none of them more than 12 years old, charge our fast-moving vehicle. Coming off a slip road from Presidente Vargas - the same Rio city freeway where part of this film is located. I did once experience an attempted hijack in Brasil. National television gave it hours of live coverage, Rio de Janeiro police desperately tried to free hostages and the ordeal was imprinted on the national psyche, much the way 9/11 is on America’s. Based on a true story, the vivid images and complex character portrayals captures both heart and imagination from the tense opening scenes to the shattering climax.The number 174 bus may well forever be remembered as the most famous hijack in Brasil. The ugliness of their plight is offset by the redemption of their mysterious mother who has found a way to escape the darkness of crime and drug abuse through compassion and faith. Set in Rio, this is the story of two brothers that are thrust by tragedy into the world of gang violence and crime.
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