July 13, 2005

• WEDNESDAY MOVIE

  Bus 174

  On June 12, 2000, a young Brazilian named Sandro do Nascimento stepped onto Bus 174 in the heart of Rio de Janeiro intent on a simple robbery and all hell broke loose. Over the next two hours he became trapped at the center of a televised drama a nation watched (not unlike the white Bronco chase in our own country), while the cops and swat teams bumbled their attempts to bring what turned into a hostage crisis to an end. In this riveting documentary that came out in 2003, director Jose Padilha intersperses the story of Sandro from the death of his mother before his eyes at age 6 leaving him an orphan, to his life as a street kid barely surviving at times, turning to drugs, and witnessing the massacre of seven of his friends on the steps of Candelaria Church by the police. Now, on the bus, his anguish and reluctance to actually kill emerge, as he holds a gun on his 12 hostages, mostly women, and paces back and forth clutching one or another of them in front of him and screaming curses at the police who have gathered in huge force outside the bus. Though the police have a clear shot at him many times during the siege, they never take a shot because they can’t get clear orders. I won’t tell the details of how it all turns out, but we meet the hostages (as they are interviewed in clips between actual scenes of the drama) and learn about the hell of Brazilian prisons as the life of a doomed child lurches towards its conclusion in a way you realize was 99% likely to happen from the day of his mother’s death. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my favorite film review site, Rotten Tomatoes, give a film a 100% approval before, but they gave it to this one. And I do too.
  

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  Deep Thought: “If you ever feel like you’re on the verge of a nervous breakdown, just follow these simple rules: First, calm down; second, come over and wash my car; third, shine all my shoes. There, isn’t that better?”
  Today I am grateful for: The sky
  Guess the Movie: “Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don’t know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them – we can love completely without complete understanding.” Answer: A River Runs Through It, 1992. Winner: thenarrator.
  Was Iraq a Factor in UK Bombs? Lawmakers Wonder
  by Mike Peacock
  LONDON – British politicians of all shades have united since London’s bomb attacks but some are beginning to break ranks, wondering whether Tony Blair’s backing for war in Iraq may have been a factor. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks on London’s transport network, which killed at least 52, only mavericks like firebrand George Galloway dared criticize the prime minister. (Rest of article here.)
  End of Day: 9:23 pm
  + = #10 day weatherwise.
  - = The dentists says, “So if you keep that crown in instead of having a crown-lengthening surgery and replacing it and it falls out and you inhale it into your lungs it could be Serious and entail surgery, but of course I’ve never seen that happen in my 30 years as a dentist,” which of course puts me right between a rock and a hard place.

  • 10:22 pm
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