Pixote

Rating:
Summary: "PIXOTE" - Its still this way in Rio now!
Review: After living, teaching and coaching in Brazil for some 5 years, remembering mainly "beautiful" things, I often pop in this video to remember the brutality and violence that can be found on the streets of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Tourists are often isolated from this violence, however, it is indeed real! This is a fantasitic film - and yes, The American "tourist" in the movie deserves his final fate .. Pixote does not!

Rating:
Summary: too strong for words
Review: Although I am a person who is usually never at a loss for words, all I can say right now is that you MUST see this film. It is too good, too heartwrenching, and too powerful for me to even remotely try to do it justice. This is what real filmmaking is about. Hector Babenco is a genius!

Rating:
Summary: Amateur?
Review: Although I have enjoyed many Brazilian films and am a fan of Brazilian culture and life in general, I was quite disappointed in this particular effort.

I can dimly grasp why someone might WANT to think of this as a good film but not how anyone actually COULD. Beyond its use of an amateur cast one might also think of it as an exercise in amateur sociology and, seemingly, film-making in general.

To identify it as "Best" or "One of the top ten" of anything, as reviews quoted on the DVD case do, seems absurd.

Rating:
Summary: Pixote a victim of circumstance
Review: Although there is much nudity, this movie portrays the life of unwanted children in under developed countries. This film is realistic, as the it hold nothing back.

Rating:
Summary: Hard-hitting!
Review: Brutal and often shocking film about street children in Rio de Janeiro is brought to the screen without excuses or apologies by Hector Babenco. Not for everyone, this film is not very easy to watch - be forewarned but it is a genuine cinematic masterpiece that film fans should watch because of or in spite of its frank theme. Also, try to watch "Salaam, Bombay" - the Pixote of India.

Rating:
Summary: Acclaimed social drama isn't for everyone
Review: Despite arriving on DVD trailing garlands of praise from its theatrical exposure, Hector Babenco's third feature "Pixote The Survival of the Weakest" (Pixote A Lei do Mais Fraco, 1981) provides a harrowing and squalid glimpse into an alien culture beset by an all-consuming poverty. Chronicling the life and crimes of ten-year-old homeless boy Pixote (pronounced 'Pi-chott' or 'Pi-chott-ay', and played with remarkable sincerity by non-professional actor Fernando Ramos da Silva) in the slums of Sao Paulo, it follows him down the path of petty thievery to his brief stay in a reformatory where violence is a way of life, to his eventual escape and descent into murder. The only shafts of light are provided by his friends, fellow outcasts whose attempts to rise above their appalling circumstances are almost inevitably doomed to failure, and by an alcoholic prostitute (the luminous Marilia Pera) who unwittingly precipitates their downfall. In the end, only one of the characters emerges from the debris, returning to the slums where life - such as it is - goes on much the same as before. It isn't a pretty picture, nor can it ever be.

Though depressing and unlikeable, "Pixote..." is virtually critic-proof. Based on a novel by Jose Louzeiro, Babenco's film offers an outraged response to the crushing hardships suffered by millions of homeless street kids in Sao Paulo who turn to crime to sustain themselves and are exploited by criminal gangs because of a loophole in Brazilian law which forbids the prosecution of minors. Most scandalous of all are the corrupt police officers who participate in the murder of countless street children every year, treating it as a form of 'pest control'. If nothing else, "Pixote..." refuses to flinch from the reality of these terrible circumstances, depicting rape, murder, glue-sniffing and robbery with an uncompromising level of detail. However, those seeking exploitation are advised to look elsewhere - these events are outlined against a backdrop of misery and ruined aspirations, in a crumbling landscape where even the smallest flicker of hope can be cruelly extinguished at any given moment. Worse still, despite the film's campaigning nature and its international theatrical success, these conditions still exist in Brazil today, and Ramos da Silva - whose social standing mirrored that of the character he played - ultimately succumbed to its worst excesses: Unable to escape the bonds of poverty which prevented him from realizing his dreams, he turned to crime and was murdered in 1987, allegedly by local police. His life and death was subsequently dramatized by director Jose Joffily in "Who Killed Pixote?" (Quem Matou Pixote?, 1996).

Whatever you think of the film, New Yorker's region 1 DVD (which runs 127m 34s) is a huge disappointment. The tatty-looking print and crackly soundtrack (two-channel mono) could be forgiven, but this 1.85:1 movie has been transferred in full-screen format only, resulting in quite a bit of panning-and-scanning and a number of cuts from one side of the image to the other, to accommodate two or more characters speaking to one another from opposite sides of the screen (cf. the brief sequence at 1:14:52, for example). In fact, the cropping is absolutely horrendous! This may have been the only print available to New Yorker, but it's difficult to recommend such a cramped and ugly-looking presentation to anyone. The optional English subtitles are excellent, however.

Rating:
Summary: "Pixote" proves prophetic as the millenium draws near.
Review: Disturbingly realistic fictional tale of a south american street urchin. Considered damnable and pornographic in some circles for its depiction of child rape, prostitution, and murder. DaSilva's paradoxical portrayal of the baby-faced Pixote sends an apocalyptic "this could happen here given the circumstances" warning to all cultures and strata of society. The fatalistic "life-imitating-art" eventuality of actor DaSilva's real-life death in a police shootout a scant few years after the release of "Pixote" adds a chilling footnote that underscores the film's social commentary.

Rating:
Summary: Resumen Critico por Erik Nelson
Review: Esta pelicula fue hecho por Hector Babenco en el pais de Brasil. Lo hico con el proposito de mostrara al mundo las problemas que los ninos Brasilenos tienen en las ciudades grandes. La pelicula fue hecho en las ciudades de Rio de Janeiro y Sao Paulo. Se trata de la vida dura de los ninos que viven en las calles. Babenco uso verdaderos ninos de la calle para los actores en la pelicula. La pelicula emiepza con los ninos recogidos por la policia. Llevan los ninos y los meten en un reformatorio adonde se ponen peor en ves de mejor. Los ninos salen, incluyendo Pixote, que es el nombre del actor principal. Salen y viven en la calle robando y tambien empiezan a vender drogas. Varios amigos de Pixote se mueren por varios razones. Hasta Pixote mata a varios personas tambien. Al fin de la pelicula Pixote se sale solo porque se murieron o le abandonaron todos sus amigos. Nos deja con un imagen triste. El proposito de terminarlo haci es para que la gente del mundo se de cuenta de las problemas que existen para los ninos. Esta pelicula en mi opinion era mas o menos. Era un poco dificil de ver. Habia muchos imagenes feos. Creo que estas imagenes eran necesarios para mostrar las problemas que de verdad existen. Era una pelicula interesante.

Rating:
Summary: Must see.....
Review: Hector Babenco's tale of homeless children in Brazil is devastating. Must rank with some of the great films ever.

The film stars 10-year old Fernando Ramos da Silva, who was an illiterate kid plucked from the streets of Sao Paulo. At the beginning of the film, a judge has been murdered and kids are rounded up and sent to a reformatory. Pixote witnesses a brutal rape his first night. He quickly adapts to the chaotic and often inhumane atmosphere. Corrupt police pin the crime on one of Pixote's friends and brutally murder him. They pin his murder on a second friend, and proceed to kill him.

Pixote and friends escape to the streets of Sao Paulo where they resume their life of crime. The friends are Lillica, a transvestite soon to turn 18, Dito, Lillica's lover and ring-leader, and Chico. The friends meet Cristal, a drug dealer who sends them to Rio to sell cocaine. A drug deal gone awry costs Chico his life and Pixote kills the perpetrator, a prostitute named Debora. The three boys hook up with another prostitute named Sueli, played by Marilia Pera in an unforgettable performance.

There is a sadness in Pixote's eyes that is unforgettable. He accepts his descent into hell in a matter-of-fact manner. Viewers will have difficulty deciding whether he sympathetic or not. He is only ten, has a baby face, and faces horrible circumstances. At the same time, he is an eager participant in the crimes that take place. The portrayal of what Brazil's awful conditions do to the young and innocent is heartbreaking.

Rating:
Summary: Hauntingly Infective
Review: I saw this film in the theater as a first release movie and still remember its disturbing images to this day. While most movies show the innocent dream world we like to think children live in, Pixote slithers and crawls through a dark and surreal world unknown to most of us -- yet it is a world with recondite beauty because Pixote knows no other. We see things happen that would be totally unacceptable in the antiseptic world of civilization but our little protagonists does not seem to see his world as anything but normal. With the self-survival morals of any jungle animal, he goes about his day-to-day life. And this juxtaposing of morals leads to a little bit of an internal conflict with the viewer before the end of the movie. I highly recommend this film to anyone but would warn you that if the "Pollyanna" world of children is what you think exists and want to see, this film with keep you awake for quiet a few nights.