Pixote
Our Price: $176.07
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $34.95 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Edilson Lino, Fernando Ramos da Silva, Gilberto Moura, Jorge Julião, Zenildo Oliveira SantosDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Portuguese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Published); Portuguese (Published), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 127 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-06-05
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: New Yorker Video
Movie Reviews of Pixote
Movie Review: Possibly the best film about streetlife ever made
Summary: 5 Stars
THIS film is the real deal. In a lot of ways, it's the ultimate vision of hell. Right from the start, you feel that you're there in these slums. You can feel the poverty, you can sense the hopelessness, you can see the decadence and debauchery, you can nearly smell the sweat of desperation from these characters. It's such a hellish, intense, cruel landscape that your gut reaction is to write the film off as another examination of terrible street life. There's so much more going on here, however, and the film takes a real brave approach at getting really involved in what's going on mentally as well as from a distance. What struck me immediately, first of all, was how communicative this group of street kids are. They have mastered the art of self-confinement and survival and as a result we can understand whatever progress they make, despite how little they actually get done. These are children that have achieved a sense of personal productivity, and so it's less about being financially sound and more about surviving each day through whatever means necessary. Hygiene, fulfillment, sexuality, and structure are all completely meaningless to them. They clean themselves only when necessary, they sleep and eat only whenever they feel like it, they think nothing of two of their own being gay lovers, and time only represents a means of knowing when the coast is clear.
This portrait of street life is like no other film I have seen, and several characters end up getting killed unexpectedly in incredibly horrible ways. It's a desperate film about desperate street kids who have been forced to adapt to their way of life, despite the risks of violence, disease, police imprisonment, and betrayal. What makes it all work is the lead performance by Fernando Ramos da Silva, who was sadly murdered by police in 1987. The boy led a similar existence to the life of his character in Pixote, and you can see it in his face. He represents a sense of disembodied innocence and charisma that is startling and heartbreaking. People may not realize this, but he really is what is key to the success of the film. Pixote is a representation of what many Brazilian slum kids feel on a day to day basis, which is the desperate need and wanting to have a home and to be safe and happy and loved by someone. He is the figure that is visually telling them that they are not alone. He is, in a lot of ways, the John Wayne of Brazilian cinema. He is brave, charming, full of presence and life, fearless action, fearless emotion, and fearless innocence. He doesn't have the face of a child, he has the face of an outlaw. He is a notably damaged and unhappy child, but though he may look jaded in his face, he is certainly not jaded in his eyes, which are full of simple expression.
I think, in addition to him and his performance, the atmosphere of the film really adds to the success. Much of the film is shot with natural lighting and the camerawork uses a hell of a lot of zooms, panning shots, close-ups, and angled tilts, lending to a real documentary type of feel to the film. None of the actors are really actors, but rather actual street children, and you can totally tell. When acts of murder, rape, theft, and assault are committed they often feel all too genuine in their often confusing desperation, but the intensity of the film comes from the threat of such things rather than the acts themselves. Add to that a simple musical score that has the feel of stock documentary music found in an old library and you have a film that is as real as a film about Brazilian slum life can be without it being a documentary. It is a chilling and amazing film that blows my mind every time I watch it. Pixote is a must-see film for anyone who has a serious passion for cinema and for human life.
Summary of Pixote
Hector Babenco, who went on to direct the acclaimed Kiss of the Spiderwoman, made an international splash with this gritty portrait of juvenile poverty and street crime in Brazil. Pixote (Portuguese slang for "Peewee") is the name of a chubby-cheeked 10-year-old runaway played by real-life slum kid Fernando Ramos da Silva. He's a natural, creating a childlike and vulnerable character left emotionally hardened and morally adrift by his brutal experiences. In an overcrowded São Paulo "reform school," a cross between a prison and an army barracks, he learns the hard facts of survival as he watches gangs prey on weaker kids, and the cops and guards abuse, beat, and even murder their charges. Pixote escapes and turns to street crime in Rio with a small gang, but his dreams of big money and a good life are dashed as they play at crime in a violent kill-or-be-killed world. Equal parts exposé and social drama, Pixote dramatizes the plight of millions of children who live on the streets or get ground up in the system that breeds hardened criminals from juvenile delinquents. Like Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados, one of Babenco's inspirations, this occasionally melodramatic portrait of poverty is shocking and affecting, but no more so than da Silva's own life story. After completing the film he sank back into poverty and crime, and died on the streets. His life became the subject of the 1996 film Who Killed Pixote?, which showed that despite the outcry created by Pixote, Brazil has done little to alleviate these conditions. --Sean AxmakerSimilar DVD Movies
CarandiruColumbia Tristar Home Entertainment; Release date: 2004-09-21; DVD
Best price: $11.98
Price in other shops:
The Year My Parents Went on VacationWEA HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2008-07-15; DVD
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Favela RisingMagnolia Pictures; Release date: 2009-09-29; DVD
Best price: $7.53
Price in other shops:
![Ken Park (Uncut Uncensored NTSC Region Free!) [DVD] Larry Clark Image](/images/Ken-Park-Uncut-Uncensored-NTSC-Region-Free-DVD-Larry-Clark-B001AZKB8K-X.jpg)
Ken Park (Uncut Uncensored NTSC Region Free!) [DVD] Larry ClarkDVD
Best price: $16.85
Once Upon a Time in RioRelease date: 2010-01-19; DVD
Best price: $5.36
Price in other shops:
Central StationMONTENEGRO,FERNANDA; Release date: 1999-07-13; DVD
Best price: $6.24
Price in other shops:
Jet BoyRelease date: 2008-08-18; DVD
Best price: $15.49
Price in other shops:
Anoche Sone Contigo (Dreaming About You)Vanguard; Release date: 2003-03-25; DVD
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
En Tu AusenciaVanguard; Release date: 2008-12-23; DVD
Best price: $3.94
Price in other shops:
Elite SquadWTF; Release date: 2008-10-28; DVD
Best price: $4.75
Price in other shops: