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Pixote | 
| Director: Hector Babenco
Actors: Fernando Ramos Da Silva, Jorge Juliao, Gilberto Moura, Edilson Lino, Zenildo Oliveira Santos
Studio: New Yorker Video
List Price: $29.95
Buy Used: $15.72
You Save: $14.23 (48%)
New (2) Used (14) Collectible (1) from $15.72
Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 18011
Format: Color, Subtitled, Ntsc
Language: Portuguese (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 127 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 1567301355
UPC: 717119404734
EAN: 9781567301359
ASIN: 1567301355
Theatrical Release Date: 1981
Release Date: June 27, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: previous rental
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
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 Sao 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 expose 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 Bunuel'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 Axmaker
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
 Amazing look a "street children" January 28, 2008
DakotaPrints
This "docu-movie" is unforgettably acted by real Brazilian street kids. I can't even imagine living through what these kids have to endure. Director Hector Babenco does a phenomenal job in painting a, what I can only believe to be a true picture of the hell of being young & homeless in Brazil.
 There But For the Grace of God....... August 10, 2006
Elmore Jaimz (Burnsville, Minnesota United States)
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is a part of the world we live in. We have all played a part in not only creating this world, but allowing it to continue. Each and every day, with the choices we make, we either tear each other down or we build each other up. I happen to believe that we are responsible for each other. If we see a film like this and we take it to heart, then how can we be so self-indulgent and uncaring toward our fellow human beings? How can I buy an expensive car or TV or suit of clothes when there are people like this in the world? Can't I do something better with my money? When you witness these powerful and horrifying images, you get a chilling sense of what hell must be like.
Babenco, though he would probably deny it, is a true prophet. No, not in the sense of predicting the future, but in the mere act of sharing reality with us. He is telling the brutal, unvarnished truth. Many of us are uncomfortable with the truth. And so we make fun or ignore or hate those who deliver it. We would all be wise to heed these prophets.
These children happened to be born when and where they were, in the midst of hell. They did not choose this; who in their right mind would? I happened to be born in relative comfort and ease, in upper-middle class America. I have always had huge advantages over most of the people on this earth, simply because I have never been hungry. Do I think that God does not expect much of me because of this disparity? I would be a fool to think so. Therefore, I need to do what I can to make this world more equal. Why should I have everything I would ever need, and most people on earth not even have enough to eat? There is something dreadfully wrong here.
As Americans we need to do everything we can to help those who have so little in this world. In a way, we should thank God for these poor unfortunates because they have a way of helping us see what our priorities should be. They are Jesus on the road to Calvary. Do we stop and help them? Do we carry the cross? Do we wipe the brow, and give water to drink? If we do not, we reject God. And then God, in the fulness of time, will allow us to exist without him.
A Hope for other "Pixotes" July 12, 2005
Brett (Lusby, Md)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The film Pixote depicts the real life crisis that is life for millions of street children in the world. This includes murder, corruption, rape, and countless other tragedies. This movie is a window into the world that exists for millions of real children. If you are interested in helping people who are in these situations, check out YWAM Brazil or World Vision, 2 organizations that work to bring God's hope and love to the most outcast and ignored. It is a shame for a movie like this to be watched but not followed up with action.
Graphic, truth, brilliant May 4, 2005
Bigchee (Brooklyn)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Marvelously written, this film holds nothing back in looking at the dimensions and complexity of the lives of the homeless youth which make up Brazil.
This movie is not for the faint at heart.
Must see..... February 27, 2005
Michael J. Mccann (Atlanta, Georgia)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
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.
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