Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco (1981)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Hector Babenco

Writers:

José Louzeiro (book) and
Hector Babenco (writer)

Release Date:

5 May 1982 (France)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama

Plot:

The life of a boy in the streets of Sao Paulo, involved with little crimes, prostitution, etc

Plot Keywords:

Boy | Runaway | Corruption | Prostitution | Death

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 7 wins

Cast

Fernando Ramos da Silva	...	Pixote
Jorge Julião	...	Lilica
Gilberto Moura	...	Dito
Edilson Lino	...	Chico
Zenildo Oliveira Santos	...	Fumaça
Claudio Bernardo	...	Garatao
Israel Feres David	...	Roberto Pie de Plata
Jose Nilson Martin Dos Santos	...	Diego
Marília Pêra	...	Sueli
Jardel Filho	...	Sapatos Brancos
Rubens de Falco	...	Juiz
Elke Maravilha	...	Debora
Tony Tornado	...	Cristal
Beatriz Segall	...	Widower
João José Pompeo	...	Almir (as Joáo José Pompeu)

Also Known As:

Pixote
Pixote, the Law of the Weakest (USA)
The Survival of the Weakest (USA) (subtitle)

Runtime:

128 min

Country:

Brazil

Language:

Portuguese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:(Banned) (original rating) | Australia:R (re-rating after appeal) | UK:18 (cut) | West Germany:16 | Portugal:M/16 | Finland:K-18 | France:-12 | Norway:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Avenida Paulista, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Company:

Embrafilme

Trivia:

The film's star, 'Fernando Ramos Da Silva', who plays a young street criminal, actually was a street criminal before he made this film. After completing it he took up the criminal life again, and was killed in Brazil in 1987 in a shootout with police.

Movie Connections:

References Los olvidados (1950)

Brilliant and Brutal

Perhaps the most brutal filmic portrait of youth ever made; Charles Dickens meets Hieronymous Bosch in this tale of a group of boys struggling to survive in the reformatories and mean streets of Brazil as the cycle of prey transformed into predators is documented.

The saddest detail is to realize that this film, made almost twenty five years ago, documents a world that in terms of its poverty and depravity, has apparently changed very little. A brutal reality captured here but with some of the most layered acting I've ever seen in the history of film by a group of amateurs picked from the streets of Sao Paulo with no previous experience. Not one or two good performances, the entire cast is quite simply remarkable, and even sadder is the fact that most of them have probably now been swallowed by the street life they portrayed.

Not as sophisticated a vision as Bunuel's 'Los Olvidados' or as sensational as Clarke's 'Kids,' but in this genre of 'children growing up in the streets' it is easily the most emotionally powerful film of them all.