Law of the Weakest

     As long as children have been alive as small number in every generation will commit criminal activities. It happens all the time in our world today but on the silver screen it is a little taboo. West Side Story was one of the first and biggest movies to explore the idea of youth violence however it wasn't until a more modern time that we have been really placed into it. Movies like Kids and City of God brutally placed us in the life of children we hoped we would never have to meet but before these two controversial films was a Brazilian movie called Pixote. Pixote is the story of a small child by the same name who lives on the streets and commits murders, sells coke, and smokes joints. This movie is not for children.

     This movie is a hard hitter although not as hard as Kids it is still going to be a hard view for some of you so be warned. The locations are awful and you can almost feel the vomit and blood on the dirt street. The actors had no experience and do an amazing job. The lead actor was a street child who the director found as most of these movies do, sadly he was killed by a police officer a few months after this film was released. The music is almost non existent which is a nice feel for this movie because you fell like it is real life more that way. This movie is very real in everything it does. However, The best scenes are at the beginning in the prison once everyone broke out I felt like the movie slowed down to much. All and all this isn't a movie you will forget after you see it because it is done so well.
   
     This movie is brutal  and has a lot of unsettling situations in it so I cannot recommend it to everyone. For those of you who are familiar with  under praised Harmony Korine (Gummo, Julian Donkey-Boy) this is his favorite movie and you can see how it influenced him heavily. This movie is not exactly nihilistic but all it's characters are. The only people in this movie who seem to have any doubt about the wrongness of this movie never say that they do and accept it as life. If you have never seen a movie about child gangsters check out this one as it is one of the bests.

Ebert's score 4 stars

Tyler's score 4 stars