yes there was a lot brutality in that movie, but I don't feel that it was exploitive the way some other movies are done. This one had to get across the reality of life in that part of the world, to be able to show how they were able to rise above it.
I am Sam is another movie that is really heartwrenching, I think Sean Penn does a fabulous job. It portrays brutality in another sense...that of the "System". Yet without seeing this "brutaility", it would be impossible to understand what it takes for the "underdog" to rise above the oppresion.