City of God is an amazing film by any standard, but as the first film from co-directors Kátia Lund and Fernando Meirelles it certainly portends many future successes for the two, whether singly or as a duo. Meirelles’s only prior film experience was in directing TV commercials and that experience shows in the fast pace and technical proficiency of his first feature film work.

City of God is about the slum gangs of Rio de Janeiro – or more precisely, the City of Angels to which the poor are relegated on the outskirts of Rio. This film is Los Olvidados and Lord of the Flies meets The Goodfellas and Gangs of New York with furious energy. This film features almost nonstop, gang violence of the most extreme variety, systematically descending down from the level of young adults to adolescents, then pre-teens, and, finally, toddlers. It is a film that is simultaneously hard to watch and riveting.

Historical Background: The slums of Rio (called favela) were constructed by the civic leaders at the urging of the business leaders of Rio to isolate the poor from the city center, so that American and European tourists could strut securely between the upscale resorts and the picturesque beaches where gorgeous bikini clad Brazilian women play beach volleyball. In the unseen netherworld, children grow up snorting cocaine and robbing stores or acting as lookouts, messengers, and delivery boys for the drug trade. The law is absent (or worse, complicit) and, therefore, crime rules. Gangs provide the only structure and violence the only status. These are not places that we learn about from the mainstream media – who among them would dare to enter. We learn about such places from those that escape – and, even then, typically a generation after the fact when the escapee as grown to adulthood. City of Angels was based on a novel by Paulo Lins. Both the novel and the film feature real characters although some have been embellished. Lins states in the back of the novel that the story was based partly on the life of Wilson Rodrigues, a Brazilian photographer.

The Story: The story is narrated by a man who once lived in the City of God, who we come to know as Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) – clearly the stand-in for Wilson Rodrigues. The film opens on a street scene – a street feast of sorts – and the sharpening of knives. A hapless chicken watches while its companion is beheaded, plucked, washed, and dropped into a pan of boiling water. We observe this bird’s frenzied look of terror up close. As if seeing its intended fate unfolding, the chicken suddenly slips his tether and escapes, making a run for it down alleyways and dusty streets, the camera tracking low so that we share his chicken-eyed perspective. Young members of a gang chase after their lunch, guns drawn. The pursuers call to Rocket, who is further down the street in front of the fleeing chicken, to grab it. Suddenly, the gangs sees a squad of police approaching from behind Rocket. Rocket is caught between two heavily armed groups. Since the gang members outnumber the police and are well-armed, they stand their ground, ready to shoot it out.

Now the camera whirls around Rocket and he suddenly shrinks and is transformed into the boy he was ten years earlier, playing on a soccer field – a skillful transition to a flashback. The narrator announces that he will start his story at the beginning, with the Tender Trio – composed of his older brother, Goose (Renato de Souza), and two of his associates, Shaggy (Jonathan Hasgensen) and Clipper (Jefechander Suplino). The young Rocket has a couple of friends his own age – Li’l Dice (Firmino da Hora), an orphan, and Benny (Phelipe Haagensen). The Tender Trio holds up stores and gas trucks that deliver propane tanks. After taking the truck drivers cash, they invite the neighbors to help themselves to the tanks – free of charge.

Rocket is too afraid to hang out with the Tender Trio but Li’l Dice and Benny have no such compunction. In fact, Li’l Dice fancies himself their equal and is full of ideas for upward mobility in their criminal pursuits. He suggests that they knock off a nearby motel, that serves as a bordello. Li’l Dice is disappointed when his role is limited to being left as the lookout (he is to shoot out a window if the cops come). The Tender Trio enters and robs the management, then enters each room to rob the johns and their prostitutes. They tie them up and race out when they hear the window shot in by Li’l Dice. Li’l Dice, however, has not seen any police – he simply wants in on the “fun.” He enters after the Tender Trio have fled and kills several of the people who are tied up – simply out of blood lust. At just 10-12 yeas of age, Li’l Dice is already a cold-blooded killer.

After the motel job, the Tender Trio splits up. Two manage to escape the ghetto, one via religion and another by taking a job. The third, Rocket’s brother Goose, is unable to reform, even under heavy pressure from his girl friend, Berenice (Roberta Rodriguez Silvia), who warns him, “A hood doesn’t stop, he just takes a break.” Goose ultimately takes a long break when he is shot dead by the police.

Rocket goes his own way while Li’l Dice and Benny are drawn fully into the ghetto life. For his part, Li’l Dice becomes the baddest and most violent person in the ghetto. He systematically whacks all of the princes of crime – every potential rival – until he alone stands as king, with Benny as his lieutenant. Li’l Dice becomes Li’l Zé and his only interest, now, is complete control of the ghetto and the drug operations. His only remaining competitor is a drug dealer named Carrot (Matteus Nachtergaele). Carrot and Li’l Zé become the heads of two rival gangs, each controlling a sector of the city.

Rocket hangs out with a group known as the groovies. His main concerns are losing his virginity, making some money, and making something of himself. He acquires a stolen camera and becomes the group’s photographer, selling them the pictures he has taken. He develops a love for photography. There is a girl, Angelica (Alice Braga), in the group that catches his eye and he puts his best moves on her, flattering her by taking her picture – lots. He seems close to scoring with her – until Benny comes along and scoops her up. Benny is lighter skinned, charismatic, and has money to burn – a tough combination for Rocket to match.

Rocket toys with the idea of becoming a hood himself. He and a buddy set out to conduct a robbery. They think about holding up a bus toll-collector – but it turns out to be someone they know from the City of God, Knockout Ned (Deu Jorge), way too cool a guy to stick-up. Besides, he served a stint in the military and is an expert marksman. They next walk into a coffee shop, planning to hold it up, but the waitress is way too friendly. They end up walking out with only her phone number. They get picked up by a white guy from another town asking for directions. He can’t possibly be too cool to rob – until he offers them a joint to share. So much for Rocket’s criminal ambitions!

Benny and Angelica decide they will leave the City and its violence behind. Benny throws himself a last farewell party, but is shot to death accidentally (Li’l Zé was the intended target) while the strobe lights are flashing. The unattractive Li’l Zé is snubbed by a girl because she’s with Knockout Ned. Li’l Zé, out of envy and jealousy, forces Knockout Ned to strip in the middle of the dance club. Later, his gang gang-rapes the girl and, still later, kills Knockout Ned’s father and brother. Knockout Ned, who had tried to separate himself from the violence of the City, now becomes obsessed with revenge, teaming up with Li’l Zé’s rival, Carrot. Without Benny’s stabilizing influence, Li’l Zé’s determination to rule all of the City intensifies and the City becomes a war zone.

As the war rages, even the Little Runts (preadolescents and toddlers) are armed by one gang or the other. In a particularly grotesque scene, one ten-year-old Little Runt is ordered to choose between two of his friends and kill one of them to prove his worthiness for membership in the older gang. Knockout Ned gets arrested by the police and his picture is featured in the Rio newspaper, where Rocket has coincidentally taken a job as a helper on the delivery truck. Li’l Zé is envious of his rival’s notoriety and wants his picture taken with a stolen camera, but no one in his gang knows how to operate it. One of them suggests Rocket who still lives in the City of God and is known to have a way with cameras. Rocket is summoned and takes a number of shots of Li’l Zé’s gang. When he has the roll developed by the newspaper’s lab, an editor spots the shot and runs it on page one. Rocket thinks that he’ll likely be killed because of this, but he has underestimated Li’l Zé’s vanity. The newspaper people give Rocket a much better camera and a chance to become a photographer for the newspaper. That night, Rocket sleeps at the home of one of the young female editors and loses his virginity. It bodes well for Rocket’s future that his first sex is linked to his first professional success. We can probably count on him working his butt off the rest of his life!

He returns to the City of God, camera in hand, just as the chicken comes running down the dusty street, and suddenly finds himself between two armed groups as the flashback collapses back to the opening scene. While the cops back off, Rocket scurries to the side of the road. He is able to photograph the subsequent shootout between the two rival gangs, the arrest of the gang leaders, the release of one of them (Li’l Zé), Li’l Zé's payoff of the police for weapons acquired from them, and, finally, Li’l Zé's bloody murder by the next generation – a group of Little Runts, probably not a one of them over age twelve.

Themes: The obvious theme is the abandonment of the lower class in Rio (and paralleled in countless cities throughout the world) by the politicians, business leaders, and a middle and upper class that just wants them out of the way. And it is a portrayal of an uncaring and corrupt police force thats only relationship to the problem is to take its cut of the profits. The City of God and the ghettos like it throughout the world, isolated in their poverty, become moral wastelands. Those few within these slums who strive to maintain decency or to find honest work are overwhelmed. City of God offers no simple answers. It merely paints a terribly bleak picture of the drowning of people in a culture of poverty. Viewers can’t help but be struck by how the criminal behavior keeps sinking into younger and younger age groups with each passing decade. One reviewer suggests wistfully that perhaps the brutal realism of this film will “shake loose the apathy many feel toward the underclass.” My fear is that the horrible violence illustrated in this film will have quite the opposite effect on the sheltered middle and upper classes. This will all feel so alien and frightening to them that they will want to wall off the societal elements represented in this film like some kind of festering, abscessed tissue. Those of us who are already distressed by the heartless classism in developed countries may be even more distressed after seeing this film, but those who want it out of sight will simply want it further out of sight. City of God is a courageous movie for presenting a bleak situation with stark realism, but I doubt that it will contribute in any significant way to reducing the problem.

A natural question to ask after viewing this film is why some characters in this setting survive it and escape it while most are destroyed by it. Is that entirely an issue of luck or are there willful factors? What is the difference between a Rocket and a Li’l Zé or even a Benny? How is it that one of the Tender Trio left the ghetto and took a job? How was it that Rocket’s father held onto his belief in hard work? What about the ones, like Knockout Ned, who tried to evade the violence, but were nevertheless sucked in. One can take a shred of hope from this film from those few, like Rocket, who succeed against even the terrible obstacle of growing up in the City of God.

Production Values: The script for City of God was very tightly constructed. It is not entirely linear, but the digressions are kept short and to the point so that the forward thrust of the story is never long lost. The technical virtuosity of the film is astounding – in the chicken scene at the beginning and the whirling transition from the present to the flashback are a couple of good examples. The cinematography was provided by Cesar Charlone, using mostly a mobile hand-held camera to give the film a gritty documentary feel. The editing featured quick cuts, adding to the pace and intensity. The soundtrack featured an effective combination of soul, disco, and Brazilian music.

The film was shot in a slum resembling the City of God, but the City of God itself was considered too dangerous for filming. The cast consisted almost exclusively on non-professionals recruited from the slums of Rio. They delivered superb performances – simply by doing what they knew best. These were individuals who well knew the favela slang and the body language, as no professional actor could. For the most part, this is an ensemble type film, with Alexandre Rodrigues as Rocket and, perhaps, Douglas Silva as Li’l Zé the only individual stars.

Bottom-Line: This is a breathtakingly grim and violent film that will not be to everybody’s taste. In a way, it’s not to my taste except that I feel that it is something about which all of us need to be more aware. For me, seeing this film is more about civic responsibility than entertainment. Unfortunately, most of those who see this film will be the part of the population inculcated into the culture of violence while most who abhor violence will shun the film. Nevertheless, as a work of art, it is a great achievement. City of God was filmed in the Brazilian variety of Portuguese language and comes with English subtitles. There is a very interesting documentary on the DVD version as well. The running time is 130 minutes.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from Brazil:

Behind the Sun
Black Orpheus
Central Station
The Motorcycle Diaries
Pixote
Quilombo.
Xica

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age