The Bottom Line: A poignant, epic tale which spans decades and cultural lines with its state-of-the-art and mesmerizing telling of the tragic cycle of violence in the Brazilian ghetto.
“City of God” is one of the greatest gangster films ever made, finding itself amongst the ranks of “Scarface” and “Good Fellas.” Based on the novel by Paul Lins, this epic film spans several decades and chronicles the rise and inevitable fall of the key gangsters in the favelas of Rio de Janiero, specifically the ironically named City of God favela.
Favelas are the shantytowns, the make-shift housing units in the ghettos of Brazil. The favela inhabitants are the country's ultra-poor, and these neighborhoods are ultra-violent. Drug wars rule the streets and young kids run around these hilly neighborhoods armed with the world’s most sophisticated weaponry which is supplied to them by the local police force. Why, you may be thinking, would the local police force supply their urban poor with high tech assault weapons? As the documentary which accompanies the film on the DVD discusses, it is the only way the local police force sees to keep 2 million people quiet, to keep the drugs coming into these favelas so that the favela-dwellers can medicate themselves and not cause an uprising in the city. To placate them, they are given these weapons and the drug war continues.
Some of the gangsters in this story rise to the top (Li’L Ze), many will die, and some watch from the sidelines trying their best to avoid the bullet (the narrator of the story, Rocket).
The gangsters in this film start off as three kids (The Tender Trio) robbing gas trucks for quick cash. As their greed for power and money grows, they move on to bigger and more dangerous projects. As tends to happen in the urban jungle, some of the gangsters decide to get out of the life and others die by the barrel of a gun. At the same time, the strong tend to rise to the top, and that is exactly what happens in this film as Li’l Ze (Leandro Firmino da Hora ) rises from working with the Tender Trio to becoming a ruthless and empire-hungry Godfather of the drug trade in the city. All the while the narrator of the tale, Rocket (actor Alexandre Rodrigues) who grew up in the favelas, desperately wants to find a way out.
In addition to a very moving and gut-wrenching storyline, the actually photography and score of the film are near-perfect. "City of God" is technically superior in that its photography is a technicolor whirlwind to match the moods of the different scenes in the film. Its mostly hand-held camerawork gives a documentary feel to this feature film in a way that actually works with its tragic subject matter. The camera moves from over-the-head wide angles to slow-shutter speed segments in the blink of an eye, giving the viewer an all encompassing roller-coaster feeling to fit with the live-fast-die-young lifestyle that takes place in the favelas. Critics say that “City of God” glamorizes violence with its sleek filming and fast-cut-edits. I disagree. This film is a poignantly tragic tale about the fight for survival in the favelas of Brazil. It is one of my favorite films of all time.
Director Fernando Meirelles (a once photographer of commercials) and co-director Katia Lund (a documentary filmmaker who afforded the film crew access into the still very dangerous favelas), both did a fantastic job in directing the actors in this film, most of whom were local favelas dwellers who were given intensive acting lessons for the film.
If you like gangster movies like "Scarface," "The Gangs of New York," "Good Fellas," and even to an extent "The Godfather," you will no doubt find this film riveting.
As far as kids seeing this film, despite its violence I would still recommend teenagers and older kids see this film. After all, if you look at the films that are geared toward teenagers in America, with their über violence and a good many of them staring the governor of my state (Arnold Schwarzenegger aka "The Terminator"), then really the violence in "City of God" is no different than the sleek violence mass-marketed to kids in well-accepted videogames and mainstream Hollywood films. "City of God," however, is a much more intelligent and well-made option than much of what is marketed toward kids these days. Plus, I think it important for people to understand alternate realities. If kids can look at what is going on in the favelas of Brazil, they may be grateful for their own situation, and it will certainly give them perspective on the greater state of the world.
I highly recommend this film, especially for people who like gangster films, people who have a social conscience, and people who appreciate films where the photography itself is pure art.
A photographer named Buscape narrates short stories to recall his childhood growing up in one of the most crime-ridden areas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil...More at eCOST.com
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