Look at IMDBs top rated movies and, for the most part, you’ll find no surprises. The Godfather, Citizen Kane, Seven Samurai—agree or disagree, these are all the films you expect to see. But scroll down to number eleven. City of God. Right now you’re probably saying, “qu'est-ce que c'est?” Or more appropriately, “¿qué es eso?” (In truth, I’m probably not giving you all the credit you deserve, but I’m going to go ahead and keep pretending you’re a moron because it just makes my job easier.) When this movie came to theatres in the fall of 2002, I didn’t think much of it. But then the critical buzz was huge and I swore I would see it. So I picked it up at the video store. But then I put it down and opted for Baby Geniuses instead. Then Charmed: Season One. Then XXX: State of the Union. About nine attempts later, I resisted the pull of Married People, Single Sex and finally brought home City of God.
I knew that the movie used a cinéma vérité approach, and that was probably part of what kept me away. While I appreciate documentary-style films as a concept, it’s not the kind of movie that gets me all riled up. Fortunately for me, City of God uses a blend of styles; documentary for certain, with its hand held shots and non-professional actors, but there’s also non-linear storytelling and lapse motion photography. All combined, it makes the film… well, maybe not genre-defying, but I can’t think of anything better so we’re just gonna go with that.
It’s about street gangs in the slums Rio de Janeiro, whose oldest members are maybe seventeen and whose youngest are seven. They’re children who rob mostly to provide, but also for the status and the thrill of it. The movie centres around three particular boys: Li'l Zé, bloodthirsty and power-mad even as a child; Benny, the most generous and charismatic member of the gangs (ego to Li'l Zé’s id); and Rocket, the moral centre of the film and the only one who finds a place in the world outside of crime. Before the age of ten, Li'l Zé begins a bloody rise to power, wresting neighbourhood control from The Tender Trio, a group of petty thugs more Robin Hood than criminal. With Benny at his side and over a series of years, Li'l Zé gains near absolute control through one execution after another, and this violence eventually brings about a great peace.
Rocket acts as observer, first in deed only, but later in occupation when his photos of local gang members make their way into the press. He is the first person to bring pictures of this kind out of the slum. While a full-on war breaks out between Li'l Zé and a new rival, Rocket is put to the task of recording the battle as it happens, and he succeeds in cataloguing everything, including the inevitable execution of Li'l Zé.
It’s a little like Goodfellas, in that it makes it seem cool to be a gangster for a short while. They’re kids and the crimes begin without physical harm. Then the violence begins and it seems almost necessary. But just like Goodfellas, there comes a point where the movie takes any romantic notions of gangsterism and smashes them. In City of God, this comes when Li'l Zé forces his younger brother to take revenge on a member of The Runts, who are a local group of child gangsters that have overstepped. Instead of one adult-looking teen exacting revenge on another, it’s literally a child killing another child and it’s horrifying.
There’s a juxtaposition of prayer and violence in this movie that I haven’t quite gotten my head around. Used in The Godfather, it serves to make the executions all the more brutal, and it suggests, to me at least, that Michael’s child is being baptised into a life of violence. In Gangs of New York, you have two rival gang leaders both privately praying, “Dear Jesus, give me the strength and the virtue to cave in the skull of my heathen enemy,” and it’s as much a criticism of religion as it is of violence. In City of God, I can’t yet put it into words exactly what the prayer lying side-by-side with murder means. But I’m working on it.
I knew that the movie used a cinéma vérité approach, and that was probably part of what kept me away. While I appreciate documentary-style films as a concept, it’s not the kind of movie that gets me all riled up. Fortunately for me, City of God uses a blend of styles; documentary for certain, with its hand held shots and non-professional actors, but there’s also non-linear storytelling and lapse motion photography. All combined, it makes the film… well, maybe not genre-defying, but I can’t think of anything better so we’re just gonna go with that.
It’s about street gangs in the slums Rio de Janeiro, whose oldest members are maybe seventeen and whose youngest are seven. They’re children who rob mostly to provide, but also for the status and the thrill of it. The movie centres around three particular boys: Li'l Zé, bloodthirsty and power-mad even as a child; Benny, the most generous and charismatic member of the gangs (ego to Li'l Zé’s id); and Rocket, the moral centre of the film and the only one who finds a place in the world outside of crime. Before the age of ten, Li'l Zé begins a bloody rise to power, wresting neighbourhood control from The Tender Trio, a group of petty thugs more Robin Hood than criminal. With Benny at his side and over a series of years, Li'l Zé gains near absolute control through one execution after another, and this violence eventually brings about a great peace.
Rocket acts as observer, first in deed only, but later in occupation when his photos of local gang members make their way into the press. He is the first person to bring pictures of this kind out of the slum. While a full-on war breaks out between Li'l Zé and a new rival, Rocket is put to the task of recording the battle as it happens, and he succeeds in cataloguing everything, including the inevitable execution of Li'l Zé.
It’s a little like Goodfellas, in that it makes it seem cool to be a gangster for a short while. They’re kids and the crimes begin without physical harm. Then the violence begins and it seems almost necessary. But just like Goodfellas, there comes a point where the movie takes any romantic notions of gangsterism and smashes them. In City of God, this comes when Li'l Zé forces his younger brother to take revenge on a member of The Runts, who are a local group of child gangsters that have overstepped. Instead of one adult-looking teen exacting revenge on another, it’s literally a child killing another child and it’s horrifying.
There’s a juxtaposition of prayer and violence in this movie that I haven’t quite gotten my head around. Used in The Godfather, it serves to make the executions all the more brutal, and it suggests, to me at least, that Michael’s child is being baptised into a life of violence. In Gangs of New York, you have two rival gang leaders both privately praying, “Dear Jesus, give me the strength and the virtue to cave in the skull of my heathen enemy,” and it’s as much a criticism of religion as it is of violence. In City of God, I can’t yet put it into words exactly what the prayer lying side-by-side with murder means. But I’m working on it.
Comments
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This is a movie that everyone in my Capoeira class went to go see. I couldn't make it out that time.
I need to rent this. I hear that while violent, it is still a beautiful film.
And not beautiful like those crappy Mortal Kombat home movies we did.
It's a diet.