City of God

I finally got around to watching this much praised movie, and I can certainly understand why so many people have found it fascinating. It is very well done in a technical aspect, and it's easy to be seduced by the way it looks and the constant flow of action scenes, not very different from the efficiency of some glossy & clever commercial. It also shows a way of life and a part of the world that is not very well known to many outsiders, thereby invoking some sense of illumination. Unfortunately, looking beyond the interesting setting & the glossy surface there's not a lot to be found. In 'Cidade de Deus' we follow some dirt poor kids who live as brutal gangsters in a shanty town part of the Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro. The kids need money, so they steal, they deal in drugs and they kill. This is the basic plot for the movie. And then what, you may ask? Well, then there's … sadly, pretty much nothing more. What we get here is just a grim world contained within itself, where people perform a lot of horrible acts without really wondering why or thinking about any options or consequences. Now somebody could argue that this is actually the way that many people handle such savage situations, and so this movie is just portraying them in a realistic way. But even then, a filmmaker telling a dramatic story has many opportunities to put things into a broader context and he/she can make the choice to give the audience a more multi-layered view without embellishing anything. If you've seen something like the excellent TV mini-series 'The Corner' you know what I'm talking about. 'Cidade de Deus' makes no attempt to explain why these kids don't have any other opportunities than a life of violent crime, so there's no real critique of the society that produces this horrible condition. Without even a glimpse of the reasons for this, you cannot give any real insight into the desperation that drives the characters to behave in the gruesome ways that they do. Instead it comes across as something that's inevitable and almost natural. Like wild animals eating each other, not because they're forced to by special circumstances that could be changed, but simply because it is their instinct. As we all know this will seldom apply to human beings since our existence is much more complex. Any such complexity is totally missing here. In addition there's not much effort made to show the devastating effects that drugs & brutality has on the human soul. Most of the times when something really awful happens in the story, like children becoming killers or getting killed, it's rapidly followed by some non-emotional scene with some cool music and flashy editing. There's no grieving for the victims, the movie is over 2 hours long & the director spends about 30 seconds of that time showing family members shattered by this unnecessary loss of life, which means there's no depiction of the deep sorrow & hopelessness that extreme poverty & violence creates. We get little or no reflection, just one gun-blasting action followed by another & then another. A lot of stuff for eyes & ears, less for hearts & brains. So 'Cidade de Deus' is a film that looks very good. But for me to agree with IMDb placing it among the top 20 ever made (we're talking higher than 'Citizen Kane', 'Apocalypse Now' & 'The Seventh Seal'), the director's ability to convey the depth of human beings should at least be equal to his flair for technical tricks & brilliance. This is truly far from the case here. I rate it 5/10 for the cinematography & editing and for showing a small piece of a harsh reality without blinders, but for me it felt more like an ordinary action movie than an epic masterpiece.

I have seen this movie only recently (2005) and it's easily one of the better foreign films I have seen. Actually, it's probably just about one of the best films I had ever seen. The characters really make this movie come alive with each of their compelling personalities shining though in the backdrop of oppressive conditions and constant violence. One thing which clearly comes to mind is "Lil' Dice's" ear to ear smile - so vivid and yet so ironic since he personifies pure evil. The City of God is a world you don't want to visit, it won't be featured on a post card, and it's said to be the city ignored by god himself. This movie makes you feel uncomfortable, puts you on the edge of your seat -- you are right into the middle of the City and you too are caught up in it's violent temptation. More importantly, it's about the triumph of the human spirit against all odds. This movie in effect is fast paced and hard to follow (with the added stress of subtitles over Portuguese), but it's worth it; and in fact really adds to the impetuous and impulsive undertones of the movie. In addition, the quintessential Brazilian music blending into the film like a well made Caprahina makes it feel authentic like the Italian music in the God Father. You see the flaws of these men played out in an almost fatalistic nature -- hated, greed, futility; and in it all we see ourselves, our own flaws, and our own condition.

'What are you doing, you're just a kid?' "I steal, I kill, I carry a gun, how can I be just a kid? I am a man." Many who visit Brazil the first time, tend to view Brazilians as lacking serious ambition. They seem to party the night away, and appear to seldom work. The old joke about Brazilians is that they have breakfast at 2:00 in the afternoon. But such a narrow view does not take into account the fact that while we in America work to live, sweating away for pennies which the government steals at every turn, they in Brazil Live to Live. It is a different kind of living, a life that sambas with the vibrance of the swaying palm and the bounding drum. A life that understands that we are only on this earth for a cup of cafezinho, and we should have fun while we can before the end comes, but quick. But as the City of God also shows us, Brazilian life is often nasty, brutish and short. A certain degree of anarchy overshadows all the denizens of the film. But Director Fernando Meirelles takes a situation lacking definite boundaries and clear authority, and creates a framework, a structure, that of Gang Rule. The gang-members are not seasoned, old-time criminals like Fredo Corleone or even Tony Montana. Instead, they are a bunch of sweet-faced kids. No one is older than 25, partly because of choice, but mainly because no one lives past this age. On the surface, in this context, City of God is a coming of age story of two young people, a sort of Brazilian "Angels With Dirty Faces.' One character escapes from the City of God, while the other succumbs to it. But when one scratches beneath, one finds the film a comment on the morally bankrupt City of God in Rio De Janeiro, and a mirror on Brazil itself. Far away from the party hopping, Travel and Leisure postcard perfect white beaches, is another world, one of marauding bands of displaced children. The most surprising thing about City of God is its references to American films. Most Brazilian films, as the films of all countries do, owe allegiance to their own particular cultural situation. Brazil owes a cultural debt to Europe (Portugal, Germany, Italy) and Africa. However, the United States has a far more distant cultural relationship to Brazil. That is where City of God triumphs to me an American film goer. It uses the chapter format made famous in Pulp Fiction and more recently, Kill Bill. It uses the familial structure present in Goodfellas. It uses the 'white-suit cool' present in Miami Vice and the Bacardi and cola ads from the preview before this very movie. The fact that City of God can be subtitled Grand Theft Auto: Sao Paolo, is not a surprise nor a mistake. The film is built like a video game in its use of random acts of violence. But the fluid perfect camera work and editing give way to a film with enormous contradictions. Contradictions as large and as vast as the noble country itself. Stylistically, the camera work does not conform to its premise as a gangster film. A gangster film never looked this good. It is as if the camera is released in the wide open beaches, and kicked around like one of Ronaldinho's headers. It starts on the sand and moves steadily across. It picks up on the story but then heads into the sun. It then leaves us, the film-viewer, with the most indelible image in years as we see Sonia Braga (A world icon and sex symbol of Brazil)'s niece, sitting on the sun-drenched coast putting her arm around another young boy. The innocence conveyed in this scene is something to behold. It literally takes your breath away. You see the slamming of different, competing themes. You see the subtlety and tranquility of the beach, smashed into scenes of battered youths dying on city streets. You see a wealth of hypnotic ambiguous images pulled together, much like the very Culture of Brazil itself.

I am a big fan of foreign film, because its great to see directors with different points of view than the average American director. City of God is the epitome of a great foreign film. It shows the classic struggle between right and wrong, in a brand new way. The raw directing style, coupled with a great soundtrack makes for a movie which many different kinds of people can enjoy. Weather your a Harvard intellectual or the local idiot, you can enjoy this. The vicious cycle of the gangster lifestyle is portrayed with haunting accuracy. It even forces the audience to sympathize with some of the nastiest thugs in the world. All in all, City of God is one the greatest movies of my time and each time i watch it i enjoy it more than the last.

City of God_360P

best gangster movie

source: City of God

'City of God' or 'Cidade de Deus' is one of the most realistic and brutal gangster films I have ever seen and without question one of the best foreign language films ever made. Set in the slums of Rio, it gives an shocking account of gang culture in a city where crime and violence is the natural path for most young people growing up in deprived communities. The way in which the story is told, from Rocket's perspective, contributes enormously to the film. The narration, combined with the realistic storyline and characters, means 'City of God' plays more like a documentary than a crime/drama film adapted from a novel. There's no shortage of violence and some of the scenes are very hard-hitting, but 'City of God' is well worth the ride. A bold, brutal and simply brilliant film.

Brutally honest and crude, Fernando Meirielles movie, born and filmed in the Brazil slums, raises above pure cliché and inevitability. You can either be a hood, a policeman or a worker, routinely victimized and barely able to scrap a living. The experience is hard to watch at times and at others artful and fun. This is brilliant storytelling through the combination of editing, vision and narrative. The result is how personal the story becomes through the eyes of young Rocket, our protagonist photographer, whose simple desires seem to be cruelly thwarted as if this is what all kids in the favelas experience. Following the decades' trends, we see the rise and fall of the angry and insecure gangster, Ze Pequena, possibly the scariest of gangsters ever to make the big screen. Gritty and a real as it gets, City of God translates as a cool gangster film as well as a very well told universal story of survival.

"City of God" is a cruel, unfair, forsaken place, you'll find nothing holly there. It's a really far, obscure and tough world that is hard for me to comprehend. The characters are immoral and wicked. What disturbs me the most is that the film has this light, whimsical tone. Sometimes almost "Tarantino-like". The music contributes huge part in this. It even attempts in jokes several times. Do you really expect me to... laugh and care?! After all these atrocities they've done 30 seconds ago? What is wrong with you people? Good stuff. It has some incredible, iconic scenes and moments like the kiss on the beach or the gun fight near the end. The movie also portrays the picture of Brazil that you won't likely see at a tourist guide, it's very authentic and inspired by real events. Though, it's probably a bit exaggerated. All in all, you if you are a movie nerd and curious about other cultures like me, you definitely must watch it. Just prepare yourself