Ciudad de Dios Critic

Rating: 9/10 (22 June 2012)

Sin in the "City of God" Alexa Jimenez
In the movie "City of God" the topics of violence, abuse and drug use are commonly portrayed and show the reality behind the scenes of a day at a slum. It is a Brazilian movie, directed by Fernando Meirelles in 2002 and it shows the problems that the inhabitants of favelas in these countries have to face because of the fact of living under these conditions. The movie shows crude, violent actions that take place almost daily in the favelas and how characters around this plot react and evolve because of this. The movie takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in a favela called "Cidade de Deus". Based on a true story, the story begins with Rocket speaking of what he lives through his point of view. Rocket's brother, Goose forms a gang with his 2 best friends, Shaggy and Clipper and call themselves "The Tender Trio". The Tender Trio are slums which rob and assault different places, but by the idea of a little boy named Lil' Dice they decide to rob a motel nearby. Left behind to watch out for any cops, Lil' Dice becomes enraged and fires a fake warning shot. After that he kills all of the people in the motel and since that particular crime, violence and cruelty are Lil' Dice's primary motivations. Once Lil' Dice grows up he becomes the boss of the favela , a place in which over the years, the crime has escalated from small robberies to an all out drug war. Lil' Dice changes his name to Lil; Z'e and kills all of his competitors along with his best friend Benne. Together, they begin controlling the drug business in the favela and wipe out everyone who disagrees with him except Carrot. Meanwhile, Rocket tries to leave the favela by following his passion and dream of photography. The drug business floods the favelas like a river but Rocket continues to stay true to his ideals and hangs out with a group of friends who smoke pot casually. Trying to escape from the temptations of the favelas Rocket begins to work and has a terrible experience in which he decides that honest work is not worth the while and falls into crime. However, the victims Rocket tries to assault are too nice and therefore, he fails to be a slum. Lil' Zé continues to get worst and at a specified time he rapes the girlfriend of Knockout Ned who looking for revenge unites with Carrot and begins to fight in the drug war that has been taking place in the favelas. Rocket has his pictures published in the newspaper and gets a job. In the movie all actors did an amazing job at communicating what the director wanted to say. Rocket and Lil' Zé did an amazing job at developing their character, not only in the movie, but psychologically as well. The way that these two characters are juxtaposed is very interesting since Rocket and Lil' Zé both had the same opportunities, same surroundings and yet they took 2 paths in life. Through their acting you can see the different personality traits of the characters and how under very similar realities their perspectives of the world are completely different.
The movie is full of camera techniques. Some of these techniques are establishing shots, which present us with the setting of the scenes of the movie. These are seen when the movie changes settings such as when from the City of God the movie shifts to the beach or to another place else. Also, there is the technique of tracking when the camera follows a person walking or running. This is scene when the kids are playing soccer or when a character begins to run. The technique of low angle and high angle is also seen a lot in the movie. This technique is used to show the different times in which the character have or will use their power.
This movie deals with sensible topics present in society today that make us stop and think how effective governments are with their population. The fact that in City of God kids of around 8 years old are getting high on marijuana and killing innocent people makes the viewer wonder in what conditions is the kid living in in order to make these type of things. The movie also portrays the lives in favelas, which are aspects of the Brazilian society that the government has tried to hide in order to prevent the negative image of poverty on the country.
The group of people who would like this movie would be teens and adults. This is because it shows topics and aspects of society and of the world that a kid would not understand. Also, there are crude and impacting scenes in the movie that could traumatize a little kid. I would say that this movie is PG-13 for the violence and the drugs that it has in it. My final word on the movie is that it is an excellent movie, very original, well filmed, acted and has a different and interesting plot. It mixes criticism with humor and violence with love creating a very good way of entertaining the viewer. The genre of this movie would be a drama but also having action, romance and comedy in it.
I would rate this movie as a 8.7
Alexa is currently attending Lincoln High School in San Jose, Costa Rica. She practices Yoga as a hobby and likes literature and science.