City of God: Nature vs. Nurture

Rating: 9/10 (14 October 2018)

The term City of God refers to the unity of the Holy Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church. In the case of the 2002 film City of God, however, it tells the story of a neighborhood divided. The narrative of the film is unique because while it is told from the perspective of Rocket it is still able to tell the stories of several other residents of the City of God. This element is crucial as the movie would not have worked if you did not understand each of these characters and who they have become as a result of their environment.
Directors Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund successfully manage to bring you into the story particularly through the camera movement. The use of handheld cameras, which is predominantly used in documentaries, gives the film an added sense of reality and makes the audience feel as if they are actually living it. The shakiness of the camera adds weight to crucial moments such as Li'l Zé lying in a pool of his own blood, and causes the audience to comfort themselves by saying that it's not real and just a movie. The end credits, however, takes that false sense of security away from you with the realization that it was in fact based on true events.
The combination of color and editing establish the tone of the narrative. The warm colors used at the beginning transition to cool colors as the neighborhood transforms from a mostly peaceful place to a total war zone. The editing of the first scene places us right into the action and suspense of the story through the use of quick cuts that fit with the fast pace of the music. The repeated imagery in that scene establishes the chicken as not only someone we root for (or maybe it's just me who roots for animals), but it also symbolizes the struggle to escape the city, which is a theme present throughout. In the end, there is no escape from who your environment has made you become.