Totally absorbing: "To Live" in the context of a drug war culture

Rating: 9/10 (24 September 2004)

I rented this film with heightened anticipation mixed with hesitation: "...brutality that makes the movie difficult to watch" blessed with an 8+ rating. What a surprise...
when I found myself rather comfortably munching jalapeno potato chips and sipping a (few) beer(s) while the narrator (photographer, Wilson Rodrigues) calmly--and often with searing comic irony--explains the complex and violent story of his friend's and his vastly different paths from their beginnings in the City of God, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Whew! It don't get much weirder and plainer than this!
To survive in 60s-70's City of God, Brazil, you either kicked/killed drug business ass or pretended not to see who did. Yes, it was appalling to witness the youth of the Runts and their amoral, casual killing-instinct. But for me, experiencing this incredibly abnormal-yet-normal-for-the-time-and-place culture was absolutely, totally absorbing and mind bending. Thank you, Wilson Rodrigues, for this gift: I'm sure it "cost" you a lot, but it is unique and valued.