A Short Review of the movie " City Of God"

Rating: 9/10 (14 June 2012)

"City of God" will change your perspective.
As a movie critic I recently enjoyed a Brazilian fill called City of God or Cidade de Deus in Portuguese. There is always more to a movie than just the motion picture. There are components that make a movie a work of art. City of God captures this and made it amazing to watch. This move was directed by Fernando Meirelles in 2002. It is a Brazilian crime drama film. Meirelles incorporates his touch as a movie director and created a very interesting movie that brought more to the viewer. It created in the mind a new perspective and understanding of the reality that is hidden in Brazil. The movie beginning with the story of a young boy that lives in the flavela's during the 60's. Throughout the movie we begin to see a series of character that connect with each other and all together tell a story. The main character Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) narrates the story from his point of view. We see how he is different from other character. The story continues during the 70' and 80's in a place in Brazil called the City of God. This is where all the main events and the climax of the story occur. Rocket is a good kid, he continues in school and wants to become a photographer. He meets Benny (Phellipe Haagensen) and Lil Ze (Leandro Firmino). They also lived in the flavela's while young. They are both troublemakers but Lil Ze is much more dangerous than Benny. As Lil Ze grows with power in the city of God by managing guns and selling Drugs a feud between the other leaders begins to power up. Lil Ze drunk with power begins a war in the City of God and the good guy Rocket is right in the middle of it. During the movie we also see how Rockets live turns out, his love live, his passions and his problems. In this movie there are many characters that create the story, but there only a few main ones that are really the ones that are totally involved in the story. The first one is Rocket (Alexandre Rodriguez) in my opinion he is a great actor. We have to consider that this movie is made with real kids from the city of god; he did a great job with his paper as rocket. He engaged me as a viewer and made me fell sand, angry, happy, and excited. The Second one is Lil Ze (Leandro Firmino) he portrayed the roll of the bad guy in the move and he convinced me. He created such a strong and angry character that it made his scary. He was a troubled kid and also a troubled adult. The actor did a very ice and neat job as the bad character in the movie. The other bad guy in the move that was not at the end a really bad person was Benny (Phellipe Haagensen.) This actor captured my attention; he created a very nice and complex character. He was on the bad side but he was a good guy. He made the viewer understand the perspective of the bad but with a sense of the good. He was a very good actor and made it very realistic. Another important character in the story is Carrot (Matheus Nachtergaele), he is the competition of Lil Ze and his opponent during the war. He represents the weak of the side of the war. His acting was not so good, but he convinced as the weak person and the one that was oppressed by Lil Ze. The Right hand of Carrot is Knockout Ned (Seu Jorge) I did not like the acting of this man. It was unrealistic. He did not reflect the image of a person who is hurting and wants revenge. There are many aspects of the movie that I enjoyed. The director captured my attention more than once. For example in one of the most harsh scenes of the movie where two children are shot in the foot and they are both screaming with agonizing pain it made me fell as a viewer so sad and depressed and angry at Lil Ze. Then another kid had to choose with of the children that where crying would he shoot. This showed and explicit scene where a child shoots another child. This made me think and reflect even more about the movie. Something that I did not like about the movie was that rocket never got to be with the girl he wanted, Angelica (Alice Braga.) He never quite got to be with her and he showed great love for her. Instead she went off with Benny. In the movie " city of God" the viewer can appreciate many aspects of the movie industry. The technical usage in this movie gives the viewer a complete different aspect of the movie. For example the establishing shot shows the poor and destroyed city of god. It gives the viewer the first example of the terrible conditions in which the people live in. It creates the main image of the place, the setting of where the story is going to take place. We also see the close ups in the move, for example when Rocket is at the beach with Angelica, the director emphasizes the faces of the actors. Also in this same scene we see the rule of thirds. In a certain shot Rocket and Angelica are sitting at the beach with the panorama of the beach also in the shot. We see the composition of them sitting in the lower right with the sea and the mountains in the back. The composition of the scene uses the rule of thirds.
I learned one big lesson from this movie, only the strong survive. This message given directly in the movie creates a harsh environment. People had to be strong in order to live in the City of God.