a shallow story, all be it a well told one

Rating: 7/10 (3 February 2003)

This is the Brazilian version of `Boyz N the Hood'  but City of God is two notches better, yet with a few shortcomings.

The initial scene of a chicken running away is masterful. If one has had the experience of running after chickens, then one must admire how the cameraman managed to keep up the pursuit until the poor thing disappeared under a police van. Surely, the Humane Animal Society was present ensuring the humane treatment of the bird  although the miraculous escape from underneath the wheel could not have been planned.

Now is the film depicting reality and is it providing some incisive criticism? Not quite. The favelas surrounding Rio and always perilously close to sliding off the sides of the hills after a rainstorm contain masses of people. Increasingly, it is the favelas or the outlying quasi-cities/slums -- built to remove the pressure off Rio from the migration from the Northeast -- that cast ominous shadows over the rest of the city. They are cities because their populations are huge; they are part of the bigger city, yet a city apart. The same repeats itself in the rest of Brazil. The crime rate is legendary, and it paints a rather bleak future for the country unless something is done on the double.

City of God is about the internal dynamics of a quasi-city/slum. The city is portrayed as devouring itself  suggesting the bitterly ironic name of the city. Gang vs. gang with the occasional corrupt opportunistic intervention by the police. Crucially the spillover effects of this criminal culture don't envelop the posh areas of Rio. Any well-to-do Brazilian watching this film won't sweat too much  the violence is happening elsewhere. Here is where the film is a bit weak  it is hardly a political statement or an indictment of the Brazilian model. It is just internecine warfare, not a crime wave descending on the middle classes by the beach, and the film doesn't make a political statement by suggesting that the inequality has anything to do with the problems depicted in the film. Unfortunately City of God is a shallow story, all be it a well told one.
One more thing is evident in this film and it is a problem affecting all of cinema. All films must fall within the commercially imposed time limits, i.e., the absurd two-hour mark. Unfortunately, it is impossible to weave a rich story in such a limited time slot. Several characters are developed early on, although one can hardly empathize with them or understand them. The first five characters are introduced, but soon afterwards, several are bumped off. Then right smack in the middle of the film another important character is introduced  errr isn't this a bit late? Whoa! Mr. Meirelles man, you only have two hours to tell a story! This would have been acceptable if the film were a wee bit longer, but suddenly it is difficult to discern who is who and what makes them tic. The way this film handles this is by having `chapter headings'. The story is compressed and explained by these subtitles. It may be borderline-effective, but what this film needed was another half hour developing the `smell' of the place. This was wonderfully achieved and portrayed in the initial football (aka soccer) scene in a barren field. A few more scenes of the open sewers or the fermenting garbage and Meirelles would have had a masterpiece (although another hour to make a political statement would also have been necessary!).
My score = 7/10