Pulp'ish Goodfellas

Rating: 9/10 (18 May 2005)

I thought Godfather,Goodfellas were the best gangster movies ever made.This movie was comparable and at places even better than Goodfellas.But considering Goodfellas was released 13 years before Cidade de deus puts Goodfellas in a different league altogether.Cidade de deus has awesome cinematography ( Cesar Charlone - Oscar nominated ),totally offbeat editing ( Daniel Rezende - Oscar nominated ),scintillating screenplay (Braulio Montavani - Oscar nominated ) and some good direction.The audio was in Portuguese but the subtitles were pretty good to follow the movie.The movie is styled similar to pulp fiction since the answers are given first and questions asked later in almost all the anachronous sub-plots ( like chapters in pulp).The movie is narrated by Rocket,a journalist who takes just a minor role in the movie ( btw. this is a true story).The story is set in 60's Rio de Janiero and revolves around a ghetto.Its very powerful and disturbing with kids carrying guns and robbing motels, shooting to kill,sniffing n selling drugs.Its somewhat reminded me of Black Hawk Down but this is a war amidst drug lords unlike the war in BHD. "I sniff,I steam,I kill.I'm man" uttered by a 12 year old speaks of the way the kids of the ghetto use their pistols as toys. Overall, a beautiful masterpiece that will take you on a time travel to the 60's Rio.