Hell is Raised, in the City of God

Rating: 10/10 (18 September 2015)

Set in Brazil in the 1970s, the film tells the story of Rocket (Alexandre Rorigues in an excellent, understated performance), a teenage boy living in an extremely violent area of Rio de Janeiro called The City of God. Like most boys his age, all Rocket wants is to get laid, smoke a little blow and chill with his friends. However, the violence around him not only complicates this it throws him smack dab in the middle of it. When he loses his low paying job, he watches with envy the carefree life of the drug lords Lil Zee and Benny (Leandro Firmino and Phellipe Haagensen respectively) who run the ghetto. They flash money and ride brand new motor scooters through the streets of the hood. When he loses his girl to the more enigmatic gangster Benny, Rocket declares in frustration, "It was like a message from God: Honesty doesn't pay, sucker." Seeing delinquency as the only way to prosper, Rocket decides to pursue criminal ventures of his own. Fortunately, Rocket and his equally square buddy, prove to be the most inept of criminals. They don't even have the heart to rob a lost drunk who has unwittingly gotten lost in the slums. Rocket soon resigns himself to the fact he's no criminal. He's one of the nobodies. One of the thousands whose fate is in the hands of a few crazy fools with guns. Luckily for Rocket, fate was waiting around the corner with a better hand for him to play.
Thanks to his love and expertise in photography, Rocket is given a brand new camera by the violent Li'l Zee. For Rocket, the camera is a life changer. It doesn't matter that the camera was bestowed upon him simply because none of Lil Zee's lunkhead bangers knew how it worked. He's been given an identity, something to separate him from the masses. A possible way out of the slums of the city. When Lil Zee "commissions" Rocket to produce a series of photographs of his gang, the pictures mistakenly fall into the hands of the local newspaper. When the pictures of Lil Zee and his gang make the front page, Rocket fears that his life is over. Instead, Lil Zee glories in the publicity and sanctions Rocket to take even more photos of his criminal inner circle. Soon, Rocket has becomes the City of God's chief correspondent.
City of God is filled with a hefty supply of violence, including some pretty cruel things done to children and women. However, the film still manages to leave the viewer mesmerized by, or despite, the chaos and anarchy. Along with the grand performances of Rorigues, Firmino and Haagensen, City of God is filled with memorable characters and performances, such as Seu Jorge as Knockout Ned, who becomes Lil Zee's nemesis for control of the ghetto. Young Douglas Silva, who plays Lil Zee as a boy is spellbinding as well as a little scary. Performances such as his and the others is what makes this film a casting masterpiece. Due to the lack of black actors in Brazil, Directors Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund decided to use untrained youths and kids from the actual City of God. This obviously adds to the sense of realism that is the film's strength. Credit must also go to screenwriter Braulio Mantovani, who paints a vivid and honest picture of a violent, desperate world very few outside the slums, would ever see or know existed. Telling the story through the eyes of a young dreamer, who's day-to-day existence was never a guarantee is a stroke of genius. The story doesn't attempt to pull on the viewer's heartstrings with melodramatic scenes or narration. The audience is simply allows to flow with the story, as one would in real life. The viewer is transformed into an unseen companion to the hero Rocket's actions, vision, and emotions as he navigates us through violent menagerie of the City of God.