Review I wrote for Comparative Civilizations 12

Rating: 10/10 (4 November 2006)

"City of God" left me feeling stunned, naïve and slightly guilty about my lack of knowledge concerning situations like the slum gangs of Rio de Janeiro. The characters seemed to exist with a sense of careless brutality. They were a generation of children, adolescent boys, and young men so used to the violence around them that they had become desensitized. I was expecting to feel extremely emotional by the end, simply because of the amount of graphic violence the film contained and the final death toll, but instead I was left with a surprising sense of detachment. To me though, the gang mentality seemed exactly that: detached, emotionally disconnected from reality and trapped in a vicious cycle of urban violence. It was particularly disturbing to see, for example, a group of boys perhaps nine to twelve-years old, walking calmly about the streets with guns in their hands and discussing the next person they would have to kill to better their lives. This film also highlighted widespread corruption within the Brazilian police force, showing cops eagerly taking bribes from gang members instead of making arrests. The movie managed to successfully inform me of a raw hostility found in many of these favelas or slum cities, but the characters did seem to be a bit romanticized for emotional impact. Visually, "City of God" was very realistic and compelling, the filming executed in such a way that the viewer would have to fight not to be pulled into the horrifying action. Although the rapidly advancing plot and large number of actors involved made this movie somewhat hard to follow at times, the general effect was very captivating and thought-provoking, and the ending seemed to come much too soon.