City of violence

Rating: 8/10 (29 July 2003)

Perhaps expected too much before entering the cinema. Did not turn out as well as I thought it would.
The story is told through the mouth of Rocket, a future photographer who grew up with the hoods in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. The narrative style is excellent, the best thing about the film. It throws several stories at the audience one at a time, all linked chronologically and eventually leading back to the opening scene of the show. It's pretty clever and well executed. The acting's top notch too, the hoods feels extremely real, right down to the little 'runt' who cried so painfully when he was shot in the foot.
Without doubt, violence is the integral theme in this film. It shocks initially, but numbs you into submission as the film moves along. A friend commented that the only reason why the City of God is named as such is because the people living there get to see God very quickly. It seems inevitable for the boys to succumb to the world of drugs and crime. Admist all these violence it is really a miracle for the narrator to be able to live and tell his story and not get hit by a stray bullet in the frequent gang shootouts. Perhaps this is the fairytale aspect of the movie. The only person who escapes death is the one who has managed not to subscribe to the seemingly unavoidable world of crime.
The film should have left a deeper impression in me, but yet it doesn't. I don't know why, but somehow my emotions are not stirred. Are we living in such comfort and are so remote from real violence that there is nothing for us to associate with?