Review for City of God

Rating: 10/10 (17 October 2016)

The Following Review may contain spoilers for City of God
I saw on IMDb before I watched it, that City of God was number 41 on the all time greatest movies ever made list, but after watching it for a class assignment I can honestly say that it definitely deserves to be number 41, if not higher.
Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund do a great job at capturing the lives of the people who live in the City of God, a dangerous neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. None of the film is in English, but that did not stop me from being on the edge of my seat and enjoying the cinematography and acting that took place.
City of God mainly focuses on two characters; those being Rocket, and Li'l Dice (A.k.a. Li'l Ze) growing up in the dangerous neighborhood, infested by gang violence, drugs, and poverty. Both of these main characters are driving for different outcomes in their lives; Rocket wants to get out of the town as soon as he possibly can, while Li'l Dice gets caught up in the wrong crowd and wants to own the city by leading the drug business.
The actors in this film are not very popular actors that we know, but they bring such a great impact to the film, how some have an unfathomable lust to kill and rule, and others just want to live by the "rules" of the City of God.
The uses of different camera angles help give different feelings to the audience. During violent scenes it has the hand-held angles to make it seem very dangerous, realistic, and unsuspecting, while the use of structured shots help give it a documentary feel to inform the audience that this is what is going on in the small neighborhood of Brazil.
City of God was a fantastic watch that truly shows how some parts of the world have to live in this demeanor. The plot, action, drama, and structure of the film are such a great combination to explain the struggle of living in the City of God.