City of God
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.09 You Save: $5.90 (39%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.61 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of City of God
Movie Review: Cidade de Deus
Summary: 5 Stars
Many movies try to recreate the real world, giving us a "true" story that's supposed to be gripping, gritty, and scary but never completely accomplishing the goal. Other times we get movies that would appear to give us what we were expecting if it weren't for the fact that they've been done over and over again. In 2002, though, Fernando Meirelles gave us a new story that showed us a new world. Focusing on the true story of Rocket as he grows up around the gangs in Cidade de Deus, a neighborhood in Rio de Janiero where gangs of children ran free to rob, loot, and deal drugs, City of God feels more like a documentary than a dramatic theatrical film.
Narrated by Rocket (Alexandre Rodriguez), City of God begins with the story of the Tender Trio. The Tender Trio, a teenage gang that pretty much ran Cidade de Deus in the 60's which also included Rocket's brother Goose, robbed gas trucks at gun point, stealing the money and giving the propane to the people around them. They never made much off the money, so a young hanger on named Li'l Dice gave them the idea to rob the rich in a local hotel. Things don't go quite as planned and everyone in the hotel ends up dead, with the Tender Trio hunted by the police. Fast forward to the 70's and Li'l Dice, now Li'l Ze, is the most respected hood in Cidade de Deus. Having killed all the members of the hotel in the 60's robbery, and Goose, Rocket's brother after that, he got a taste of blood. As Rocket tries to avoid him, Li'l Ze kills off all the drug dealers in Cidade de Deus making way for him to be the only hookup in the slums. But, as he gains control of the slums, he kills the family of one man who is going to try his damnedest to take him down.
City of God is a gangster movie through and through, but while you might see some things that remind you of other gangster movies you never feel that this movie is being derivative. The director does borrow things from, say, Martin Scorsese (e.g.: the talk of how drug dealing works in the slums reminded me of Casino), Meirelles always makes it his own. And while the movie is a gangster movie and does deal with a gangster making his way up the chain and ruling the crime world in a neighborhood, the movie never feels like it's taking the usual route, giving equal time to the rise of the Li'l Ze and to Rocket's venture in becoming a photojournalist and staying out of the crime world.
The film looks absolutely amazing. The cinematography gives everything the feel of being in the sun drenched City in Rio de Janeiro. On top of that, the camera moves gives the film a sense of urgency and a certain freshness that makes everything feel that much more real. The writing reminds me a bit of Quentin Tarantino, it's a bit all over the place, but in a good way. As you meet a character that's important to the story your whisked away into the world of who they were before they entered into the story. It works in much the same way as Tarantino's ADD addled films, but never takes away from the story as it has in other films that have tried to copy the "Tarantino Method" so to speak.
While all of that works to make an amazingly gripping film, there would be nothing without the actors. Typically, in my reviews, I would prefer to point out great performances, but in this movie that's nigh impossible. From the Runts (young groups of children who loot and rob people and businesses in the slums) to the main characters, everyone works as a team player. The point is that they're performances are so genuine, so unique, that everyone feels like the live and breathe in this world. When watching this movie you feel like you are visiting Cidade de Deus, and that's what you really want from this type of movie.
In this movie I can see no bad, but there are things that you should know before you watch the movie. The majority of the violence is dealing with children and teens, which makes the violence more frightening and disturbing. Meirelles doesn't shy away from anything, even murdering a six to eight year old child. One of the great things about the way the violence is handled though, is that you never want the violence to happen, you always feel disturbed by the violence that does happen and prefer to stay away from it as the movie goes on (the way it really should be in movies). The movie is in Portuguese so you will have to read subtitles, but I have to say, if you choose to do so, you'll be rewarded by the story you receive. I highly recommend this movie to anyone, and everyone!
Movie Review: A descent into the living hell of Rio's "Cidade de Deus"
Summary: 5 Stars
"Cidade de Deus" ("City of God") is one of the most violent movies I have ever seen, much of it perpetrated by and directed against children, but the onslaught is justified because this is what life is like in the slums of Rio De Janeiro. There are over 600 slum neighborhoods in the city housing 1.2 million of Rio's 5.8 million inhabitants. Cidade de Deus was apparently a misguided attempt at solving the problem of having so many poor in a city that thrives on tourist dollars: build a project area for the poor to keep them away from the city center. However, the result is more like John Carpenter's dystopian nightmare "Escape from New York," except that this is the real world and real life hell hole.Based on the novel by Paulo Lins and directed by Fernando Merirelles, "Cidade de Deus" parallels the life of its narrator, Buscapé (Rocket), with the evolution of the gangs that roam through the slum and the rise of the sociopathic gang leader Li'l Zé (Leanadro Frimino da Hora), who was the king of the drug lords in Cidade de Deus during the 1970s. It takes a while to discover that the story is as much about Li'l Zé as it is about Buscapé and that these are two different paths being followed by kids born into essentially the same circumstances.
You would think that Buscapé (Alexandre Rodrigues) would end up being a criminal because his brother is one (although not a very good one), but even though he is young Buscapé cannot help but see the hopelessness of that sort of life. But similar forces turn Li'l Zé un a ruthless killer who consolidates his power and actually makes the slum safer because he has taken over almost all of the rival gangs. The police show up from time to time but as the story progresses we get to the point where they are out gunned by gangs. Of course the point comes where Li'l Zé has to move on the last of the gang lords who opposed him, Carrot (Matheus Nachtergaele) and Knockout Ned (Deu Jorge).
The character of Buscapé is in an interesting position, which is established literally in the opening sequence of the film, before we go back to the beginning to find out why chasing a chicken could get you killed in a crossfire. Buscapé is close enough to the world of Li'l Zé to be able to witness the rise and fall of the gang leader but is not swept up in the cycle of violence. Ultimately his position as a witness is legitimated, both in Cidade de Deus and Rio de Janeiro, by the gift of a stolen camera.
As much as the film entwines the narratives of the power plays of a drug lord with the efforts of a young man to get out of hell alive, "Cidade de Deus" is ultimately an indictment of a city that literally turned its back on its poor and left them to create a world of violence. The city powers are content because the gangs stay in the slum, robbing the poor because as long as they leave the middle class, the rich, and the tourists alone, they are happy with the bargain. Meanwhile generations of children are growing up looking forward to the day they can get their first gun and go kill somebody they do not like. This film could not possibly have a more horrific ending in terms of representing the chilling cycle of violence that will perpetuate itself into infinity.
By a random twist of fate I happened to watch "City of God" the same week that I got around to finally seeing "Amores Perros," so I am particularly stuck by these two films, one in Portugese from Brazil and the other in Spanish from Mexico, that both use violence to such different ends from what we have been getting from Hollywood. This is not the stylized cartoon violence of "Kill Bill" and "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" or the computer generated carnage of "The Return of the King" and "Troy," but something more visceral and much more powerful. Merirelles brings an artistic flair to the depictions of violence without lessening the impact or the importance of the lesson. I like how the Havana Film Festival cited Meirelles in awarding him their FIPRESCI Prize cited him: "For approaching the explosive theme of social exclusion, using an ambitious, complex and involving style of narration, without moralizing or condoning violence." Hopefully this film will have more of an impact than convincing thousands of tourists not to ever visit Rio.
Movie Review: Brutal Crime Drama
Summary: 5 Stars
This is just one of the many reasons to purchase and watch foreign language films on a regular basis. The epic crime saga that is City Of God is a film that should never be over-looked, if you enjoy the crime genre, then this is an absolute gold mine for the cravings you seek. It has everything from drama to tragedy and is shot in an aweseome grainy energetic style. This is Fernando Meirelles' City Of God, his masterpiece, and it should be a masterpiece on your shelf right now.
City Of God is based on true events and is set in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, the film is actually named, in portuguese, Cidade de Deus, which is actually sort of a neighberhood in the favelas. This is actually an adaptation of a book of the same name by Paulo Lins. This film is sort of an autobiography of the photographer Wilson Rodrigues, this shows his life in the slums and the huge war that was happening in Rio. The film's central character is rocket and is narrated by him, but there are a few other characters that are considered supporting roles, but you can't really say who the main and leading character is in this film. For instance there's Little Ze, who is the brutal crime lord, Benny, Lil' Ze's right hand man and considered the coolest hood, Knockout Ned, one of the innocents who is swept up in the crime wave etc.
The film is set in two decades, the 60's and the 70's. Rocket is the narrator of the film. The film starts off with a chicken that is on the loose(it escaped from getting butchered), and Little Ze and his hoodlems chasing it down, while they're chasing the doomed chicken, rocket and his friend are talking about what lil' ze will do if he catches rocket, and that he'll kill him. The chicken then appears ahead of them in the middle of the road, lil' ze and a couple of his teenage gangsters appear out on the road in pursuit of the chicken, rocket's blood freazes, realising that lil' ze is right in front of him and this could be his fate. Instead, lil' ze doesn't recognise him and shouts at him to catch the chicken, rocket attempts to pick it up carefully hoping that lil' ze doesn't recognise him. All of a sudden, cops(reffered to as "mellonheads" here) appear in a truck and come out with guns, lil ze and his fellow gangsters draw their weapons and both sides are looking at a shoot-out, rocket is caught in the middle of this, and then starts his story about City Of God by going back to the 60's where he tells the stories of lil' ze's rise to being a crook and the other local gang's fall from power.
This film is bassicly the brazillian version of Pulp Fiction and is quite possibly even better! There are seperate stories that are in this film, sort of like Pulp Fiction with The Bonnie Situation etc. This picture has wonderful chemistry between the actors and their characters, you actually feal symphathetic for their destinies and their choices. The direction is superb, Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund did a great job getting the best out of their actors. Katia Lund actually auditioned street kids and took them through acting lessons, some of the actors are real street kids from the slums in Rio. Despite Meirelles being nominated for best director at the oscars, Katia wasn't nominated in an agreement with Meirelles. The cinematography is just one of my favourites here, it's energetic shaky camera work gives the film a fresh feel and dirtiness to it, giving you the emotions and actions of the characters. The music is stunning, the brazilian music gives the film a feel of authenticity. The film's editing is also one of the many standouts, the film is put together beautifly and also got nominated for editing at the oscars, as well as cinematography and writing. Although it didn't get nominated for best foreign language film that year, it was nominated the following year, and surprisingly didn't win.
This film is a definate reccomendation to the world cinema crowd, or even the people who have the slightest interest in the foreign language scene, not a film for everybody though but a definate try for somebody who's looking for a truly extatic cinematic experiance, this is one of the directors' of the South American New Wave. Purchase this triumphant piece today.
It's actually sad that they didn't put more effort into the extra features, the only thing they have is a documentary about the stuff that is happening in the slums today. Film: 5/5 Extras: 2.5/5
Movie Review: The perpetual cycle of violence
Summary: 5 Stars
Rio de Janiero's notorious slums can scarecely have been documented in such a graphic, gruesome, close up manner as this. Directors Fernando Meirelles and Katrina Lund took on a phenomenally ambitious project in filming several intertwined stories of the favelas over a three decade timespan. The opening shots are of a chicken, running and squawking dementedly down alleyways and across streets in a desperate attempt to avoid capture and death. Thus we are introduced sharply into the dust, colour, head, sweat and amoral violence of the favela gang world. In a sense the plight of the chicken is a metaphor for the kids in the slums - escape, kill, or be killed.
City of God makes for tough viewing but such an approach is necessary to portray the culture of the favelas in a realistic and unsentimental fashion. The action is non linear and relentless - it flashes by and flashes back frequently in order to explain the build up to certain events. At times it is confusing but persevere, it is worth it.
The stories are poignant ones. In the 1960s, we are introduced to Rocket, a sensitive kid and his contemporary Lil Dice. Lil Dice later becomes Lil Z - notorious drug dealer and gang lord. He gratuitously rapes the girlfriend of Knockout Ned who, hell bent on revenge, sides with Lil Z's principal opponent - Carrot. By the 1980s, the two gangs are tearing the city apart.
Get the picture? That fragment of the plot is typical of the themes explored in City of God. This is no Hollywood piece of polished, shiny cinema. The majority of the actors used were non professional and real favela children feature widely in the movie to create an ultra-realistic picture of the slums. And a sadistic picture it is. One of the more horrifying moments of the film is the scene where two whimpering favela kids are taunted with verbal humiliation and live bullets, then one of them is subsequently casually and dispassionately murdered by a member of Lil Z's gang. In another scene Lil Z briskly shoots his second in command for talking too much.
Where do the police feature in all of this? - they are outgunned too, unable to stop the carnage. Life in the slums is Hobbesian indeed - very nasty, very brutish and generally, very short.
But City of God is not merely an excercise in portraying sadistic gang murder in close up. In such inauspicious surroundings, hope does flourish in the character of Rocket. His sensitive personna leads him to discover photography and, beginning with a cheap camera, he starts by becoming the gang's official photographer. Ultimately, his talent flourishes as his pictures of gang killings feature on the front page of the daily newspapers. He loses his virginity too to a hot photographic assistant. The sensitive guy comes good in the end, so it's not a total whitewash victory for the those with hard ammunition and low morals.
But the ultimate and lingering message of City of God is bleak indeed. We sense that we are looking through a window into a certain period of time at a certain group of favela youths. There is no sign that the violence terminates neatly at the end of the movie, nor tommorrow, nor next week, nor next month, nor ever. The impoverished on the fringes of society living in squalid slums in Rio carry on as they do, trapped in a perpetual cycle of dog eat dog brutality.
One favela kid sums up the plight of them all - 'what do you mean, I'm a kid, I kill, I rob, I'm a man!'. No place for adults in the City of God. Most of them don't live that long.
Movie Review: jaw-dropping in its impact, wonderful depth and richness
Summary: 5 Stars
The director knows his source material well and it shows, and knowing many of the cast are local talent rather than professional actors is even more impressive. For most viewers, the Brazilian slums of Rio de Janeiro are as alien as could possibly be, yet the film effortlessly makes you feel you grew up there yourself and perfectly belong.
The story line spans several decades, beginning in the 1950s. The primary protagonist, and moral anchor of the story is a character nicknamed Rocket. The movie shows how the "City of God" teaches early lessons about the rigors of scratching out a hardscrabble existence in the slums, where petty acts of hooliganism by older teens become triumphs to be emulated by younger boys. One sees youths making frightfully early decisions on whether to take the "hard" path of education and an honest life, or the "easy" path of being a criminal "hood." Rocket's early boyhood is spent admiring what he sees as the heroics of his older brother Goose and his friends (the "tender trio") as they engage in petty crime such as hijacking a propane truck and stealing its cargo. Caught by his father, Goose is punished by his father and begs Rocket to not follow in his footsteps as a "hood," but Rocket continues to idealize his brother and his gang. Unfortunately, Goose has another admirer, Little Dice (later, Little Ze), who even from a young age (8 or 9) yearns to be the top hood in City of God. Little Dice, along with his cohort Bene, is soon masterminding criminal acts himself, and soon surpasses his teacher. During a robbery of a hotel, Little Ze murders the guests and sets up Goose and his Tender Trio cohorts to take the fall. The actor who played the younger Little Ze does an incredible job here, and to see the glee of Little Ze as he methodically murders the guests is scary indeed. With the Tender Trio now disposed of, the path for Little Ze is clear.
Flash forward about 10 years. Rocket is now a young man, still unsure about himself and his place in the world. The City of God has devolved into rival gang/drug selling territories. While Bene has matured into a somewhat kind and reasonable man (although still a criminal gang leader), Little Dice has gone completely into the heart of darkness. Indeed, he visits a voodoo doctor to help in his efforts to become top hood, and is given a talisman and a new name (Little Ze). After some additional gang warfare, Little Ze and Bene wind up dividing the spoils with Carrot, a rival drug lord. This brings a rough equilibrium and peace of a sort to the City of God, and the characters pursue their dreams - love for Rocket, power for Little Ze, etc. The peace is soon shattered as the gangs mess with the wrong man, the moral "Knockout Ned." Little Ze becomes jealous of Ned, his good looks, and his girlfriend. A mugging and rape ensue, and Ned joins forces with Carrot's gang to declare war on Little Ze.
The resulting gang war takes up the remainder of the film. Ironically, the war proves Rocket's salvation as his gifts for photography allow him to capture images of the gang war, and get a photojournalist job with a newspaper. For others though, the war brings only misery - the fight corrupts Ned (who is blinded by his rage) and takes the life of the kind and gentle Bene. It finally degenerates to the point where Little Ze and Carrot are drafting young children to fight. Eventually those children prove Little Ze's undoing, as he was the undoing for the Tender Trio earlier.