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City of God (Cidade de Deus)(2002)
The film City of God is about the slum city of the same name located outside of Rio de Janeiro. It begins with what looks like an unfortunate incident, then backs up a decade or so and starts the story from the very beginning. What the film shows from this is that life tends to operate in cycles and that all manner of strife and anguish can amount to virtually no impact on those cycles. A depressing notion certainly, but one that for that area is all too true.
The story is told by a young man known as Rocket, although it is only somewhat about im. He is an individual who hovers close to the action but never takes part in it in a meaningful way. He starts by telling us of his youth, when a group of young men known as the Tender Trio are terrorizing local businesses. They, like all teenagers, feel completely indestructible, except in the City of God, there isn't enough of a police presence to deter them. Rocket is the younger brother of Goose, one of the Trio. Another of the Trio, Shaggy, has a younger brother called L'il Dice, who gives them a great plan for their biggest heist yet. They rob a hotel and make off with all the guests' money. Unfortunately a great number of people end up dead and the police now come out in force looking for them. This fractures the group and ends their reign of terror but more importantly, it sets the stage for a new generation of criminals to take their place.
`The move has one large story to tell but it prefers to parcel it out in smaller stories about certain characters. Early on it isn't necessarily obvious how these all combine but rest assured it does all come together eventually. It's an intricately plotted film where every action has a repercussion, even if it takes years to happen. The nature of this style is that it lets us trace the spawning of big events from fairly small ones. What it says is that there really aren't any small events, they just exist as building blocks of the larger ones.
If that last paragraph seemed a bit vague, that was intentional. The plot is such that I'd rather ot say much specifically about it. The pleasure fo the film is watching these events build on one another and trying to guess, often incorrectly, where they will lead.
The movie makes not attempt to pass judgement on any of its characters, regardless of how awful or good they may be. That impersonal approach is important in letting the greater story develop. Taking sides would remove its ability to give us the broad view. In taking individuals to task for their actions it would cloud the overall story, tilting it towards one character or another. The filmmakers want us to walk away with a broad understanding of this slum. The City of God is a miserable place, one where people will do just about anything to survive. This means it has its own ethics that have only a passing relation to what we might consider normal. In this approach it is similar to Steven Soderbergh's Traffic, which sought to show us the entirety of the drug problem without telling us what to think. Both films know that the truth is to be found only by looking at the entire landscape, rather than focusing on smaller elements.
It's interesting to note that the are pretty much only identified by their nicknames. Rocket is really the only character ever mentioned by his full real name and even then only at the very end. Everyone seems to be known for some element of their personality or some function they performed. This is a world populated by people known as Steak and Fries, L'il Zé, Knockout Ned, Tuba and Carrot. It's as if the City of God has sunk so far below the standards of civilization that its residents don't even rate real names.
The look of the film is wonderful and changes from scene to scene to indicate area or situation. Scenes in a shanty town region of the city are shot in high contrast with vivid oranges tones, as if the sun had blasted away everything else. Scenes in a nightclub have a frenetic pace and harsh strobing lighting that leaves the audience disoriented. The camera work is highly stylized but not without purpose. It always seeks to help the story along or set the mood.
As I mentioned earlier, the film doesn't pass judgement on its characters, regardless of their personal atrocities. That doesn't mean it can't disturb the viewer. It is a highly violent film and that violence knows no boundaries. Age, race and gender have no bearing on death in the city. Often the scariest characters are children. We can see each generation of criminals passing the torch (rather unwillingly) to the next generation, who seem determined to out do their predecessors. The City of God is crying out for something or someone to break the ever worsening cycle of violence that it is trapped in. Parents seem to be largely absent from the equation, presumably working so much of the day to provide for their families that they are never present to actually be with and watch over their children. Rocket would seem to prove that theory, being the most decent of the characters and teh only one seen being guided or attended to by a parent.
The movie is based on real events and it certainly seems to have captured the look perfectly. During the credits it runs a television interview with the real life counterpoint of one character. The interview also appears in the main film and they look virtually identical. Adding to the look are the actors, who for the most part are made up of actual residents of the City of God. Most of them had never acted before. Despite what some critics might say, this is not a film glorifying violence or gangs. It is a story of how a city built specifically to house the ultr-poor can cause civilized behavior to become extinct and be replaced by a frighteningly Darwinian power structure. I recommend seeing it promptly. You'll probably come to regret ignoring that advice.
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