Violence is here to stay. Review on City of God Movie

Fight and you'll never survive. Run and you'll never escapeTo be born in a place that defies life itself is a curse but to live through it and get out of that place needs courage…… Well, I will use a little correction there…… not just courage, but luck too. City Of God(Cidade de Deus) is based on a true story about the life infused with gangwar and drugs in Cidade de Deus - a small town in the west of Rio de Janeiro.

The End:

The very start of the movie which has a backdrop of a local party of hoodlums has a hen slipping out from the butcher’s grip trying to make it’s way to freedom but is being chased by a group of people who are hungry for it’s flesh.

Metaphorically, this scene almost sums up the whole story of the movie. The narrator - Rocket has been born and brought up in company of hoodlums, his own brother being one. Though, he has witnessed violence all through his life, he finds his passion in photography and is trying to break out of the ugly realms of the infamous slums. Only to be feared to death for his photographs of the local don Li’l Ze being published in the newspapers.

There is a point when the narrator and the runaway hen come face to face and the narrator is asked by Li’l Ze to get hold of it. Would the hen survive? Would Rocket be able to save his skin from the life of crime and getaway with it?

Though the movie is not about the hen surviving the hungry blade of the butcher, it’s about Rocket trying to survive to lead a normal life escaping the violence of the slums. But by the climax, we gather, it happens to be one and the same thing.

The Beginning:

Told in a non-linear fashion, City of God starts near the end of the tale and progresses towards the beginning of the end. Many a times, the same events are shown from the perspective of another character.

Though the characters in City of God sound dangerous, it may feel a bit weird to think that none of them are above 25 years of age. The reason being, no one here stays alive beyond that age. Some of them are not even in their teens when they are getting shot.

The tale spans two decades – 1960s & 1970s. The 1960s sees the evolution of gangs of City of God, while the 1970s live with them till their end, when a new gang has already taken birth to replace the old.

The Technical Aspects:

What strikes you at first sight about City of God is it’s camera work and cinematography. A gangster film and a colorful film cannot be the same film. However City of God begs to differ.

The scene where Rocket finds himself standing exactly between the gangs and the cops pointing guns at each other, A voiceover starts narrating how it all started, the camera whirls 360° around him till everything in the background changes from cold bright slums to a dusty football ground drenched in sun. Cinematographer Cesar Charlone and director Fernando Meirelles make a stylishly colorful movie out of a true story which otherwise would have been cut down to just another gangster movie in less innovative hands.

Another strength of the movie is it’s script. Very rarely does a film have such a strong script. The film is loaded with so many characters that it's pretty easy for a couple of them to get lost in the crowd, but still every single character etches it’s own important place in the movie.

Moreover the narration is penned as if a person is orally telling a story. Picture this. The narrator has started telling his tale and suddenly he remembers he left something back so he corrects himself and starts from what he forgot initially. This makes for an interesting screenplay. And what adds to this wordplay is the use of storytelling in chapters, thus giving each character a lot of scope to grow in minds of the viewers.

Many of the actors in the film are not professional actors but residents of the slums of Rio itself.

The movie is adapted from a book of the same name by Paulo Lins, who grew up in City of God and did somehow escaped it’s violent strokes.

City Of God has stuff classics are made of.

Some Quotes:

Rocket: In the City of God, if you run you're dead. .if you stay, you're dead again.

Rocket: You need more than guts to be a good gangster, you need ideas.

Li’l Ze: Can you read?

Gang Member: I can read only the pictures.

Li’l Ze: Where do you want to take the shot? In the hand or in the foot?

Carrot: Have you lost your mind? You are just a child!

Steak and Fries: Listen man, I smoke, I snort. I've been begging on the street since I was just a baby. I've cleaned windshields at stop lights. I've polished shoes, I've robbed, I've killed. I ain't no kid, no way. I'm a real man.