MOVIE REVIEW

City of God  (2003)

Starring: Alexandre Rodrigues, Alice Braga, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Matheus Nachtergaele, Seu Jorge
Director: Fernando Meirelles, Katia Lund

Rating: R

Studio: Miramax

Review Posted: 1.27.03

Spoilers: Minor

By Sara M. Fetters

"City of God Bleak, Heartbreaking and Strikingly Potent"

In the 1960’s the Brazilian government erected a township designed to specifically deal with impoverished and homeless citizens. Named Cidade de Deus, or “City of God,” this small community grew over the decades to become one of the most dangerous places in all of Brazil, a Rio de Janiero slum ruled by teenage drug barons and ruthless gang leaders.

Adapting Paulo Lins’ acclaimed novel Cidade de Deus, director Fernando Meirelles and screenwriter Bráulio Mantovarni attempt to track the evolution and birth of this city. Through it all, a world not seen since Hector Babenco’s heartrending 1981 feature Pixote is laid cold and bare. The resulting film City of God (Cidade de Deus) is one of the most powerful and emotionally resonant film’s to come out in a long, long time.

Spanning three decades, the movie follows Rocket (newcomer Alexandre Rodrigues) as he grows up along with the slum in which he lives. As a child he watches as his brother Shaggy (Jonathan Haagensen) and his two friends Clipper (Jefechander Suplino) and Goose (Renato de Souza) become the towns most notorious small time hoods, holding up gas trucks and committing the occasional armed robbery. Also watching them is Lil’ Dice (Douglas Silva), a youngster like Rocket, but he dreams of becoming Cidade de Deus’ biggest crime lord.

Flash forward to the seventies, and that dream has grown into a brutal reality. Now known as Lil’ Zé (Leandro Firmino), the young man rules the slum with his best friend Benny (Phellipe Haagensen) at his side. Discovering more power in the drug trade, the duo has amassed control and wealth the likes they once only dreamed of.

Young Rocket also is growing up, but he discovers that being a hoodlum just isn’t in his soul. In fact, he longs to be a photographer, reasoning that if he can document the goings on in the Cidade de Deus it could lead to his ticket out of the slum and to a better life. Taking a job with a local paper as currier, he quickly makes friends with the resident all-star photographer and starts to see doorways opening before him.

Really, Cidade de Deus is the film’s main character. Living and breathing, watching it grow from a dirt covered and sun drenched conclave in the 60’s to a crowded stone carved city in the 80’s, I could feel the blood dripping as it flowed precipitously down the city’s sad and lonely streets. This is a place where human connection is as fragile as a mosquito’s wing, the threat of violence and death permeating every facet of a citizen’s life.

Even though City of God uses an episodic narrative to tell its tale, it is never less than absorbing. Watching the humanity in the city slowly crumble as poverty and degradation slowly take over, I couldn’t shake the growing lump in my stomach as it hardened into a dry, cold clump. This is a film that uses the interlocking stories of various characters to weave a tale of no less than the birth and eventual banality of evil. The horrors of life in Cidade de Deus become more of an everyday affair as people go about their lives trying not to be hit by a random bullet. It is only the combatants themselves that seem to get depressingly younger as the generations fly by, with pre-teens walking the streets like full-fledged mafia kingpins.

This is not a film for the faint of heart. While it will undoubtedly be compared to other full-throttle crime tales like Amores Perros and Pulp Fiction other than the way it uses interlocking separate stories City of God is unlike either. This is a film about the nature and structure of continuous poverty and violence and the effects it can have on a city. It is Cidade de Deus’ story and Rocket, Lil’ Zé, Benny and the rest are only pieces of that evolution. Some break free, others bury themselves in the cycle, but the city itself just keeps on dying.

Rating: êêêê  (out of 4)

TOP