FauxNixon

City of God (2002) (Cidade de Deus) is already quite a critically acclaimed film, but I had just recently finally seen the last five minutes and so felt it appropriate to weigh in both because I like to personally keep track of movies I see, it may help readers determine how much my tastes may match theirs, and as fun as it may be to think I may at some point actually have a following or something as a movie reviewer, I really just like doing it.

Thus: the movie is in Portuguese as it set in a slum in Brazil called The City of God, logically enough. It is important to note that most of the movie is very specifically based upon true events which happened during the ultra-violent drug wars between gangs and the police in urban Brazil during the 1970s.

We follow the story from the perspective of the narrator (Alexandre Rodrigues), a child who grows up in the slums in the family of a fish seller named Rocket who seeks to leave the slums.  His dream is to become a photographer. With this aim, Rocket begins his journey alongside the many characters who would later become integral to the story of this massive criminal war.

In the early stages of the conflict, various youth gangs roam the slums committing crimes, banding together, protecting each other, providing some degree of perverse order in the societies, and trying to survive.   Two of the youngest children working at this are those who will become the other major characters in the movie: Lil Ze (Leandro Firmino) a child sociopath who cares only about himself and his reputation, and his best friend Benny (Phellipe Haagensen) who is much more level-headed and wants to be loyal to Ze and live the best life he possibly can at the same time.

The characters grow up in the slums and Ze begins even at an early age to assert himself as a dominant criminal in the area so that that when a decade later the characters become adults, Ze is in a position to take control and dominance of the slum from the ruling gangs.  He does this by vicious criminal acts of violence and is successful in routing out his competitors and beginning work a drug trafficker and dealer in the area, profiting greatly from the business, growing more and more powerful, and using his influence to ensure that the only crimes which occur in the slums are those sanctioned by his gang.

Rocket has an interest in photography, which is known to Benny, and and on the day when Benny is assassinated, he makes it clear to Ze that the camera is a gift for Rocket.  Ze honors this request, but asks Rocket to photograph him and and his men to get their photographs into the newspapers to show their power and increase their notoriety.  This is the beginning of Lil Ze’s war against the rival gang he holds responsible for the death of Benny.

After the photos reach the newspaper Rocket is given money for his work and promised more if he can continue to cover the life of Ze during this great criminal war.  Ze does so and in taking on this responsibility witnesses the massive corruption at all levels of Brazilian society which allow these grievous crimes to occur and simultaneously free himself from his bondage to the slums emerging from the grisly criminal war without a scratch and with enough of a portfolio to begin life as a professional photojournalist.

Director Fernando Meirelles specifically cast non-name actors for his films, set them in the still dangerous slums, took life-threatening risks, and even cast present-day Brazilian criminal gangs as extras, all to give the film the appeal, look, feel, and gritty quality that ensures that it is telling this gripping story in the most realistic fashion.  He fastidiously duplicates television news footage and sticks as strictly to the book upon which the movie is based as he possibly can.

The result of all of this effort is a gripping look at the intensely violent struggle of the truly poor and oppressed in Brazilian society and the day-to-day horrors they must endure to simply live their lives.  Meirelles, in telling this story, does a service to his country and to the world, by bringing this often unknown, or at-best barely-known, problem to the attention of the world and bringing viewers face to face with a gripping tale that is so engrossing one almost feels the filth of the slums on their skin when the movie is finished.