City Of God DVD > Reviews > SHOCKING, VIOLENT, AND UTTERLY COMPELLING

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Unmemorable
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Gritty, realistic, eye - opening film .
Disadvantages:	Extremely violent, subtitles may put some people off .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

City of God (Ciodade de Deus) is a Brazilian film with English subtitles. As with any subtitled film, watching is not a relaxing experience, as you need to be alert and you need to pay attention 100% of the time. This may put some people off, but watching this film, by its very nature, was never going to be a relaxing experience.

The story begins in the 1960s. Set in Brazil’s “City of God” – the most notorious slum in the world, our narrator is Rocket, one of the local children. Crime, terror and violence are an every day occurrence in the City of God, and even at an early age, the children are used to the sight of hold-ups and shootings. Rocket, however, is not drawn to a life of crime, and instead dreams of becoming a photographer. His older brother is part of a gang of ‘hoods’ (hoodlums): the Tender Trio, three local teenage boys who are some of the most violent, feared and notorious criminals in the area. The younger brother of one of the trio, Li’l Dice, tags along with the gang, and, at the age of no more than 10, proves himself to be a dangerous criminal in the making when he plays a vital role in a bloody hold up at a local hotel. This hold up is to be the undoing of the Tender Trio, but Li’l Dice himself goes on to bigger things.

The story picks up again in the 1970s. Trendy clothes and dance parties have hit the City, Rocket has got his first camera, and is the ‘official photographer’ for a group of friends, including the beautiful, alluring Angelica, on whom Rocket has set his sights. Li’l Dice has reinvented himself as Li’l Ze. He now makes a living as a drug dealer, and, with the help of his childhood friend and sidekick Benny, has become a self-styled leader in the neighbourhood, killing all his rivals, and hence ensuring – through a reign of terror – that fewer hold-ups and shootings are actually taking place. Almost all of the slum’s young residents are now embroiled in the world of drugs, their career path beginning as young children when they become lookouts and delivery boys for the gangs.

Then, however, after his girlfriend’s brutal rape, a formerly peaceful bus conductor, Knockout Ned, vows to take his revenge on Li’l Ze, resulting in all out gang warfare in the slums. Children as young as 8 are rampaging around the area with guns and think nothing of shooting someone dead, simply because they are a member of a rival gang. The area has become so dangerous that even the police fear to go there – and those that do are so corrupt themselves that they have little influence in enforcing the law. Rocket, meanwhile, has managed to take a step away from the crime ridden streets of the slums, and has secured a job delivering newspapers. He spends the rest of his day in the photo lab at the paper, and when he is befriended by one of the paper’s photographers, seems to be on the brink of fulfilling his ambition. But will the violence, bubbling out of control back in the slums, put paid to Rocket’s career?

This film is not for the faint hearted. If you are upset by extreme, graphic violence and bloodshed, then it is not for you. However, none of the violence is gratuitous, and I felt that all of it was integral to the plot and very realistic, without unnecessary blood and gore being added in to the mix. There are shocking images of children with guns, and one particularly disturbing scene where a young boy is forced to prove himself by shooting an even younger child.

Despite this being one of the most violent and disturbing films I have seen, I did enjoy it. The story was gripping and realistic, and the fact that it is based upon a true story makes it even more compelling viewing. It features a number of young child actors, all of whom deliver exceptional performances, and the direction and settings give us an excellent feel for the hopeless slums of Brazil. I understand that many of the film’s stars were not professional actors, making their performances even more impressive. The DVD features interviews with real life hoods in Rio’s slums (or ‘favela’) and this made even more shocking viewing.

Although the subtitles do make the film harder to follow than an English language film, I found that I was so drawn into the film that I hardly noticed that I was having to read the subtitles, it just came naturally. The film is broken down into small sections, each one introduced by a title that tells us when it is set, or whose story we are now following. Sometimes, parts of the action that we have already seen are repeated, allowing us to see them from another character’s perspective. This makes the story fairly easy to follow. Rocket’s narration, also subtitled, helps us to put parts of the story into context and understand what is going on.

The film contains no famous names, is not glamorous, contains no romance and no special effects. But it is gritty and hard-hitting, and made a huge impression on me. It is not palatable viewing, but if you can stomach the violence then I would definitely recommend it. I am giving it four stars, because although it is an excellent film, the extreme violence and the subtitles may make it less appealing to some viewers.

The DVD is available on Amazon priced at £16.19. It is worth shopping around, however, is it can currently be found much cheaper than this in high street DVD sales.