(CIDADE DE DEUS)
Back
Rio de Janeiro is the vacationing spot for countless people. I hear it has beautiful beaches, and even better sunsets. But what has become known as the City of God has another side to it...aside from its resorts and its rich beauty. The drug gangs that rule the streets and handle their own smuggling businesses, kill without remorse and think it more funny than brutal. “City of God” is a look into that life: the life of the hoods and gang members that held a city by its neck and forced it to become what they wanted it to be.
In 1990, Martin Scorsese’s “GoodFellas” opened with a voice-over of Ray Liotta telling how much he’d always wanted to be a gangster. “City of God” is much like Scorsese’s, but different by the fact that these kids didn’t have a choice of being gangsters or not. They were taught as children to hate certain things with passion...and they did.
Completely spoken in Portuguese with English subtitles, the film follows Rocket, a teenager growing up in Rio in the 70s. We find that Rocket doesn’t want to be one of the hoodlums that roam the town, but instead a photographer. He’s one of the few people his age that actually wants to make something positive of himself. What comes across in the film is that most of the teens are just as motivated to make a name for themselves, it’s just that most of them are nowhere near positive.
Of the gang leaders in town, Li’l Ze (who, in a disturbing flashback of his childhood, we find is a good friend of death) is the worst. Knowing what he wants, and taking it without mercy he becomes the most challenged and feared leader in Rio. There’s also Carrot, the leader of a separated gang who is only spared because he and Li’l Ze have a mutual friend named Benny.
And this is sort of how the entire film works: one person is killed, one gets revenge. One person is spared; a debt has to be paid. It’s what the mafia would be in Brazil if the murderers got paid for the killings. Even though there isn’t a boss that heads a family, these people, these teens - kids really - get what they want using brute force. When they run out of ammo or guns, they rob a gun store. When the food is gone, they rob a grocery store. It’s like a never-ending conundrum that kills as it rotates. What is generated on screen from this movie is one of the most devastating and heart-breaking films I’ve ever seen.
Believe it or not, the film is based on true happenings (we see real news footage at the end of the film). I found that director Fernando Meirelles (remember this name) told this story just as if it had happened, and by the end, we don’t need anyone to tell us it really happened because it feels like that already. And what an achievement by Meirelles, making his feature film debut. He too was a commercial director before this. I can’t explain the filmmaking here on a whim. It’s angrily energetic, but never rushed; furious and raging, but never unbalanced. There is an urgent style to it that cannot be told in words, but must be seen to understand. Meirelles explained that his rushed experiences on commercials got him ready for this film. For the first time ever, I’m thankful for commercials.
Always churning, moving, and telling a story, “City of God” is marking the dawn of a born filmmaker. He tells that tale with such terrifying force that it chilled me to the bone watching it. I can’t wait until Meirelles makes anther film. I just hope he finds some place to go from here other than down. ****