City of God is obsessed with the relationship between individual and city. It looks at the evolution of crime, how small holdups can escalate into a full-on bloody war. In part, what this movie did so well was entrench the viewer into the world. We know that the city is much bigger than the one that we are seeing, and we also know that the story is much more complex than the small look that we get into it. This is achieved in a few ways.
For one thing, The film was shot on Super 16mm film, as opposed to the widely used CinemaFilm Standard 35mm. The narrower film format delivers a grittier and slightly less polished image, evoking a documentary look and feel. feel like we are in the slums with the characters, but it goes well beyond the technical. As characters are raised on the violent streets, they become violent, eventually going out and causing the same violence that they grew up on. It's a cyclical pattern.
Everything in this movie is interconnected. We are dropped right into the middle of a much bigger pre-existing story. You can trace back every action we see to Goose telling Lil' Dice, Pronto.
It's impossible to isolate any one aspect of this movie. Everything works together like a well-polished machine. It takes away all hope. There is no way for the city to clean itself up or for anyone to succeed in the city.
Even directly after the war, the pattern continues. and a new, younger, and more violent group takes over. The city is never going to fix itself, so in order to survive, the characters are given two choices.
Two individuals. either leave the city or accept it. In the film, we see three people try and leave the city to get away from their life of crime. Goose, who tries to flee with the police on his tail. Shaggy, who wants to start a new life with his girlfriend.
And Benny, who also wants to start a new life. Goose! Needless to say, the movie makes it pretty clear that you can't just decide to leave the city of God.
Instead, you need to accept this way of life to either become a part of the crime syndicate or live with it knowing your life is always in danger. The most common way in which we see people survive in the city of God is through changing their identity. We see this a lot early in the film with the Tender Trio.
These are rough and tough hoodlums who upon realizing the danger of what they are doing, try to go clean to live a normal life. and to stop being hoodlums, but... This attempt at trying to change who you really are is also found within Benny. Throughout the movie, we learn that he is a good person. He is nice to just about everyone he sticks up for and defends Carrot, and ultimately is the one string that manages to keep the peace under Lil Z's reign.
He is interested in selling drugs only as a way to survive and eventually to thrive. Despite his occupation, he stays true to what he... really is.
He gets new clothes, he falls in love, and ultimately makes a decision to leave this life of crime behind. However, it isn't just characters who try and change their outer perception, it's also something that the film does. In the first act of the film, the slums are bathed in a golden light, romanticizing the rugged and primalistic lifestyle.
This is shot in a subjective view to match Rockets perceptions of the slums. slums at a young age, as something better than it really is. This is all that he knows, he hasn't seen any true terror yet, he has seen some violence, but nothing beyond that.
As he gets older and gets a better understanding of life, and as these slums mature and darken, they are now caked in a dark melancholy blue. In the final act of the film, the story no longer has the subjective feel that made the first two acts so great and so personal, and now is something just as great but not personal at all. It has this documentary feel, feel, everything from frames that skip, the shaky cam shooting style, or literally seeing the story unfold from the lens of Rocket's camera, all help make the slum feel disingenuous, changed, and dangerous.
And ultimately, City of God is Rocket's story. He is the only one who is able to successfully navigate out of the slums and into the real world. Everyone else thinks that the world outside of the slums wants them.
They can just leave and start a new life out there. When really, they just want to have a new life outside of the slums. The one exception to that is... is Rocket.
He refined and practiced his craft of photography until the outside world wanted him. This is what makes Rocket different, why he is the protagonist and why he is able to escape the slums whereas nobody else can. He is the spot of good and world of bad.
Throughout the movie, he never resorts to crime to get ahead. He may try to, but ultimately his moral compass takes over and he decides not to. He isn't vengeful, even after Benny starts to date Angelica, he may be jealous but still has a good relationship with the two.
He is the perfect protagonist, the type of person we all want to be, showing us that a little good can go a long way. Throughout the film we are told that God has left the city behind. He has turned his back on it and left it in the hands of violent criminals. Even though the film takes place in Rio de Janeiro, we never once see Christ the Redeemer.
The statue that is linked with Rio like the Empire State Building is linked to New York. I think the film is saying that God, or at least morals and ethics, are found within everyone. They can choose to accept it, live a thoughtful life, and eventually find their way to a better place.
Or neglect it and be swallowed alive by the violence of the City of God. Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed. I think City of God is one of the greatest cinematic works of all time.
It offers so much much discussion and is truly an exceptional movie. If you somehow haven't seen it yet but are still watching this video, I would highly recommend checking it out as soon as possible. It offers so much discussion in terms of narrative, world building, symbolism, and so much more.
You can spend hours discussing the intricate details of the plot and this is one of those movies that I definitely want to return to in a little while to discuss some other element of the movie. But until then, be sure to hit that subscribe button and if you haven't seen it yet, check out my last video. that compares the two cave fears. Thanks for watching and I will see you next week.