City Of God Essay
City Of God
The film that I chose to watch and analyze is the Brazilian film City of God. The movie takes place in one of Rio de Janeiro’s 500 favelas, a favela known as the City of God. The name of the city is disturbingly ironic, as most of the activities that take place in the slum are decidedly ungodly. The movie, spanning three decades, chronicles the lives of some of the residents, most adolescent, from their pre-pubescent years to their upbringing into the criminal underworld. This movie is rife with the rich culture that Latin America is known for. In the opening sequence alone, we see chickens being skinned and prepared for meals, tequila shots being downed, and perhaps most important to the central part of the movie, lots and lots of guns. The environment of City of God is one of fear and poverty. Due to a mass migration of the homeless and the poor, the City of God is a melting pot of the socially rejected. As Rocket, the main character, narrates at the beginning of the film: “Homeless? Come to City of God. There was no electricity, paved streets, or transportation.” The only social classes in this town are poor and poorer. Minor incidences to us, like a fallen streetlight, are considered miracles for this town. When this happens in the film, one townsperson exclaims, “We’ll have electricity!” The city itself is no more than a slum. Made up of less-than-well made houses and lean-to’s, the people who live there barely have the necessities of life. Rocket, towards the end of the film, admits that he has never even taken a hot shower. The poverty experienced by this town is only exacerbated by the crime. Rocket puts it best: “Kill…be respected.” The townspeople live in fear of the local hoods. City of God’s crime world is like the seedy underbelly of any major American city, except that most of City of God is that seedy underbelly. People are shot dead in the street either because they crossed the wrong drug dealer, or simply because that drug
The film that I chose to watch and analyze is the Brazilian film City of God. The movie takes place in one of Rio de Janeiro’s 500 favelas, a favela known as the City of God. The name of the city is disturbingly ironic, as most of the activities that take place in the slum are decidedly ungodly. The movie, spanning three decades, chronicles the lives of some of the residents, most adolescent, from their pre-pubescent years to their upbringing into the criminal underworld. This movie is rife with the rich culture that Latin America is known for. In the opening sequence alone, we see chickens being skinned and prepared for meals, tequila shots being downed, and perhaps most important to the central part of the movie, lots and lots of guns. The environment of City of God is one of fear and poverty. Due to a mass migration of the homeless and the poor, the City of God is a melting pot of the socially rejected. As Rocket, the main character, narrates at the beginning of the film: “Homeless? Come to City of God. There was no electricity, paved streets, or transportation.” The only social classes in this town are poor and poorer. Minor incidences to us, like a fallen streetlight, are considered miracles for this town. When this happens in the film, one townsperson exclaims, “We’ll have electricity!” The city itself is no more than a slum. Made up of less-than-well made houses and lean-to’s, the people who live there barely have the necessities of life. Rocket, towards the end of the film, admits that he has never even taken a hot shower. The poverty experienced by this town is only exacerbated by the crime. Rocket puts it best: “Kill…be respected.” The townspeople live in fear of the local hoods. City of God’s crime world is like the seedy underbelly of any major American city, except that most of City of God is that seedy underbelly. People are shot dead in the street either because they crossed the wrong drug dealer, or simply because that drug