City of God Review

For my foreign language film review I chose City of God directed by Fernando Meirelles and co-directed Katia Lund. A true story adapted from the book of the same name.

City of God is defined by Wikipedia to be in the “Crime film” genre. I do not agree with this view however. Yes it has heavy crime aspects to it throughout what with all the gang wars and drug selling, but for me it was more of a coming of age film for the main character, (and narrator) Rocket. He strives to lose his virginity and have a successful life before it gets abruptly terminated in the volatile slums and suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. He finds it hard to fit in as a “hood” (or gang member to you and me) but realises criminal activity is the only way out of the slums. On first impressions you’re drawn to the side of the young and poor Rocket growing up in the slums. His brother and his gang hold up a gas cylinder transporter for the cash and free gas, the money found in the truck is given to Rocket by his brother and he is told to run home, the locals then take as many gas cylinders as they can before the police turn up. You see a community coming together to steal from the rich and give to the poor in what is like a modern day robin hood scenario, but then the storyline takes a darker turn, delving into murder, drugs and betrayal.

 You quickly learn, like Rocket, that most problems are created and solved by the use of firearms, and due to the close-ups on pretty much everything you feel like you should be ducking and weaving whenever any bullet leaves any barrel. The way the cinematography and editing has been mixed together to create fast paced action and the sense of claustrophobia that only the slums of a developing city could provide, really gives this film a unique character. The first person shots put you in the scene as if you’re in the action with the characters; at times it reminded me of Spielberg’s work during Saving Private Ryan, putting you in the action by use of the first person perspective.

 I liked the way that throughout the film it slips in and out of the main story to quickly tell you the backgrounds of the main characters that are about to affect the scene. These such branches of story line go off at such a descriptive tangent that you can easily understand why the characters would make the decisions that they do, this I think made the film more accessible to the audience just by clearing things up. And I also like that the whole film circles back around to the opening sequence at the start of the film from a “Matrix” style camera rotation circling round Rocket from the 80’s to the 60’s.

At the Academy Awards it was nominated for: best director, best adapted screenplay, best cinematography and best film editing. It won best editing at the BAFTA’s. And it's easy to see why it has been noticed by such critical acclaim. The film is very down to earth and shows the real side of Rio. There’s a quote from Rocket that sums this up perfectly, “For the powerful, our problems didn’t matter. We were far too removed from the picture postcard image of Rio de Janeiro.”

If I had to give this film a flaw is that the director decided it would be fun for the audience to be told about other “amazing” films that he made, in the introduction... just to gloat. But other than that it’s a great film and I would definitely recommend it if somebody asked me for a foreign film to watch, if they were aged over 18 of course.