City of God: Unforgiving Portrayal of Reality

This is third post in a series of posts which I am planning to do focusing on some of my personal favorite movies that I haven't had a chance to talk about. After going classical with the first two posts(you can see the links to both at the bottom of this post), it is time to get modern this time. If you take a look at my list of Top 100 you will notice that though Rashomon(1950), Bicycle Thieves(1948) and Grave of the Fireflies(1988) aren't too far behind, it is what I consider to be my favorite Foreign film yet - City of God(2002). Usually in the posts like this I tend to discuss everything including the plot details till the very end. However, City of God isn't like anything else. It has a very complex plot which covers a lot of characters and there are many things that happen to them. If I have to cover everything, I will be here all day. So, I won't do that but still there will be spoilers since there are few things in it that just can not go unmentioned. If you haven't seen it, you really should first(LIKE NOW!).

City of God(2002) starts with the story of small-time crooks, tender trio, which consists of Shaggy, Clipper and Goose who is also Narrator Rocket's brother. They are usually accompanied by Li'l Dice and Benny, Shaggy's Brother. They go on doing their business robbing small targets like trucks and such. However, after hold-up gone wrong at the motel, all three go in three different directions. However, Police do not take it lightly. Because it involved killing many people, police keep on looking out for the convicts for months and by some stroke of luck, nab down Shaggy. Though Tender Trio are finished, story of controlling the City of God is just starting. With tender trio gone, not without some contribution from Li'l Dice himself, with his vicious and ruthless nature Li'l Dice starts going up in the power ladders. With Benny by his side, by the time he is 18, he has become most notorious hood and most wanted robber in city of God and they are only going up. He changes his name to Li'l Ze and gets rid of every drug dealer in town and takes over all the rackets in a matter of day. Meanwhile, Rocket has taken interest in photography and girl named Angelica. Unfortunately, tables turn in such a way that Benny starts to hang out with their group and takes interest in her before Rocket can tell her anything. After some time together, with Angelica by his side, Benny decides to get out of whole drug business. He also manages to bring the every faction in city of God together for one night of celebration but unfortunately gets killed the very same night by someone aiming for Li'l Ze.

Since he was a kid, Li'l Ze was always a hot-head who wouldn't mind doing anything, anywhere without giving it a second thought. Benny was the only sensible one who would be able to keep him in check. With him gone, he goes back to his bloodhound ways controlling the city and crosses paths with Knockout Ned which eventually turns out to be his undoing and Ned's too. With Knockout Ned supported by Carrot, the only dealer left in town by Benny, and Li'l Ze at each others throat like crazy, whole neighbourhood becomes a battlefield. They both start recruiting hoods and putting the guns in their hand for something as stupid as 'because someone from the other gang punched me in the face'. With bullets flying all around, it becomes impossible for anyone to live there and not be affected by it. Rocket leaves the neighbourhood and moves in the city to start working with the newspaper as delivery boy, with dream of being a photographer or reporter one day. However, him being from city of God is what makes his dreams become reality when the paper he works for prints some of the photos he took for Li'l Ze. Being from the neighbourhood gives him the distinct advantage of capturing something that no one has done before. And then as his first official assignment, he gets to witness and take photos of final and most reckless shootout between Ned and Carrot's Gang with Li'l Ze's gang by the end of which they both end up dead. And if you have seen this movie, you would know what I mean when I say - Movie ends, story doesn't.

I do not know a single person in the whole cast and I have never seen anyone before or after this movie. However, one of the most important things that makes City of God outstanding is every single character in this movie is phenomenally acted. In fact, calling them acting is disrespect. They have literally lived them, however small their part maybe. It makes it a difficult watch not only because of all the violence involved but also because of how imprudent their actions are and because there are lot of kids involved in it at both ends. What will make a viewer further uncomfortable is knowing the fact that it is based on true story and almost all actors playing the respective characters were almost same age as that of the actual characters. It is almost impossible to imagine that kids that age are capable of doing anything like what we see at all. It doesn't even try to make them look any presentable, just puts forward every character like they are. You may like them or you may hate them but you will do so because what they really are, not because how they look and how they are presented to you. It makes an excellent use of flashbacks and narration to tell us many fascinating stories. Most of these stories connect the side stories of various characters and their past to the central storyline and more importantly, they are told with absolutely no discrimination. There are stories like the story of apartment, story of Knockout Ned, how dealers run their business and how hoods can go up from being delivery boys to someone important and most importantly, rise of Li'l Dice since he vanished on the night of that motel hold-up to him becoming Li'l Ze and taking control of all the city with Benny.

In the 2004 Oscars, City of God was nominated for 4 Oscars - Direction, Editing, Cinematography and Adapted Screenplay(based on the novel by Paulo Lins). Of this four, one aspect that I want to get into is it's Cinematography because it is simply stunning. In it's portrayal of slums and all the commotion in it that comes with the viciousness of actions involved, it still shows that it doesn't always have to be pretty to catch your eye. And to top it all, it also has some really cool names like knockout Ned, Steak with fries and Carrot. It's relentless, it is brutal, it is unforgiving in everything that goes on screen but in the end, that is what makes it so great.

Rating(out of 5):

Past Favorites:
Notorious(1946)
Rashomon(1950)