Movie Reviews

City of God has been described as a "Brazillian GoodFellas", and in a lot of ways, that's a pretty good comparison. It's an epic film that takes place across the 60s and the 70s, and is told mainly through the eyes of a young guy named Rocket. The setting is a poor slum on the outskirts of Rio de Jeneiro, which has been plagued by small, unorganized, drug-dealing gangs -- one of which Rocket's older brother is a part of. Most of the film involves the rise and consolidation of power by two seperate gangs, with Rocket trying to avoid getting caught up in either one of them.

City of God is more about the city than it is about any of the characters in it. There's a lot of history in the small slum, and I really enjoyed how the film didn't gloss over it, but rather went into a lot of detail about where the gangs came from, who its leaders are, the problems they have with their families and their poverty, etc. There's lots of stuff going on here. Near the end of the movie, at the conclusion of a violent gang war, we get the impression that lots of gangs have come and gone (and will continue to do so), but somehow there's no way out, as if the city itself somehow breeds this sort of lifestyle. Disturbingly, we also see that a lot of people in the city hold onto the belief that only after you've started doing heavy drugs and killing people are you considered "a man", even when you're only a little kid.

This is a really great movie, and I only hope people aren't turned off by its foreign language and subtitles. Despite its bleak and depressing storyline, City of God manages to be a totally exhilirating, exciting film.