Brianair's City of God Analysis

In Brainair's article, City of God, he elaborates on background knowledge of the film and summarizes the film as whole while explaining the stories of two of the main characters in the film, Knockout Ned and Li'l Ze. In order to show a character's relevance in the film, you need to hear the backstory of another character(s). The story of the Tender Trio create backstory for Li'l Ze while Li'l Ze's story creates backstory for Knockout Ned. Then all three of their stories contribute to Rocket's life story.

The main ideology communicated in the film is based on how violent a character is in the film. From what I have noticed and read from a past article, the characters are place on a social hierarchy from their acts of violence. Li'l Ze stands at the top of the pyramid and is feared by everyone including rival gangs and also the police. While on the other hand, Rocket is at the bottom and not really feared by anyone because he is not violent at all. In a way the ideology communicated in the film can be closely compared to Social Darwinism or "survival of the fittest."

This film has been compared to films such as Pulp Fiction (1994) and Goodfellas (1990), but the author in the Brianair article brings up the conclusion that, "neither of these films actually deal with social problems or issues." I partially disagree because I feel that the ideology that was communicated in Goodfellas was similar to the one I brought up in the 2nd paragraph about City of God. The whole "survival of the fittest" theme goes hand in hand with the Mob/Gangster genre which is why both films can fall under that genre. Historical reference can be direct because this is a true story, but I think it can also relate back to the Vietnam War. The main character Rocket even gave a direct quote saying, "you got used to living in Vietnam," which is implying the favelas as a warzone.

The genre of this film really interests me the most for my research project because I feel there are multiple aspects of the film that create multiple genres. For instance, you can follow Rocket's storyline which gives a "coming of age" genre. Or you can follow Li'l Ze and Knockout Ned's storyline which follows under the Mob/Gangster genre. A lot could be elaborated on if I found films within these genres and narrowed them down to find a film extremely similar to City of God.

City of God: Cinematic Portrayal of Violence

In the article, Violence in The City of God: The Fantasy of the Omniscient Spectator by Jennie Carlsten, it discusses the depiction of of violence in the film through it's narrative, cinematography, edit and how it relates to it's "Action/drama" genre. In the beginning of the article, the author gives a brief plot summary followed by some background knowledge of Brazil. Her background knowledge of Brazil is interesting because she goes into detail about the social structure in the favelas where the movie takes place. The multiple storylines intertwine with each other because of the "self-enclosed

community isolated from the outside world." Next, the cinematography and edit is examined and how the favela enviroment affected it. Because of the tight, narrow streets and alleyways, a lot of rapid camera movements and quick cuts were incorporated to exemplify the urgency in the scenes that have the audience lose direction. The author also brought up how the favelas started to turn into a warzone and quoted Rocket from the movie as well from when he said "you got used to living in Vietnam." She discussed the meaning of this line because of it's relevance to the topic of war in the movie. Therefore, comparing the Vietnam war to the gang wars in the favelas. The second section, "Understanding the Violence," brings up a very interesting point. Carlsten says "the characters are defined by their relationship to violence." As I thought more about it, I realized how correct this comment is. Li'l Ze is infamous for how violent he is, while Rocket on the other hand is known for being sensitive. Their reputations exemplify both of their spots on the social structure in the City of God. She generally characterizes everyone in the film as "under-developed." I think this also is correct because of the isolation of the favelas which was brought up earlier in the article. Everyone from the favelas in under-devloped in the sense that very few of them have seen what is on the outside of the favela and also have  very low levels of education. Although there seems to be like a lot of violence in the film, the violence was very controlled in a way. Carlsten brings up the censorship on violence through the cinematography. She claims that, "The use of long shots and off-screen space prevents the audience from seeing much of the violence, and deprives the viewer of the catharsis that may be produced by seeing a violent act carried to its conclusion." The type of shots and angles that are used help the audience feel the right amount of fear, suspense, etc... for the act of violence on screen. For example, when Knockout Ned was witnessing his girlfriend getting raped, it was an over the shoulder shot from Ned's shoulder which makes the audience assume what's going on. In Violence in The City of God: The Fantasy of the Omniscient Spectator by Jennie Carlsten, violence is shown through it's narrative, cinematography, and edit.