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.