The Bottom Line
Pros
- Dazzling visual style, labyrinthine screenplay, lively music on soundtrack
- Unfamiliar actors and location shooting give movie a feeling of authenticity
- Viscerally intense tale of young people caught up in a culture of violence in a hellish slum
Cons
- Some viewers will be put off by movie’s violence
- Some will perceive film as romanticizing young hoodlums and lacking a moral center
- To me, movie was a bit too long and seemed to lose some of its energy as it wound down
Description
- DVD containing Portuguese-language drama “City of God” (2002)
- Movie nominated for 4 Academy Awards: Best Director, Cinematography, Editing, Adapted Screenplay
- DVD’s only bonus material is documentary “News From a Personal War” (56 min.)
- Excellent picture and sound quality
- MPAA Rating: R for strong brutal violence, sexuality, drug content and language
- Feature run time: 2 hours 10 minutes
- DVD release date: June 8, 2004
Guide Review - "City of God" DVD
I must admit that I was disoriented during much of "City of God" because of its large number of characters with unfamiliar faces, nonlinear narrative, jittery camera movements, and jumpy editing. But I was amazed at how the deceptively tight screenplay pulls everything together by film’s end.
The movie, which takes place in a Rio de Janeiro slum area named City of God, tells an unsettling tale of poverty, kids, drugs, and guns. There is a lot of violence. Yet, I didn’t find the film to be particularly graphic: it generally manages to imply violence without actually showing it.
"City of God" opens with a dangerous hoodlum known as Li’l Zé preparing to lead an armed band of kids against a rival youth gang, while crooked cops are on their way to collect money from him. As the aspiring photojournalist called Rocket finds himself threatened with being caught in the crossfire, he recounts for the movie audience the chain of events that led to his predicament.
I found "City of God" to be an interesting mix of realism and artifice. The unfamiliar actors and location shooting gave the movie a feeling of authenticity. However, the dazzling, mannered visual style had the effect of distancing me from the material at times and drawing me in at others.
The bonus materials on the "City of God" DVD are disappointing. The only one of any consequence is a dry 56-minute documentary on Rio de Janeiro slum crime, but I nevertheless found it worthwhile.
