City of God

This movie took place in ‘Cidade de Deus’ which is Portuguese for City of God. City of God is a term that refers to the lower class area of Rio de Janeiro in South America. This is a part of the city that is not shown to the public when looking at the major metropolis that is the largest city in Brazil. This is where the poorest people of the city live in slums that were created by poverty amoung the cities people. The story takes place over a decade starting in the 1960’s and up to the major era of drug use in the 70’s. Much of the area changes in quality over the duration of the story, which I will describe later.

The movie was based on a novel named City of God, which is based on a true story of a young mans life in this city. It was filmed in some in Brazil and uses some of the actual maps of the real City in the movie. One interesting thing I found while reading about this movie, is that many of the actors used in the film are from favelas in Rio de Janeiro, and in some cases, the actual City of God. It was filmed around the year 2000 and many of these actors were taken from the favelas and placed into an acting camp.

Initially the main character is living in a small community of modular homes that look to be recently built. This looks like government houseing used to place the poor people of the city far away from the nicer areas. Over the duration of the story the homes are run down with poverty and crime. Then we start to see the favelas, which are slums that are built into the hillside of the city. Some of them offer amazing views, but are constructed of poorly made concrete and brick structures. From what I have read, they can be very dangerous, yet some almost 3 million people in the city live there. These “shanty towns” get there electricity and other construction for free. This is a part of the way of life in Brazilian cities, because these favelas house displaced immigrants and former slaves. The movie did depict the favelas accurately based on what I have read about them.

Filming of the movie shows the city as a third world country where drugs and violence are every where. The police are corrupt and can sometimes cause more death than the gangs. Guns are the main source of power for the gang violence. They must rob to get money for the firearms so that they may take down their enemies and control more turf. This reminded me of some of the stories I have read about Mexican drug dealer wars.

The landscape outside the favela looks like a paradise on the beach. The coast line is full of white sand beaches and lush green hillsides. This looks more like the Rio de Janeiro that is shown in the pictures of Carnival, and other national media from the area. This would be a beautiful city without all the crime and poverty in the favelas.

Class structure is very evident in the movie, as it is in real life Rio de Janeiro. There are enormous differences between rich and poor. Although this is one of the world’s largest cities many of its inhabitants are living in poverty. The favelas show the poor side of the city, which run rampant with crime and drugs. Much of the control and wealth is held by gangs, while some of the power is with corrupt police. Outside the favelas wealthy people have control of the major businesses in the city near the ocean, and can bribe police if they need any favors. While favelas are built on hillside land that is unsafe and can cause major accidents if built improperly.