The film City of God is about the urban environment set in a part of the city called the favela. It deals with the behavior of people who think that they are gods which is why this favela is called “City of God”. The drugs are everywhere and the power of people is estimated with their relation with the drugs. People in the big cities have the power and they use it to do illegal things which would make them rich which is why they establish dominance wherever they can and become God-like. The main topics in the film are related to the behavior of the people in the urban jungle, their relationships towards one another, the corruption and the dominance they exert.
People in the urban cities tend to behave like animals in the jungle especially in Brazil. Ze is the person who rules the favela and decides about who dies and who lives and he is like a God in a negative way. Favelas are established in places in which there is no law and where the corruption is the dominant issue. The police are corrupt as well in such places and the whole urbanistic structure supports the corrupt system. Rocket, the narrator, says: “You need more than guts to be a good gangster. You need ideas” (Meirelles and Lund, The City of God). People need to be smart even if they are supposed to be criminals because they have to know the law in order to be able to break it. “A consideration of urban culture opens the door to an entire body of analytical literature on the relationship of the arts – both high and popular – to the society as a whole” (Zukin 75). The culture which is urban is inviting to all sorts of people who want to establish themselves as the ruling class.
The relationships of people towards each other depends on their perspective towards life. Rocket says: “It was like a message from God: "Honesty doesn't pay, sucker." (Meirelles and Lund, The City of God). God has nothing to do with corruption, but it is the natural order in the world because the most competent people rule and the rest of the people are masses who have to listen and obey. “Yet culture is also a powerful means of controlling cities. As a source of images and memories, it symbolizes “who belongs” in specific places” (Zukin 132). The culture is related to the order established by people and to the control they impose on other people. The sense of belonging is related to the order which people have to follow while only the leader has full control. The topic of who controls the cities can be explored in detail and the best possible solution would be if the cities would be controlled by the government. However, in this film, as in many cities in reality, the full control is in the hands of the people who have the power and the money even if the money has been earned in a dishonest way. “Building a city depends on how people combine the traditional economic factors of land, labor and capital” (Zukin 133). The economy is bad in the case of having too many drug dealers in the country and in this film Ze is the ruler who becomes the person who is untouchable and respected by the police as well. Such people are above the law in some countries and they cannot be hurt unless their own people turn against them. However, in most cases people who survive are those who are the smartest which makes them the fittest for the survival. It is important for people to feel safe in their homes and if there is too much corruption which involves killings, they cannot feel safe. In spite of all this, there is always room for love which makes people have the better quality of life. Love makes life bearable and changes everything for the best. When Rocket finds love in this film, it is the driving force that makes him survive.
The corruption is present in City of God in which the God is Ze because of his power. He gives his money to the police which spares his life and this is the fact that makes the atmosphere of the film seem ruthless as it actually is. “The streets of the city serve a wide variety of interrelated purposes: as axes for the movement of people, goods and vehicles: as public areas separating enclosed private spaces and providing the essential spatial frame of reference for the city as a whole” (Bromley 163). People who work in the streets are often frowned upon because they do not contribute to the society in the traditional manner. These people can be honest people or criminals, but it is more often that they are criminals especially in South America where they need to survive, which means that they have to listen to the people who rule the city. These people are corrupt and they are murderers as well although they mostly kill the competition. However, they might also kill anybody who stands in their way and tries to spoil their illegal business. None of this is good for the economy or for the health of one nation, but it is the harsh reality in which people are just pawns in the hands of those who control everything. “The most basic need of the urban poor is an income in goods and/or money to provide for food, drink, housing, clothing, and other necessities” (Bromley 164). These people need to listen to those who rule the cities because they are in a disadvantageous position because they need to survive. The dominant person in this film is Ze and he decides about the destiny of all the people in the city including the narrator who is a man who grows up during the course of the film. It is important to listen to the people in charge in order to survive and that is what most people do. There are few people capable of being rebels and if they gain courage, they usually get killed. Most people are smart or at least street-smart because they are used to struggle to survive and they know that the concrete jungle is not better than the real jungle which is why they put too much effort into staying alive and satisfying their basic needs. The corruption is hard to deal with because of the fact that the ruling classes give their consent to the criminals as long as they share the profit.
The criminals have to establish themselves as dominant in order to be respected which is why they resort to killing and to theft. Ze has been hungry for power since he was a child and he murders all of the people who are his competition and Rocket witnesses everything. “The relationship between place and culture has changed; culture has in many respects been deterritorialized, which means that cultural artefacts do not have singular place of origination to which they are beholden” (Mennel 197). This means that there are people who want to be dominant in spite of the law in every culture and in every country. This is a trait which is inherent in human nature and is not related to a particular geographical place although it is more likely for this kind of behavior to occur in poorer places which do not have a history of the rule of law. Brazil is one of the countries which are suitable for drug dealing and for the establishment of criminalistics behavior. Young people cannot resist the urge to join the criminals and their cliques which is why so many people get involved in the criminal behavior as a final result. “Manny cannot resist the temptation of cheap drugs to obliterate their hunger and cold” (Macionis and Parillo 281). This is why the lifestyle of criminals is so alluring as it gives people the false sense of protection and of belonging. The young are especially susceptible to joining groups where they can find shelter which they do not have at home. Their parents might be pushing them to work in the streets, which is why they turn to criminal because it makes a better salary. People want to accomplish as much as possible doing at least as possible and this kind of behavior will never change. It is about achieving the best results with the least effort because the output has to be greater than the input.
Success is a relative term, but many people measure success with influence and money. It is all about the power and its establishment because people prefer to be influential to being obedient. All of this is bad for the majority of people, but it is just the way the world functions. Nothing will change any time soon and everybody should begin with changing themselves in order to accomplish the change on the global level.
Works Cited
Meirelles, Fernando, and Katia Lund, dir. City of God. Miramax Films, 2002. Film.
Zukin, Sharon. The Cultures of Cities. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishers, 1995. Print.
Bromley, Ray. "Working in the Streets: Survival Strategy, Necessity, or Unavoidable Evil?" Cities of the Global South Reader. Ed. Faranak Miraftab and Neema Kudva. London: Routledge, 2014. Print.
Mennel, Barbara. Cities and Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.
Macionis, John J., and Vincent N. Parillo. Cities and Urban Life. 6th ed. New York: Pearson, 2012. Print.
