The City of God is a Brazilian film about crime which is was directed by a person called Fernando Meirelles in the year 2002.The film was co-directed by Katia Lund in the year 2003.The film is based on a novel by Paulo Lins which is shallow with respect to the themes and of crime and drug dealing in Brazil. The movie mainly demonstrates aspects relating to crime, murder and drug addiction and their effects on the people living in Favela village of Brazil. The issues dealing with the violent neighborhood are clearly shown in the film. In this film, editing has played a crucial role through the use of sound and cinematography to demonstrate clearly the theme of violence and brutality in the Brazilian society.
This movie clearly gives an account and elaboration of a person aspiring to be a journalist. The aspiring Journalist lived in the small ghetto of Favela which was characterized by high levels of crime and drugs abuse. This small town called Favela started as a government iniative for the people who lost residential places to fire and floods in 1960s.This city lacked paved roads and electricity a factor which led to high levels of crime and drug dealing. This movie indicated the remarkable evolution of the crime levels in this city from the stealing of gas trucks to the current form of robbery which entails the murder of people. The conditions in this city were also transformed to issues of rivalry between individual leaders in the city. This aspect of transformation was captured with the use of sheer volume and captivating style in this movie or film.
The use of captivating power in the film also facilitated the use of the local film in order to present the global social problems and issues in a global perspective making them more relevant. The aspects of the real life type of violence are clearly elaborated in this movie.
The struggles in the social lives of the people of Brazil was also among the main points of focus of this film where the locals realized the dangers and problems of the slums which they lived in as shown by the life conditions in the ghetto of Favela. The use of slang in this movie made it clear that the film was locally produced in Brazil. It was clearly shown in the film that the language which was used in the slums in Brazil was not comprehensible to the high class population living in cities from Favela (Meirelles, 2002p.16).
The conflict between the rival slangs in the cities of Brazil helps to clearly bring out the social crisis in the society due to inequality in living standards. This therefore helps in depicting the aspects of division in the society .The social perceptions in Brazil and the rest of the world are clearly shown in this movie due to the captivating power incorporated in the presentation of the film.
This film also took a global perspective by the use of critical aspects of murder, drugs and crime a factor which made the film highly recognized in all parts of the world. The film was appealing to foreigners making it accepted by a high number of foreigners. The sight of a child killing another young child was one of the most significant features which made the movie attract attention of the people from all parts of the world since it pertains to humanity and this helped bring out the aspects of brutality and violence in the society.
The issue of drugs also made the film highly recognized internationally due to the number of deaths of children in Brazil caused by the use and sale of drugs. This therefore made it an issue of concern both in Brazil and the whole globe due to the severe effects of drug addiction and drug dealing in the society.
This movie entails the use of editing and sounds in boosting the pace of the film by putting different camera positions and angles using strings. The close-ups were also used in many occasions in order to help bring a clear understanding of the emotions of the characters. They also helped in giving insights pertaining the historical and cultural background of the Favela where chickens were cooked by a collection of knives in the Brazilian culture (Augustine, 2`1950p. 32). The sound of the knives in the market also helped in elaborating the real and natural atmosphere. The use of sound techniques in this film also helps in dramatizing the film by helping to give a good music as opposed to the carnival sound in the Brazilian culture. The tempo created by the sound of chicken also helped in creating tension. The real life sounds were also created using the diegetic sounds for example the sounds in sharpening the knives in comparison with sounds of chicken which helps in creating a distinction between the present and future events. The sound of knives is therefore very instrumental in creation of suspense of actually is likely to take place.
The use of cinematography played a crucial role of helping the audience to distinguishing between various events in the film. The camera was positioned at the lower angle in order to ensure that the audience is incorporated in the film. The lives of the chicken in Favela slum are compared to the human life (Lins, 2006p. 25). This also helped in making the scene very captivating through proper utilization of the space available.
The film also helps demonstrate the crime genre where the use of knives was used in denoting the murder weapons while the chicken symbolized the human beings who were being killed. The murder of innocent people is therefore highly demonstrated in this film. The dressing and traditional clothing also helps in clearly bringing out the perspective that the audience have in relation to the gangsters (Lins, 2006p. 33). The harsh conditions the people lived in the slums of Favela are also well demonstrated using the kind of clothing and sparse nature of events. The sounds of gunshots also helped in showing the environment of violence in Brazil. The ruthless nature and brutal environment in Favela slums is clearly elaborated by the use of guns everywhere.
In conclusion, the film used the combination of sounds and cinematography in clearly demonstrating the impact of violence and brutality in the slums of Brazil. The use of gun sounds and the knives to kill chicken helped in showing the crime culture in the society. The use of captivating power in relation to issues of drugs, murder and crime helped to make the film internationally acceptable and recognized.
Work cited
Augustine, , Marcus Dods, and Thomas Merton. The City of God. New York: Modern Library, 1950.
"Our Generation: Analysing 'City of God', Meirelles and Lund, 2002." Our Generation. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
Lins, Paulo, and Alison Entrekin. City of God. New York: Black Cat, 2006.
