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City of God

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City of God (2003)

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Reviews Counted:147

Fresh:135

Rotten:12

Average Rating:8.3/10

Consensus: A shocking and disturbing, but always compelling look at life in the slums of Rio de Janiero.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] sexual content, language, violence, drug use content

Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Theatrical Release:Jan 17, 2003 Limited

Box Office: $7,299,820

Synopsis: Youth gangs took over the slums of Rio de Janiero during the 1960s and didn't relinquish their stronghold until the mid-1980s. Only a sucker wouldn't have turned to crime and this is exactly how... Youth gangs took over the slums of Rio de Janiero during the 1960s and didn't relinquish their stronghold until the mid-1980s. Only a sucker wouldn't have turned to crime and this is exactly how naive teen Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) views himself. His attempts in illegal activity fail as he finds potential victims too friendly. Equally unsuccessful in love, he regularly fails to lose his virginity. Blood spills throughout the streets of the Ciudad de Deus as gang leader Li'l Ze (Leandro Firmino da Hora) is challenged by local druglords and a gang of pre-teens known as the Runts. Rocket shoots all of this action with his weapon of choice, a camera. Director Fernando Meirelles combines visual flashiness with dark history in telling the story of three decades of unrest in underground Rio de Janiero. Technically flawless, the Brazilian film uses a rapid-cutting style to flash back and forth in time. Cinematographer Cesar Charlone shoots with an overexposed glow in a film that may seem numb to violence, but reveres photography. Director Meirelles was assisted by Katia Lund, a filmmaker who had previously shot in the Rio ghettos. [More]

Starring: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Matheus Nachtergaele, Seu Jorge

Starring: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Matheus Nachtergaele, Seu Jorge, Gera Camilo, Renato de Souza, Karina Falcao, Graziela Moretto, Roberta Rodriguez Silvia

Director: Fernando Meirelles, Katia Lund

Director: Fernando Meirelles, Katia Lund
Screenwriter: Fernando Meirelles, Braulio Mantovani
Producer: Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Mauricio Andrade Ramos
Studio: Miramax Films

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Release:

Jun 8, 2004

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • City Of God
  • Celebrated with worldwide acclaim, this powerful true story of crime and redemption has won numerous prestigious awards around the globe! The streets of the world's most notorious slum, Rio de Janeiro's "City of God," are a place where combat photographers fear to tread, police rarely go, and residents are lucky if they live to the age of 20. In the midst of the oppressive crime and violence, a frail and scared young boy will grow up to discover that he can view the harsh realities of his surroundings with a different eye: the eye of an artist. In the face of impossible odds, his brave ambition to become a professional photographer becomes a window into his world ... and ultimately his way out!
  • Source: Buena Vista Home Entertainment.
  •  
     
     
     

    Reviews for City of God

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    N/R

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    Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
    06/17/09
    David Rooney
    David Rooney
    Variety
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Fernando Meirelles' Brazilian slum epic is a profound, stylistically expansive depiction of three decades of child gang warfare on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro with non-actors playing their poverty-ridden lives for the camera.

    Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
    06/12/09
    Cole Smithey
    Cole Smithey
    ColeSmithey.com

    Often masterful in its distillation of exposition into pure sight and sound energy... but equally frustrating in its attention-grabbing lack of focus.

    Full Review Source: Projection Booth | comment Comment
    11/12/08
    Rob Humanick
    Rob Humanick
    Projection Booth

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: HollywoodChicago.com | comment Comment
    04/04/08
    Adam Fendelman
    Adam Fendelman
    HollywoodChicago.com
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Newsweek | comment Comment
    11/01/07
    David Ansen
    David Ansen
    Newsweek
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | comment Comment
    07/14/07
    Joe Lozito
    Joe Lozito
    Big Picture Big Sound
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
    06/24/06
    Time Out

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
    12/06/05
    Film Threat

    City of God is not the easiest film to watch, but it is a masterpiece all the same, maybe the best crime drama since the Godfather films.

    Full Review Source: Looking Closer | comment Comment
    01/15/05
    Jeffrey Overstreet
    Jeffrey Overstreet
    Looking Closer

    A staggering masterpiece.

    Full Review Source: Oregon Herald | comment Comment
    08/13/04
    Mark Sells
    Mark Sells
    Oregon Herald

    A Brazilian "Scarface"

    Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment 7 Comments
    07/23/04
    Louis Proyect
    Louis Proyect
    rec.arts.movies.reviews

    At a full-throttle pace and exciting from beginning to end, directors Lund and Meirrelles grab hold of your attention and don’t let go.

    Full Review Source: Film-Forward.com | comment Comment
    06/25/04
    Kent Turner
    Kent Turner
    Film-Forward.com

    Directors Kátia Lund and Fernando Meirelles stir all the cinematic virtues into this finely-crafted narrative.

    Full Review Source: Low IQ Canadian | comment Comment
    06/13/04
    Martin Scribbs
    Martin Scribbs
    Low IQ Canadian

    It's a grim epitaph for hypocrisy, and the film provides no comfortable answers for solving any of the problems it so well describes.

    Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
    06/08/04
    John J. Puccio
    John J. Puccio
    DVDTown.com

    Difficult to watch but hard to look away from.

    Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
    05/19/04
    Jeff Strickler
    Jeff Strickler
    Minneapolis Star Tribune
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    We've seen this story before, more or less -- the blood, the budding psychopaths, the all-too-young victims of urban decay -- but never quite like this.

    Full Review Source: Weekly Planet (Tampa, FL) | comment Comment
    05/10/04
    Lance Goldenberg
    Lance Goldenberg
    Weekly Planet (Tampa, FL)

    As we see kids of no more than ten or twelve run through the streets with guns shooting those who don't give them what they want, we can't help but pity them.

    Full Review Source: Oscar Guy | comment Comment
    04/18/04
    Wesley Lovell
    Wesley Lovell
    Oscar Guy

    “City of God” is a movie that, for the lack of a better term, incites us. It elicits a response. It pounds away at us until we break...

    Full Review Source: Zertinet Movies | comment Comment
    03/17/04
    Steven Snyder
    Steven Snyder
    Zertinet Movies

    The living conditions it projects are as horrendous as I had feared, but the movie is surprisingly easy to take as a rollicking homicidal entertainment.

    Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
    03/11/04
    Andrew Sarris
    Andrew Sarris
    New York Observer
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic

    Films like City of God are a wake-up call that something must change. Yet the only answer it finds is the most daunting question - "How?"

    Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
    03/04/04
    Brian Mckay
    Brian Mckay
    eFilmCritic.com
     
     
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