City of God (2003)
Rated: R [See Full Rating] sexual content, language, violence, drug use content
Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins
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 naive teen Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) views himself. His attempts in illegal activity fail as he... 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]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Matheus Nachtergaele, Seu Jorge, Gera Camilo
Screenwriter: Fernando Meirelles, Braulio Mantovani
Producer: Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Mauricio Andrade Ramos
DVD Info
Release:
Jun 8, 2004
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Keep Case
- Anamorphic Letterboxed Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound - Portuguese
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
La violencia mostrada en la película es extrema, pero no es utilizada para vender ni tampoco para asistir a la historia. La violencia es la historia, su motor y su ser.
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.
"City" isn't supposed to be entertainment but an indictment of the byproduct of poverty. Under those terms, it's impossible not to be moved by the film's searing honesty.
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.
Directors Kátia Lund and Fernando Meirelles stir all the cinematic virtues into this finely-crafted narrative.
It's a grim epitaph for hypocrisy, and the film provides no comfortable answers for solving any of the problems it so well describes.
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.
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.
“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...
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.
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?"
'It's unfortunate that what should be an emotionally-engaging film is so completely unaffecting'
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