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City of God Essay

City of God is a film based on true events that depicts the development of violence in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro during the 1980s. It explores the rampant poverty that drove many youth to crime as their only means of earning money. The film also examines gender roles and issues, such as domestic violence against women. It features various aspects of Brazilian culture like music genres and their relationship to social classes.

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180 views

City of God Essay

City of God is a film based on true events that depicts the development of violence in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro during the 1980s. It explores the rampant poverty that drove many youth to crime as their only means of earning money. The film also examines gender roles and issues, such as domestic violence against women. It features various aspects of Brazilian culture like music genres and their relationship to social classes.

Uploaded by

Brian Olsen
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Brian Olsen 11-23-04

City of God Essay


City of God is a film based on true events that gives great insight into Brazilian culture. The main topic of the film is the development of violence in the favellas in the 1980s. This is the main issue, but it is only one of many dealt with in the course of the film. Because this is a film about Brazil, a country whose culture is full of complexity and contradiction, many other cultural topics appear in the film, such as sexuality and music. The other underlying theme is the terrible poverty of the favellas and specifically the Cidade de Deus where the youths involved in the story are growing up. The film begins with a group of boys playing soccer. Soccer is by far the most popular sport in Brazil. Although it was introduced by the wealthy, it was most energetically embraced by the poor and the workers of the country. In Class, Ethnicity and Color in the making of Brazilian Football, Leite Lopez Tells us that soccer has a unique place in the minds of poor youth. These youth often see soccer as their sole way to escape from the favellas, by becoming a professional player. The youth at the beginning of the movie have no such illusion. They are all fascinated by the Mortes Trio. The Mortes Trio are preparing to rob a truck. The children are fascinated, and want to be gangsters themselves. Only rocket is not interested, and this is not because he is too moral to participate, but because he is too scared. The same holds true of many other residents of the city of God. They do not participate in crime themselves, but they usually turn a blind eye. When the truck is robbed, the people do not assist in or attempt to stop the robbery, but they steal gas cans and run before the police come, because they

will take anything they can get to help them survive. This relationship with crime is common in the Favellas. Most people in the Favellas are not criminals and do not want to commit crimes. Many see it as their only way to earn any money, especially young, unemployed males. We see this when Shaggys girlfriend tells him to get a job to earn some money. He laughs and tells her that getting a job is not going to get them any money. The only jobs available to these uneducated youths would be very menial and low paying. Crime is far more profitable. Even someone like Rocket who is not directly involved in criminal activities will not be able to remain aloof from the crime going around him. Rocket is forced to interact with the criminal world, and must do so carefully to stay alive. Although the poor residents of these ghettos fear the crime that is going on in their streets, they are not always so adverse to the criminals. A favella will sometimes have a gangster who treats the people well and is seen in a positive light. In the movie, this type of figure is exemplified by Benny, who is seen as the hippest gangster around. People will even sometimes talk about a fight between a good gang and a bad gang. The people in these shantytowns certainly do not see the police as the good guys. Police violence is a serious problem in the favellas. The police do prevent crime, but they are often heavy handed and corrupt. Some are as likely to die by the hands of the police, as from a criminal. In Kulicks The Gender of Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes, we learn that the police often kill them for no other reason than discrimination. In the first scene of the movie, Rocket faces death as he stands between the police and Zs gang and expects to be killed in the cross fire. The police also brutally hunt down and kill Shaggy after the robbery. They even murder an innocent

boy, simply because he seems suspicious to them. Z, on the other hand escapes justice because he is bribing the police. City of God also exemplifies gender issues in Brazil. The city of God is very patriarchal. When Shortie discovers that his wife is cheating on him, he murders her. We see this same situation of violence being exerted when masculinity is threatened with Z. Z is unable to find a girlfriend, and is very insecure. When he is rejected by Knockout Neds girlfriend, he reasserts his masculinity and dominance as a male by having her raped. In the film, as in Brazilian society, women are forced to play supporting roles and not to break the rules that their patriarchal society has set for them. Though women in the film fit within traditional cultural bounds, the music does not. The music in this movie is the music of the youth: funk. In The Funkification of Rio, Yudice claims that funk is the music of those on the fringe of Brazilian culture. This is certainly true in the film. The large parties that Benny throws do not have any samba or other traditional music types. . Through his clothes and music, Benny establishes himself as part of the avant-garde counterculture. In this case, he is not only against Brazilian cultural traditions, but the law itself. This is particularly interesting since, in the Brazilian popular imagination, funk and the youths who listen to it are often associated with rowdy behavior and criminal acts. City of God presents a story that encapsulates many diverse themes in Brazilian culture. Poverty is at the heart of this story, and sets the stage for the violence and criminality that follow. Within this framework, we see other themes like gender roles and music. The intricate story of City of God gives us a glimpse into the complexities of Brazil society and culture.

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