Maddenation
Cidade de Deus (City of God)
Karina and I just watched the movie City of God, a Brazilian film that Roger Ebert says is “one of the best films you will ever see.” I agree wholeheartedly. The trailer (like Fight Club’s) is a bit misleading, so don’t base your decision on whether to see it on that. It tells the story of gangs in a Rio de Janeiro slum called “City of God,” focusing on one young man who tries to avoid all the pitfalls and become a photographer. It’s based on a true story. I don’t know what else to say about it except that its cinematography (always interesting camera movement and focus, sometimes written taglines on the images like “The Sixties”), narration (a first-person narrator who stops himself with things like “Wait. I guess I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Rocket,” and “That’s Dropdead Nick. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t know how he would have to fight someday.”), and acting (there is one scene where you will swear the director actually had to shoot somebody to get him to act so convincingly) are all insanely phenomenal. I will also mention that it is one of the most violent movies I’ve ever seen (I’m not talking about killing thousands of orcs and Uruk-hai). It also has some bad language and sex and drugs. But it also has the song “Kung-fu Fighting” (which means it can’t be all that bad). This is the kind of movie that punches you in the face and you like it. And, for me, it’s more powerful than something like American Beauty because it’s real. Even not knowing that, it feels more real than some other powerfully negative, real-seeming movies. Go get it, watch it, comment here.
Patrick • Reviews • 06/23/04 • 6 comments
Comments
Patrick • 06/28/04 • 1:49 AM:Here is a good review of the movie (better than mine, but not as gushing maybe). Here is Roger Ebert’s review. He makes a few mistakes about the movie, but he still likes it a lot.
Dan • 06/29/04 • 10:49 AM:Your review is convincing enough. I’d heard of the movie but never thought to see it. Urda, our roommate, says it’s terrible because it’s so depressing. I said, “So that makes it a bad movie? Because Ben Stiller isn’t in it? Go watch your Bob Hope dvds.” Urda has the most hit/miss taste in movies anyway. His top three movies of the past 10 years are (I’m not kidding) Ronin, The Edge, and Oh, Brother Where Art Thou?. So, yeah. He also liked Zoolander more than Starsky and Hutch, which is not actually possible. You know those 4,000 old westerns from the ’50s? Urda’s seen them all and he knows all their lines. It’s amazing/annoying.
Dad • 12/05/04 • 11:18 AM:I reserved the movie from the library weeks ago, and it finally came in on “inter-library” loan. First of all, subtitles take away from any movie because you have to read them instead of watching the action. That said, I wasn’t thrilled with the movie anyway. True, and “voice over” (which was “words under”) saying things like, “It’s not time to tell so-and-so’s story yet” was cute, but not that cute. The subject matter was extremely negative, and the message seemed to be that the problems weren’t going away and were probably getting worse. I couldn’t get into the characters, and I certainly couldn’t empathize with their lifestyle and decisions. It was very depressing without a moral, unless you accept the one kid who made it out of the ghetto and got a real job as satisfactory. No sir, I didn’t like it. Go see something uplifting and fun, or at least something that speaks your own language and has relevance to your life.
Dan • 10/07/05 • 1:58 AM:I just watched this. Movies like this aren’t ones you finish and say, “Ooh! that was great!” or “I loved it!” You just sit there and think, not about characters overcoming great obstacles, not who was good and who was bad and who you “rooted” for, but for its portrayal of reality that leaves you with the “can’t take your eyes away” feeling. True, this movie seems to only have antagonists, and the end is the saddest part of the whole movie, what with the entire crime and murder cycle about to start back up, and there’s no lessons learned by the characters, but that’s how things usually are.
The movie itself looks beautiful. Every camera angle is considered, the light contrast and density changes with the moods and scenes (including a strobe-light scene that is so haunting you cringe and your stomach turns with each pulse). Gang member Knockout Ned, standing over a still-warm murdered child, gives the sign of the cross with revolver in hand. Gut-wrenching.
The scene with the child crying from being shot in the foot and his friend murdered is what Pat refers to regarding the strong acting. I had the same reaction as Pat. The whole movie just feels real. You get nervous. You get sad. You feel like you’ve watched the horror that life is to some people.
Dan • 10/07/05 • 10:46 AM:Now that I’m thinking about it more, you could say that the whole movie is a photograph of the City of God, a static print with historical value, artistic purpose, and stunning craft.
David • 07/10/07 • 1:20 PM:I finally watched this movie the other week and I liked it. It was very good. I see a lot of what Pat and Dan wrote about - but I do not necessarily see it to the extremes written about above. I mean, do you want to marry the movie or what? (seriously, look back at those comments and you have to laugh, they sound ridiculous, like a wannabe movie critic gone crazy - “spellbinding” “riveting” “utterly absorbing”). I just read some of the comments again, and maybe I missed it, Dan, were you kidding, especially with that last one? I mean, I agree with you, but did you have to say it like that? Either way, I got a good laugh. I liked Li’l Dice in the movie and Benny. I also liked the movie in that it showed a piece of the world and life that I never see or experience and so it was educational as well as entertaining.
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