In this article by Jennie Carlston, she talks a lot about the way violence is portrayed and its impact as a whole based off the film City of God. The film is directed by Fernando Meirelles and it offers a eye-opening view on the lives of people that live in the favelas of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. The entire film revolves around the violence in this inner city area and the way in which people want to leave the poor, drug ridden, and crime lord atmosphere. In this article she talks about the nature of the violence portrayed from its roots in the favelas to its relation to gangs. She also talks about alternatives to violence as well as means of controlling it.
“There is no justice system within the favela; the police act apparently on impulse. Shaggy, a member of the Tender Trio, is pursued and killed on only the word of another criminal, who has just been arrested for the murder of his own wife. The systemic violence of the state, and the fatalism with which it is accepted, is most evident in the film's ending.”
Through the main character of Rocket, a young boy who loves photography, we learn about character roles and the motives of these characters. It is interesting to observe how these people strive to get out of the favela and live a life without violence but they end up coming back to it time and time again. This quote shows the norms of society here in the favelas. Since there is no justice system within the favela, there is high crime rates and drug trade going on. The police do not seem to have a crucial role and even they are afraid of the violence here. Also, killing people ruthlessly and without reason is very common as seen in this quote. If you do not like someone or you are annoyed by them or if you see a happy child roaming the streets and talking about rumors they heard, you just kill them. It is completely normal here. We see various shot composers throughout the film due to this fast paced action. Quick cuts are often used as scenes have very short durations and shots are not held very long unless it is a very tense moment in the film such as the part when Rocket is stuck in the middle of the street along with the police on one side and Little Ze’s gang on the other. This shows that the film has a very interesting narrative structure based on the way the story is told through Rockets eyes and also through the many actions of violence which propel the plot because the crime lords hunt each other and when one is killed a new target is approached.
“While a variety of instrumental motives are offered for the violence done by others, L'il Ze seems unique in his pure enjoyment of violence. A simple reading might suggest that L'il Ze uses violence to attain power and money (he is made rich by his first major act) or out of self preservation (the elimination of his enemies), but Meirelles seems to be suggesting something more excessive. The child L'il Ze (then known as L'il Dice) accompanies the Tender Trio in a robbery, but escalates the violence into a slaughter; he does so not as an act of initiation (at first, the Trio doesn't even know he has done it, nor does the audience) but because he wants to.”
Here we can see that there are many motives that the characters have. The most brutal and violent of the characters is L’il Ze. Due to the ways in which the kids are brought up in the society (we know this through the use of flashback which create backstory and serve as the intro to film) many of them become involved in the violent drug trade and war that is seemingly endless in the favelas. When the child character of L’il Ze is revealed to have been involved in the killings and robbery that the Tender Trio committed, many loose ends are tied up. He was very excited by the thought of killing and there is a scene in which it shows him killing innocent people in the building and then laughing. He became like that when he was a child and he never changed after that. He grew up to be a violent and ruthless murderer. The kids think that they need to do something in order to fit in with the society. Power and money and killing innocent people is what the adults men savor so they want it as well. This further explains the genre of the film which is a gangster crime drama film.
“The favela is on one level a defined space with specific geography, straight rows of houses and repeated locations. On another level, it is a landscape with violent and incomprehensible qualities. In chase sequences, for example, camera angles are repeatedly reversed...”
In this excerpt we see more about the cinematography of the film. Many of the scenes if not all of them revolve around life in the favelas. The landscape is portrayed as a filthy and poverty stricken area filled with crime and drug trafficking. As we discussed in class, when we watch the film many angles are used and this creates not only suspense but confusion among the audience because of the camera angles and movement within the shots. We do not know the exact direction and spacing of the characters and the objects such as cars in the frame. This disorientation can be seen as a motif because the characters also are lost in confusion among this huge long lasting war between two of the gang strongholds in the favela. I also found it interesting how Rockets point of view is shown and when he is holding the camera and running, for example, we see exactly what his life is like at the moment and even then we are still confused about the direction and spacing. In the article it is also evident that shots from spaces within the buildings of the favela are interesting and create special cinematography. There was a mention of sniper targets and how these are shown by using point of view shots and changing the camera angle fast to find the shooters.
“In fact, bodies, the site of so much violence in City of God, are not dwelt upon. Throughout most of the film, they are treated with alternating casualness and calculation. The audience sees bodies falling, or lying on the ground, but the editing is rapid and generally cuts immediately away. The audience doesn't see the blood or tearing of flesh that we assume must accompany events.”
The edit of City of God is very interesting as well. We are not used to seeing bodies flying everywhere like we do in the film. Nor do we see the ruthless killings in films in our society. I liked how the author of this article talked about the nature of how casual the killings are. Some of the crime lords just kill people without any intention or reason for doing so. The bodies in particular are not shown much attention throughout the story. Once the bullet is fired from the guns of the soulless people, the people that the bullet goes through are not important any longer. The quick transition from the killings to the events that precede these is very noticeable after a while when you are watching the film. The viewer does not notice or sympathize with the victim anymore because we are so used to seeing human beings killed in a really violent manner.
“The camera/gun analogy is most explicit in the final standoff. Surrounded by L'il Ze's heavily armed gang and the police, Rocket stands frozen as the camera circles
around him.
considering the act of violence he is about t o commit”
This quote talks about the last part of the film. It is my favorite shot of the film as well because of the way the camera rotates around Rocket to reveal the the police and the gang are on either side of him. I liked how the author related the camera to a gunshot because of the power behind his camera. In the film, Rocket is used by L’il Ze to get his gang in the newspaper and he enjoys the attention that the media is bringing towards him and his friends in the gang. We see a recurring symbol of a shot. The shot can be a bullet or even just a picture. In the favela, both of these mean the downfall of the person being affected. Rocket is shown as the power of the media and those that glorify its use in the film.
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