The City of God is a Gangster film this is evident through the conventions which it contains. Guns, love interests, gangs, drugs, explicit language and vulgar sexual content. However there are certain factors in the film which are unconventional such as; infants handling drugs and guns, children killing other people. The film contains a sense of realism as it was based on actual events.
The film takes place in Rio de Janeiro in a slum called Cidade de Deus which is directly translated from Portuguese to English as City of God. The story is narrated by the main protagonist Rocket. The son of a fish monger an aspiring photographer. It is based on a true story and it depicts the trials and tribulations the citizens of Rio face in the slums such as drug abuse, violent crime, and over all Rockets struggle to break away from the manner which his friends and family have been accustomed to and make something of himself.
The film begins with a chase sequence, children are chasing a chicken which they have been told to catch by a man. The group is clearly a gang as they are armed and they go about the chase not caring about anyone in their way. The chicken is in the middle of the street beneath the feet of the protagonist rocket and the gang leader points a gun at him and tells him to grab the chicken. Rocket begins to narrate the story and the film flashes back to almost a decade ago to show the audience how exactly he got into the predicament.
The story of "The Tender Trio" is told. One of its member is Rockets elder brother Goose. The Tender Trio weren't your average gang the didn't kill or harm innocent people, the instead committed small crimes for the benefit of others and people close to them. Lil Dice, a young child set in his ways convinces the gang to rob a motel and the people staying there. The gang agree to his proposal but they leave him out of the heist. Clearly this was not part of his plan but the group were convinced they were looking out for him. Angered and how The Tender Trio have belittled him, he fires a warning shot, convinces the gang the police are after them and commits a mass slaughter of all the residents of the motel. The film jumps ahead, showing Lil Dice become Lil Ze through the help of a witch and become the top Drug Lord.
Lil Ze is then identified as the antagonist in the film, the cause of all the chaos and destruction in every ones lives. After the death of his best friend Benny Lil Ze lost his way and Raped the girl friend of a peaceful bus conductor named knock out Ned. This began the downward spiral of Lil Ze. He failed to kill Knock Out Ned as he had intended and went back for him at his home, killing his brother and his uncle in the process. Ned looses his patience with Lil Ze and seeks vengeance for his family. He teams up with Carrot on of the other Drug Lords in the City of God but then looses sight of his goal to avenge his family and ends up becoming a gang member. Ned ends up on the newspapers for a raid he committed with Carrot, angered by this Lil Ze starts to quench fame. He finds Rocket, returns the camera he stole from him and asks for him to take pictures, unfortunately the pictures were accidently printed in the papers. Rocket fears for his life thinking that Lil Ze will come after him for exposing him like that, but Lil Ze appreciates the recognition.
Going back to where the film began, (the chicken chase) Rocket tries to catch the chicken but is shaken by Lil Ze's request to have his picture taken, before he can get the shot a gun fight breaks out between Lil Ze's gang and Carrot and Knockout Ned's gang. A boy who is in Lil Ze's gang kills Knockout Ned, a flashback shows the biys father being killed at the bank by Knockout Ned before his very eyes. Lil Ze and Carrot are arrested and taken away by the police. Lil Ze gives the police officers all the money that he had and they demanded more. After the police leave him the very children e handed guns to, to help him fight his war saw him at his weakest and took advantage of the situation and killed him. Rocket was in the background hidden away taking pictures of all the goings on to take back to his news agency.
The film is told by the protagonist but split into three main segments; The Tender Trio, Lil Dice aka Lil Ze and Knockout Ned. All these stories are intertwined and they have an effect on the protagonist and an effect on the ending. There are other short stories included in the film such as The killing of Otto's father by Knockout Ned, Benny's fare well; this is the story of the coolest hood in the slum. Benny was Lil Ze's bestfriend but he was not as ruthless as Lil Ze, however he stuck by his loyalties to his friend. Once he got a taste of the life of the hippy's (Rockets friends) it became the life he was accustomed too and he chose it over the hood life. This decision was made because he fell in love. Which was a sign of history repeating itself. One of the members of The Tender Trio fell in love and choose love over the hood life but was killed for it.
The use of a multistrand narrative and the realism of the events of the film are what the audience is most likely to find captivating.
The main characters in the film are Rocket, the protagonist, Lil Ze the Antagonist, Benny a secondary protagonist and Knockout Ned even though he is just a stock character his role in the film is great.
Women are portrayed primarily as victims, such as Shorty's wife. She wasn't getting much out of her marriage and took to a lover and was brutally murdered and her body inconsiderably discarded. The strongest women in the film were Angelica and Bernice, the attempted to reverse the power equation by using there sexual hold over men, encouraging them to leave the gangs and make something better of themselves. Both of them ended up loosing the man they love as a result of the escape attempts, making them both indirect victims of violence and indirectly responsible for it.
Teenagers and children lack morals in the City of God. If they are not committing crimes and selling drugs, they are drug abusers which is not morally acceptable in any society, but because of the life that they are accustomed to they are subjected to all these morally degrading factors.
The adults do not cater to their children. It is the responsibility if a parent to lead their child down a morally upright life, but the parents of the children don't take it upon themselves to do so, they just complain once the children and teenagers are out of order ergo, miscreants and hoodlums run the city.
One can see that Rocket is the opposite of Lil Ze, they are the same age and both set in there ways but while Rocket aspiring to get out of the slums and make something better of him self. Lil Ze wants to run the hood, and have everyone fear him. This is the epitome of rivalry and war in films the good vs the evil.
The target audience in terms of age is Primarily 18+ this is because of the explicit nature of some of the film conventions such as sex, language, violence and substance abuse. All of these conventions were evident throughout the entire film. In terms of gender the film is appealing to all. For males it is due to the over all content of the film. Research shows that for males the most appealing genre is gangster due to the conventions which it contains. Furthermore, the way by which males are represented in the film, as strong fearless ambitious individuals may also strike them as appealing.
For females the story line of the film is interesting, especially the love interests. Some women may find it relatable to have a bad boy boyfriend whom they are trying to save just like Angelica and Bernice in the City of God. The audiences main interests could be foreign films, as City of God is written and dictated in Portuguese and contains subtitles. Most people fine foreign films and subtitles off putting. The gangster genre, true life stories and violence are also other primary interests. The audience is most likely to find the story line and the multistrand narrative appealing and entertaining as well as the content. They may also relate to the characters in the film.
In conclusion City of God is a Niche film that appeals to a specific type of audience based on age and mutual interest.
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