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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer ( )
  Languages
  • Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English, English - Hearing Impaired
  Extras
  • Documentaries - News From A Personal War

City of God

Buena Vista/Buena Vista . R4 . COLOR . 124 mins . R . PAL

  Feature
Contract

I don’t exactly know what I was expecting from this film but I sure got something other than that. I know I wasn’t expecting such a high-class film as this. This is a brutal and explicit exposé on the Cidade de Deus - The City of God – in Rio de Janeiro’s palmed-off city slums (named by politicians to make it sound nicer...).

No one rests easy in the City of God. The people who live there live in a place where the cops are cheap and life is even cheaper; where running gun battles are a daily affair and where tracer fire lights up the night skies. The City of God, however, is not at war. The City of God is possibly the only place in the world where tracer fire ignites the night without a civil war raging beneath.

We are introduced to this horrific world through Rocket, a teenage photographer trying his best to survive in this harsh reality. As the film opens we see him suddenly trapped in the middle of the street, an angry horde of youths and gangsters with guns pointed in his direction, and a group of police coming toward the youths, also heavily armed. We then step back in time to the '60s where Rocket takes us through the long and manifold events that placed him there, that placed the gang there and put the police there.

It’s a cleverly told story and done so without pulling punches. Murder is as common and as likely as lunchtime in the City and it is controlled by one hoodlum: Li’l Zé. Li’l Zé was once Li’l Dice and as a boy committed his first murder at around age six. As he grew up he had big plans and an ambition to one day control Cidade de Deus. He was younger brother to one of the ‘Tender Trio’; three youths that perpetrated numerous crimes and were well wanted for them. As their popularity grew, Li’l Dice watched and waited with his ever present sidekick, Benny. While Li’l Dice grows up and becomes Li’l Zé, his friend Benny is the cool temper to his passionate rage, talking him out of murder and violence until Benny becomes the most popular guy in the City. Li’l Zé wants to boot out Carrot, the only other hood in the slum, but Benny convinces him he needs the competition. When Benny retires however, Li’l Zé is lost and an ugly war breaks out between his controlled areas and Carrot’s turf.

"The slum had been Purgatory... now it was Hell."

What follows is an explosive turf war involving the police, numerous splinter factions and ganglords and caught right in among the crossfire is Rocket, a young photographer willing to risk his life for the one photo that will get him out of the City forever. That puts us right back where we started...

This is sensational as far as films go, and even more so because it’s based on real events and people. Modern camera techniques have been employed throughout and add dramatic impact with bullet-time, hand held cameras and quick cuts back and forth. In fact, the whole thing looks a lot like a Soderbergh vehicle replete with funky soundtrack and clever flashbacks and fill-in stories, plus Tarantinoesque hip slang and bloodletting. Director Fernando Meirelles has made a faultless integration of Hollywood style into a foreign film and the movie sings with this hip telling of a very real crisis in South America. Not told without its sense of humour, the movie still finds us gasping at the brutality and appalled to discover that the majority of perpetrators here are under 20. In fact, in Cidade de Deus, you're considered lucky if you make it to 20.

Meirelles has brought this story to the world and told it in the manner we have become accustomed to; violent, brutal and extreme with plenty of ultra-cool and one-liners. This is a clever way to get your point across and goes along way toward getting the word out on a global scale.

  Video
Contract

Being shot just last year, this looks superb. Buena Vista traditionally creates a great transfer to DVD and for the most part, this is their usual level of quality. However we do get a few MPEG and compression artefacts. A good example is from 16:30-42 (among others), with some fade ups and outs being quite chunky and solid. Blacks and colours are good however, although most of the film is in the sullen earth tones of the dusty ghetto. Shadow detail is usually good though, so we easily understand the night scenes.

Otherwise, this film looks spectacular. Delivered in 1.85:1 with 16:9 enhancement we get the full size cinema feeling and are truly thrust into the City’s claustrophobic atmosphere.

  Audio
Contract

Whilst delivered in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, the only language is Portuguese. Don’t let this dissuade you though, as subtitles are clear and fast and easily read. The surrounds work well for the film, particularly in gun battles with bullets whining past us and guns firing behind to really immerse us in the City. At other times the regular sounds of the City (people, dogs etc.) are subtly dropped in to keep us within the walls.

Sound effects are great with plenty of variations of gunfire and ricochets without diving into the stock sound effects bucket. Music, as previously noted, is full of hip funk and wokka-wokka’s as well as having that uniquely South American feel and local flavour. It’s an awesome sound setup and wholly supports and develops the visuals.

  Extras
Contract

This has but one extra, but it is superb. This is a documentary entitled News From a Personal War and runs for 56:41. Made in 1997/98, it documents the strife and the gang/drug wars of Rio de Janeiro. It includes interviews with residents and people who live the battle, including disguised members of gangs, and is an objective overview of the trouble. This is the kind of doco we’re used to seeing on SBS and provides a real basis for us to come to grips with the film on. Dynamite stuff, presented here in 1.78:1 without enhancement.

  Overall  
Contract

I cannot recommend this film enough. Go grab it tonight or as soon as you read this, for it won’t disappoint you. Truly superb filmmaking telling an incredibly important story in a very entertaining method.


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      And I quote...
    "Director Fernando Meirelles makes a faultless integration of Hollywood style into a foreign film and the movie sings with this hip telling of a very real crisis in South America..."
    - Jules Faber
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Nintaus DVD-N9901
    • TV:
          Sony 51cm
    • Receiver:
          Diamond
    • Speakers:
          Diamond
    • Surrounds:
          No Name
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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