There is no absolute protagonist in the city of God, and the loop and branch narrative structure is very exciting. The picture and music of the movie are also good, with the chicken chasing as the first and last echoes and the clues of the gang fire at the end, which makes people feel meaningful.
The change in the power structure of the City of God can correspond to the classification of organized criminal groups in Magaloni’s paper. Li'l Dice unifies the City of God to form a "Symbiotic Regime" (bribery of the police & maintain order in the slums). ) After launching a turf war with Carrot & Knockout Ned, it became a "Split Regime" (Split Regime, there are opposing criminal organizations in the same community). In the end, the police sat down to reap the profits and swept Li'l Dice’s wealth. After leaving, the younger generation The Runts took advantage of his illness to take his life to get revenge. As a result, Li'l Dice’s life was foreseeable. Under the vacuum of power, the children who started to take drugs will surely grow into a new criminal gang ruling the City of God. What is not yet known is that they will become a "symbiotic regime" coexisting with the police, and a "predatory regime" that squanders lives in the slums ( Predatory), the "Insurgent" (Insurgent) that unites the entire community against the government, or the "Bandit" (Bandit) that fires on the police and civilians at the same time. What is certain is that for a long period of time, this endless cycle of violence and hatred will continue in Rio's slums. Especially in those slums that are in a "symbiotic relationship" with the government and the police, the intricate interest network makes the already weak official power less motivated to fight crime and control the community.
Except for the disproportionate focus on violence, the film is realistic about the details of life in the slums. And perhaps it is not only violence that separates the slums from the metropolis of Rio. It can be noticed that Rocket is the only person of color in the newspaper, and more ironically, the reason why he was able to get an internship in the newspaper is that only he can (relatively speaking more safely) enter (mainly colored people) ) Slums and took photos of criminal gangs (mainly of color). The impression is that the newspaper has become the foothold of the “city” to observe the “slums” and a rare intersection of the two worlds, and this intersection is still unilateral, and the “city” overlooks the “slums”. Another place where people can feel racial/class discrimination is in the first paragraph of the film. After the motel robbery, the police launched a large number of police forces to investigate the slums. Anyone of color would be considered a suspect. So that when the real criminal and another dark-skinned teenager were walking on the road and met the police head-on, the innocent teenager who was subconsciously scared and ran back was shot to death by the police, and the criminal walked past the police. Around.
The City of God was originally invested by the government to build a residential area in the suburbs to remove slums from the city. At the beginning of the movie, you can also see the scene of installing street lights, which shows the government's ambitions. However, in reality, the funds invested by the government are gradually becoming unsustainable; in the movie, it can also be noticed that the face of the community is becoming more and more dilapidated. At the same time, with too many entangled problems such as unemployment and drugs, the City of God has finally become another slum, even more violent and dirty. However, as far as the government is concerned, at least it is farther away from the city.
ref.
Beatriz Magaloni, Edgar Franco-Vivanco and Vanessa Melo. 2020. "Killing in the Slums: The Problem of Social Order and Police Violence in Rio de Janeiro", American Political Science Review, Vol. 114, No. 2, May 2020.
Digression: When the movie shows that Li'l Dice, who is still a child, is killing him in the motel, another boy in the class is laughing. The continuous gunfire and wailing, the sharp contrast with the joy on the face of the child made me feel the creeps, and it is really hard to understand why my classmates are laughing.
View more about City of God reviews
