Friday, May 28, 2010

City of God

There is enough and more kids with guns in this movies to make all the Americans movies drop their jaws and bow to the mighty one. This is the by far the greatest movie you have to see before you die. Some of you might already be dead. It is a film which is filled with chick shit, gunpowder and sweat. But it is still as sexy as ever. The opening shot of the movie is of knife getting sharpened to kill some chicken. The film keeps shifting from a non linear to a linear narrative. At times giving a feeling of a film within a film. There moments in this movie which are pretty brutal especially when most of the incidents involve kids.

The story is of a relentless photographer who wants to the story of the gangs of Rio. It begins in the 60s when his brother and three others start a gang. They are gangsters at a very early and like the protagonist says very amateur. The story then goes into the 70s with many of the characters dead from the beginning and a new set of characters get introduced. The movies strength is how seamlessly characters are introduced with certain breaks like the story of the apartment. But the violence leads to more violence which leads to several vicious circles. Their lives are at stake due to events which get revealed at later stages. Every situation in this film has a new approach and a different filter. But all of them are closely linked to each other. There is also a lot of style in some of the shots. For instance there is a scene of a man with his head on the ground with a leg on top of him he is made to witness the brutal rape of his wife. There is a lot of characters in this movie but there is no room for empathy.

Some of the performances by some of the kids are shocking. The understanding they have with the director is unbelievable. The director attempts something which not many people can ever do again. But he might outdo himself in his next movie about a similar set of boys in City of Men.

It was nominated for around 4 Oscars but didn't receive any but that doesn't matter because it was beyond that.

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