City of God

Movie: City of God, 2002; 130 min

Director: Fernando Meirelles

Actors: Alexandre Rodrigues, Matheus Nachtergaele, Leandro Firmino

Summary: The story follows two boys who grow up in the same slum neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro but lead different lives as they grow older. Later on, the stories of Rocket, an aspiring photographer, and Li’l Zé, a gang leader/drug dealer, intertwine during drug wars in the City of God.

Question 1: What significance does the chicken at the beginning of the film have?

The film begins with a montage series of choppy cuts of knives being sharpened, cutting vegetables, and slaughtering chickens for a meal. One brown chicken continues to appear throughout the sequence where other chickens are being slaughtered right in front of it. The chicken becomes aware of his deadly fate and lets himself free. Even though the chicken is free from the tie around his foot, he is now running away from a group of hoodlums with guns in their hands, shooting after it as if their guns were toys. This chicken serves as a symbol for all the people who are slaughtered by the relentless hoodlums. Once these unfortunate people become aware that their life is in danger by the hoodlums, they attempt to escape and run away. But most of the time, the hoodlums will find and kill the people whom they pursue. With the chicken in the context of the story, the opening scene serves as a precursor to what will happen throughout the film.

Question 2: What role does the camera play at the end of the film? What unique effect does the director use pertaining to the camera?

Rocket, along with his new camera, happens to be present during a monumental/final battle in the war between the two drug gangs in the City of God. With his camera, Rocket captures pictures that will guarantee him an opportunity for a steady job, something a majority of the people in the City of God does not have. The camera offers Rocket an escape from his world of violence and death. Rocket also captures photographs of the policeman taking bribes from Li’l Zé. These photographs could either make him go down in history for revealing the injustice of the police system, or they could be the end of him because they go against the police. The last set of photographs Rocket takes are of Li’l Zé after he is shot multiple times by the Runts with their new guns. As Rocket walks from his observation point to where Li’l Zé lays face-down on the ground, the director purposely makes the shot as if seen through a camera lens kept on in between pictures; a lens that is not pointed at anything specific. The shot through a camera lens stops once a photo is snapped of Li’l Zé.