Juxtaposition In The City Of God

The film that we screened in class was titled the City of God and was directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund. The film spans three decades and starts with an escaped chicken that is getting chased by a neighborhood gang. The chicken then stops between the gang, Rocket and police then a flashback appears on screen. The first story is about the Tender Trio and how they rob business; however, on one of their biggest robbery (Motel) something goes tremendously wrong. The next stories are about Rocket love story with a girl name Angelic and Li'l Zé rise to power in the city. Toward the end, Benny's has farewell party, where he was accidentally murdered by Blackie, who was attempting to kill Li'l Zé. In the end, a war breaks out between the gangs and Li'l Zé dies and Rocket captures his death for a newspaper company where he is an intern.
There were many historical and cultural context surrounding the film City of God.
The setting of the film was located in Rio de Janeria, Brazil and spanned over 3 decades. During the 3 decade span, the film showed the juxtaposition between the life's of the wealthy individuals versus the poor individuals. To make matters worse, the slums were located on a mountain were they would see the wealthy people having fun which is the motive to rob the rich people. Another historical context was the movie was based on a true story and not made up. Finally, the director hand selected 100 individuals from Cidade de Deus in Rio de Janeiro to make the movie as authetic as possible to represent the culture in Cidade de
Deus. I enjoyed watching the film City of God because it was an action film. Not only was the film an action film but it was based on a true story. The movie's director choice a great cast and a great majority of them were non actors. However, it seemed like the majority of them were actors because of how professional they were. Also another positive things were the life lessons, themes, and setting throughout the film.