Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2584 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-09-22
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: Portuguese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 135 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Like cinematic dynamite, City of God lights a fuse under its squalid Brazilian ghetto, and we're a captive audience to its violent explosion. The titular favela is home to a seething army of impoverished children who grow, over the film's ambitious 20-year time frame, into cut-throat killers, drug lords and feral survivors. In the vortex of this maelstrom is L'il Z (Leandro Firmino da Hora--like most of the cast, a non-professional actor), self-appointed king of the dealers, determined to eliminate all competition at the expense of his corrupted soul. With enough visual vitality and provocative substance to spark heated debate (and box-office gold) in Brazil, codirectors Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund tackle their subject head on, creating a portrait of youthful anarchy so appalling--and so authentically immediate--that City of God prompted reforms in socioeconomic policy. It's a bracing feat of stylistic audacity, borrowing from a dozen other films to form its own unique identity. You'll flinch, but you can't look away. --Jeff Shannon

Special Features

• 'News From A Private War' featurette
  
• Interactive menu
  
• Scene access

DVD Technical Information:

• Aspect Ratio: Widescreen Anamorphic
  
• Language: Portuguese
  
• Subtitles: English, English for the hearing impaired
  
• Running Time: 2 hours and 15 minutes approx.
  
• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1

Synopsis
Youth gangs took over the slums of Rio de Janiero during the 1960s and didn't relinquish their stronghold until the mid-1980s. Only a sucker wouldn't have turned to crime and this is exactly how naive teen Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) views himself. His attempts in illegal activity fail as he finds potential victims too friendly. Equally unsuccessful in love, he regularly fails to lose his virginity. Blood spills throughout the streets of the Ciudad de Deus as gang leader Li'l Ze (Douglas Silva) is challenged by local druglords and a gang of pre-teens known as the Runts. Rocket shoots all of this action with his weapon of choice, a camera.
Director Fernando Meirelles combines visual flashiness with dark history in telling the story of three decades of unrest in underground Rio de Janiero. Technically flawless, the Brazilian film uses a rapid-cutting style to flash back and forth in time. Cinematographer Cesar Charlone shoots with an overexposed glow in a film that may seem numb to violence, but reveres photography. Director Meirelles was assisted by Kaita Lund, a filmmaker who had previously shot in the Rio ghettos.

Customer Reviews

Planning a trip to Brazil?
I would love to give this film five stars because I watched it all the way through and came out the other end with something. My reason for four stars is simply that it is one of the most depressing, violent, and graphic movies I have ever seen. I almost turned it off several times, so gratituous did the violence seem, but, deciding to stick it out, found it to be a remarkable film. I'm saying this because there are bound to be those who will not be able to watch this without knowing that the ending is fantastic. If you think you know the world, you don't. If you think you've seen poverty and evil, you haven't. If you think your life is bad, it isn't. How there could be any "hell" as this on earth is almost impossible to imagine. The ghetto's of Rio are truly worse than anything one can believe and the fact that the enormous amount of children are perpetuating the violence is even more bizarre. This is sort of a "Lord of the Flies" times 1,000 and the entire film can be seen as a metaphor for the world I suppose. The acting and directing are perfect, but beware: if you're not one to look at violence and senseless killing, this is not a movie for you. While my review may not want to make you rush out and see this, you should. This is a movie you should know. You might not love it, but you should know it exists.

Astonishing
I was disappointed that this film is being labelled the new Goodfellas. This film is in a different league to Goodfellas or any other 'gangster' film. I understand that many of the Amercian or English mob movies usually end with the death of the gangsters but I have always regarded them as sensationalising organised crime and making the life of the gangster look fairly attractive to persons with certain dispositions.
City of God is I think more representative of real street crime between kids and men in the slums of Brazil, Nigeria, Somalia, or even some streets in the more developed world.
City of God explains that criminality and murder is not a choice, it is a way of life; the only means of survival. In films like Scarface or Goodfellas the life of a gangster provided the option for the greedy and evil.
City of God is far superior because it shows that for some war is life, and no matter how good a person may be circumstances make people bad. I was astonished by the direction in the film and the way the story developed. The scenes were extraordinary and frighetening. City of God is faultless and the ultimate cinema exposition of criminality.

Simply astounding
From the opening chicken chase to the closing, bloody gunfights, City of God is a wonder to behold. It will entertain and it will shock in equal measure throughout it's tragic 2 hour running time.

It tells the story of Rocket, who just wants to get by in life. He wants to earn money, lose his virginity and become a photographer. He doesn't want to become a hoodlum, which in the city of God is a hard thing to try and avoid. As we watch events unfold, the lives of a group of hoodlums interact and intertwine with each other.

The performances are brilliant, and as I understand it, all were unknowns. Each character is so detailed and humanised, they feel real. When someone is insulted, you feel insulted with them, when someone is put in a questionable situation, you feel the pressure and influences with them.

What is even more memorable is the tragic consequences the events in this film have on its characters. Some scenes are hard to watch - like when one character has to choose between two different children, and kill one of them to become a part of a gang. Others, like the misunderstanding of main hood Lil Ze and his right hand man which has fatal consequences. It's all vital, and hard to pull your eyes off the screen.

It's a Brazilian film, spoken in a foreign tongue, so you will have to read subtitles, but for a serious film watcher that shouldn't be a problem, as this is an essential film to watch.

It all leads to an expected gang land war - how else do these sort of films end, crime doesn't pay! - that is violent, brutal and soul destroying. It's hard to write the words to explain the vast emotions you feel while watching this film, and is thus indispensible.

The DVD comes with a vague, slightly interesting featurette. But most haunting of all is the words that crop up during the credits: Based on real events.