Friday, January 2, 2009

City of God damn this is a great movie

One of my favorite movies of all time is City of God. Ironically, this piece of cinematic awesomeness has nothing to do with God, but there's plenty of drugs and murder. The movie follows the story of two boys from the City of God, not to be confused with the village of God, which has less violence and way better schools, as they choose opposite paths through a vicious world. If there is a hero in this movie it must be Rocket, who opts to become a photographer rather than take part in the violent life of Rio de Janero's most notorious slum. The villain, one of the best ever I might add, Lil' Ze, not to be confused with lil' Kim, chooses to live a life of pure violence and rule the city of God through its drug trade.

I didn't know before I first watched it, that it was in a different language, Which meant that I had unknowingly sat down for a couple of hours of reading. If your like me, then you hate to read, that's why you watch movies, right? But in the case of City of God I suggest suffering through it, because this movie is badass. It's hard to describe in words how badass this movie. This formula should explain it though:
Sorry for the blurryness. I had to write this on a napkin because I can't do it in Word. But if you click on the image you can see it in hi-def

Despite being choc-full of guns, drugs and all other breeds of cool shit, City of God is a serious movie that warrants deeper analysis. This movie shows how violence precipitates through generations. The movie opens with the tale of, what I dub the first generation, the Tender Trio. These are three teenagers who rob motels and gas trucks. They do this for personal gain and they also give back to the community. Kind of a Robin hood thing. The second Genration consists mainly of Lil' Ze and his attempt to seize power by killing off his competition and cornering the cocaine market. Shrewd. He uses killing strictly as a means of increasing his power. The only manner in which he gives back to the community is by implementing draconian punishments on those who do not follow his orders. By the end of the film the third generation, composed of tweens, is forming plans to kill those who they simply don't like. The audience is shown how over time a society that governs itself by violence decomposes into a people that can do nothing but kill each other.
Here we see lil' dice excelling at his favorite extra curricular activity, Murder in the second degree!

Here's the kicker this whole story, based on a true story. Thats righ,t some place in a country called South America was a ghetto where children roamed with no other goal than to kill one another. Badass. This movie makes me reflect upon my own upbringing. When I was seven I wasn't like these kids. I had a roof over my head, hot meal in my stomach and I never got shot at. It just lets me know how much of a pussy I really am.

To illustrate my point I've included this picture from my childhood. You'll notice that I have chubby cheaks, indicative of a ample nutrition, and in leui a gub I'm threatening someone with a Wolverine action figure
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