City of God: Cinematic Portrayal of Violence

"If this is His city, what Hell look like?"

"One wants to steal the loot; after all, the youth are only 'niggers and thieves'; the other wants simply to 'exterminate' the men. This dialogue, coupled with the image of the men huddled primitively in the tree branches, calls attention to the way in which they have been dehumanized by the state and by the discourse of the media"

City of God is a film directed by Fernando Meirelles, and it depicts the troubled lives of those living in the Brazilian favelas, surrounded by gangs, drugs, and incessant violence. The portrayal of violence in City of God is shown through our narrator, Rocket, who is subject to this violence growing up in the favelas of Brazil. Rocket grows up to photograph the horrors of the violence of his city to bring it to the attention of the media. The narrative is very character driven, as Rocket narrates the actions and history of almost every key character in the film. This individual characterization allows the audience to witness the development of each character, building a connection or sympathy that leads the audience to either completely detest every action they make, or exemplify their deaths or tragic outcomes. However, through such intimate characterization, the film manages to completely dehumanize every action of the gang violence, referring to the horrors being carried out by "'niggers and thieves'". This is how Meirelles' directing effectively creates a complex narrative, as the audience starts out with a small personal issue of money and power between a few individuals, and it relates back to a larger scale act of gang violence and drug trade in Brazilian favelas.


"The favela is on one level a defined space with specific geography, straight rows of houses and repeated locations. On another level, it is a landscape with violent and incomprehensible qualities. In chase sequences, for example, camera angles are repeatedly reversed, confusing direction and space."

The cinematography of the film significantly adds to the chaos and discord resulting from the violence in this film. As stated above, the "camera angles are repeatedly reversed, confusing direction and space". It's camera movements like these that creates that sense of being lost in the favelas. The issue of the whole situation is almost "incomprehensible", especially to those affected by it. Rocket just accepts all the violence and chaos as he grew up with a brother who was a hood. The exposure to the violence is enough to force individuals to accept it.

“The audience sees bodies falling, or lying on the ground, but the editing is rapid and generally cuts immediately away. The audience doesn't see the blood or tearing of flesh that we assume must accompany events. “

The editing indeed contributes to this sort of dehumanizing violence. The lack of "blood or tearing flesh" is what signifies how the people affected by it accept this violence. It happens so commonly around them there is no need to observe and sympathize with the corpse of the unfortunate. One of the possibly few gruesome death scenes that were emotionally attached were the deaths in the brothel during "The Sixties". It was in this scene that the shot was held particularly long, in order to set the tone of the violence-intensive film that the audience would begin to delve into.