City of God

City of God had me hooked from start to finish, the way the camera manipulates the audience in such a clever way I find incredible. To start with the title 'City of God' is ironic as the characters in the film are far from safety in God's hands, and God plays no presence in the entire film. The brutal reality of the characters lives reflects on how the criminal image and status is just the normal way of life. At the beginning of the film the music used is diegetic and the fast cuts used makes you feel confused and anxious of where the knife is, and unaware of your surroundings making you feel involved.

As the film unfolds we are revealed and let into the lives of the characters and I really empathise with the children knowing the things they have to do like drug dealing purely to survive allowing their families to live; to put bluntly if you don't get involved in the towns drug industry and earn respect from the main leaders than you have little hope surviving. In the case of the children looks are definitely deceiving in this case as the children are just as violent as the adults and you shouldn't under estimate this for a minute, just like the adults they are also killed without much consideration for their age as this doesn't matter in their eyes.

I find this film completely unique and so different, but yet so realistic of that culture and it really brings home how life is for some people in different cultures and makes you realise what life could be really like. The main focus for me in the film is the children and how they are so grown up before their time, having to fend for themselves and the parent role does not even come into the picture. The worst part of the film is when the two children are being mouthed off by Lil Ze and one of them has to be shot in the hand or foot and the other has to be shot to be killed, this decision has to be made by (one of the newest gang members who agreed to be in Lil Ze's gang through peer pressure who I can't remember the name of). You can tell by his facial expressions that he doesn't want to choose but he eventually does and his face is distraught once it happens. Lil Ze then makes the other child walk off after he's just been shot in the foot, shouting at him not to limp which I find really sad as he is clearly in agonizing pain and finds it incredibly hard not to. In my opinion this film is an inspirational success in making me feel completely emotional involved in it, I share the emotions with all the characters and often find myself feeling frustrated, confused, upset, happy and much more; which I find unbelievable that a film could do this to me which I never thought it could.