Brazilian National Films: The City of God Essay

To start, the film seems like your basic run-on-the mill coming of age tale with a group of teenagers growing up to desire more after they graduate high school. However, there are various more themes discreetly displayed throughout the runtime of the film. For example, one central sociological overtone of this film is Marxism. With this overtone, it becomes possible to view this light-hearted and comedic movie in a

Regardless of age, race, or religion, the film’s powerful imagery captivated audiences nationwide. It not only set the tone for how people were already feeling, but it was also a call to those unaware of how bad conditions of poverty, gang violence and the feeling of oppression had become for the lower class. Though the movie was purely fictional, the issues it portrayed helped exploit a huge problem in our country.  In some areas, the films message hit so hard that riots broke out at theaters. The worst of these occurred at the Halsted Twin Outdoor Theater in the south Chicago suburb of Riverdale, where a man was fatally shot in his car by another man as both were leaving the drive-in. (???) Similarly, in the movie, Dough boy feels resentful about America because they don’t care about the ghetto which leads him to an endless cycle of violence.

In the beginning of the movie one can tell that the less developed, or "slums",

Fernando Meirelles’s City of God (2002) has provoked critical discussion concerning its representation of the Brazilian working class since its release[2]. The film has been described as both disturbing and electrifying for its brutal realism and inspired

LaGravanese makes an excellent job with the characters, the soundtrack, and the scenery, making the message clear for the audience. Throughout the movie, the director uses many strong facts that strengthen his credibility and appeal to ethos, as well as build the movie’s argument. The director establishes his credibility by showing the audience actual video footage of Los Angeles area from the early 1990s and a series of captions demonstrated the racial tension between different gangs. Also,

Comparatively, the inner-city demographics hindered the boy’s chances of social mobility and personal growth along with the social brutality. A city is like a machine in the sense that every part of the city works together to bring

Poverty and oppression is a serious condition that is prevalent even in today’s modern society. Women and children are exposed to poverty and subjected to a life of injustice. One of the countries where such problems still occur is in India. Despite the country’s modernization, there lies an undercity where the disparity of wealth is transparent. These social problems are thoroughly described in movies and literature such as Slumdog Millionaire and Behind the Beautiful Forevers. In the book Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Catherine Boo, the author describes slum life for a set of individuals and the hardship that their social conditions confined them to. Another movie that gave insight to slum life in India is Slumdog Millionaire

     The City of God is based on actual events that occurred in Rio de Janeiro during the 1960’s and 1970’s. The movie is about the rise and fall of a fearsome sociopath gang leader Li’l Ze, who reigned as king of the drug lords during the 70’s. The first part of the movie illustrates some of the forces that mold Li’l Ze into the man he becomes, while the second half shows his ruthless leap to power, followed by the war he wages against opposing gang leaders Carrot and Knockout Ned. The film is narrated by Rocket, a photographer who exists on the outskirts of Li’l Ze’s circle of dominance and control. In the film the city is filled with ruthless acts of delinquency and is basically in

As a child develops into an adult there are critical developmental steps that are necessary for a complete and successful transition. The physical transition is the most obvious change, but underneath the thick skin and amongst the complex systems, exists another layer of transitions. Ideas, rationales, ideologies and beliefs all dwell within this layer of each being. It could be said that a nation can also fit this transitional framework. A nation grows in both size (wealth, population, power), and in ideological maturity (emancipation of slaves, civil rights, women’s rights…etc). This constant evolution of ideas and size is the foundation of a successful government. Without change and

The review of this movie is based on sociological matters that are outshined in the film and touch on the lives of the individuals, their way of living, morals, behavior and cultural aspects. The film is set in a real society and concentrating much on social issues of the society more than the economic, technological and political status of this society based in New York.

The political elements of the movie are shown through the politics of violence. The movie focuses on masculinity, violence and gender. It resembles the pathology of individual and institutional violence that fills America, ranging from hate crimes to criminal subcultures. Violence functions mostly through the politics of denial, insulation, disinterest and inability to criticize with self-consiousness. This is the violence that represents society today.

In conclusion the movie “City of God” was an excellent example of the many sociological theories discussed in class. The movie demonstrated the functionalist theory, the interactionist theory, the conflict theory and even the control theory. It provided a prime example of the work of many sociologists, such as Emil Durkheim, Robert Merton, Edwin Sutherland, Edwin Lemert, Karl Marx and many others. Each of these sociological theories was helpful in understanding the crime and deviance in the movie.

The film however, operates in two distinct modes: the narrative of a profoundly human struggle for survival that remains common to all, and the unromantic depiction of Italian class struggle in the postwar era. In the latter mode, the film illustrates a series of behaviors, and social structure that remain indifferent to Antonio and his desperate situation. It identifies Antonio and his family by their situational relationship, with the various groups present in Rome during the postwar period. E.g., Antonio’s family is displaced from his local group of communists, churchgoers, and market folks

The “City of God” is an eloquently written challenge, from Saint Augustine, for human society to choose which city it wishes to be a part of, the city of God or the city of man. As described by Augustine, the city of God is a metaphorical place where the citizens love, glorify, worship, and praise God. They find their strength and authority through mutual servitude with Yahweh. This city is then compared to the earthly city where the people love themselves, glorify themselves, find strength in themselves, and worship themselves or created things. The earthly city seeks praise from people and strives for domination. These two cities are the crux of Augustine’s novel which entails people to be worthy citizens of the City of Heaven, despite the devastating fall of Rome. Many people questioned whether Christianity was at fault for Rome’s demise, claiming that the pagan gods were angry that Christianity became the dominant religion in Rome, thus the pagan gods were thought to have left, leaving Rome vulnerable to attack. Thereby, Augustine sets out to dispute these beliefs by stating that God initiated all of creation, and in such a grand plan, the fall of Rome is rather insignificant. The more important issue is to choose a life in the city of man or the city of God, of which Augustine marks the parameters with compelling metaphors that beg the reader to choose the everlasting city because it provides the achievement of peace, the achievement of a purposeful ending, and the

Much like the U.S., Brazilian culture is extremely diverse. Brazil’s current population of 190 million represents various nationalities from European to African (Country Facts). Brazil has an extremely diverse culture with some common pervasive threads that grouped together give Brazil a national identity.