City of God

[guerrillaradio]

Brazilian film about people living in the Rio favelas. Fucking incredible. I can't remember the last time I saw such an inspiring film.

[Pedro Alonso Lopez]

Yeah its an amazing film I must say, the only DVD I have bought that wasnt music related.

[Heesh]

this film was fucking amazing, one of the best!!

[Danton]

The "actors" are genuine favela kids and the general story is true - which made it's abrasivness all the more harrowing, of course I have been advocating it as the best movie of the millenium since I saw it about a year ago..

[M.L]

This film was something out of the ordinary!
It was so great, i can't remember when I saw a movie as great as this one.
The fact that it is based on a true story make it to one of the best films i've ever seen.

The "black humor" when kid (later on Little Ze) goes into the motel and kills the couple in the bed just because he wanted some "fun", is so very tragical. Something is very wrong if that is "fun".

[SittingBull47]

Can you tell anything more about it? Is there a plot or is it like a documentary?

[M.L]

It is a documentary and has a plot.
The documenatary part is about the life in a suburb to rio and the plot is about one person and his quest to leave the suburb.
It's a must see!!

[Danton]

It centres around a gang war which happened in the Favelas of Rio in the mid seventies, uzi weilding kids run rampant and life is cheap.. At the root of it all - cocaine..

The cinematography is spellbinding and this being Rio, the soundtrack is fantastic, MPB and funky breakbeats with a little Bossa for good measure..
The main fruit though, is the dialogue and acting (by amatuers).. There are moments of hilarity and even romance but the violence (which is abundant) is filmed in such a realistic way that you feel every gunshot... People who've seen it will recall a particularly harrowing scene where a boy of perhaps only six or seven gets some rough justice, Favela style..

What is equally unnerving is the fact that Rio's slums are still by and large in the same state today..

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

As a Brazilian I can say that it is all very, very believeable indeed.
The favelas are often controled by drug lords who often use heavily armed groups of loyal friends to keep things in control. These areas are so dangerous that absolutely nobody goes into these places.
It's an excelent movie, and I hope that peopel can see how this is directly attributed to poverty caused by capitalism.

[Umoja]

I loved it. I was gonna cry when it didn't win an Oscar. But whatever, most Americans didn't see it, and few theatres played it. So I'll just assume Americans hate movies with plots when they are combined with subtitles.

[M.L]

The film wasn't filmed in "city of God" it was filmed in a nerby village just because it was to dangerous to film at the real village!!

[Inti]

I liked the movie very much, but what I liked more is the documentary that came with the DVD.... Those cops over there doesnt do much to help the situation.. Seems like many of them are just thugs with badges, robbing things when they want to as well..

[mentalbunny]

I haven't seen it, shameful, I know, but I'll make all efforts to get my hands on it now.