City Of God Analysis

he City of God film accurately depicts the brutality and desperation of life in the Favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil during the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. The City of God favela is one that began as a living community for poorer people in the early 1960’s and within 10 years decayed into a violent, filthy neighborhood controlled by drug lords. (Arias and Rodrigues, 2006) A favela is another name for a shanty town found in urban areas in Brazil. The favelas in Brazil are crowded and violent; in the film you really see how the people in these neighborhoods live. The clothes that people wear are ragged and old; some kids are seen running around without shoes on through the streets, pushing aside people and animals. The houses seem to have layers of dirt on them and dust from the constant commotion pervades the air. The film authentically portrays the squalor people actually live in. In one scene you see

The scene in which a group of poorer neighborhood children nicknamed “The Runts” were punished for stealing from stores in the favela, demonstrated the power of the gangs. In this scene the runts are discussing how they can make money in the drug trade, when Lil Ze and his gang show up. Most of the kids scatter, but Lil Ze manages to catch two members. He asks the terrified children where they want to be shot, in their hand or their foot. He shoots the right foot of both children and orders one of his younger gang members to kill one of the runts. The younger gang member is shown in this scene as scared and disgusted, yet he still shoots the young child. This scene occurred at the point where Lil Ze was at his most powerful, towards the middle of the film. This scene shows how the drug lords maintain order through fear, so they can stay in power. It also shows that children being manipulated by gangs, are often turned into killers or get killed because they want to fit in and become