City of God
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Living in the United States we ourselves have standards and also guidelines we follow as citizens of this great nation. Of course we must take the good with the bad but ones has the chance to go either way. We could choose to follow the majority of the citizens and live productive lives. Or we could be on the other side of the law living lives of crime. However, what about in other countries? Does the youth in other parts of the world have the same chance? In the movie Cidade De Deus, which is known as the City of God, has shown the hardships and decisions one must face when growing up poor. The movie takes place in the Brazil during the times of 1960s and 1970s. Within those two decades three things became very prevalent in any part of the world you would go to. They would be considered Drugs, Money, and Power and everybody wanted it. The movie is based on a particular city in Brazil where basically children at very early ages had to make adult decisions in order top survive from day to day.
Moreover, initially we see in the movie that things are no where near easy in this City of God. We first notice that the landscaping of the area is like nothing we are accustomed to in the states. There seems to be no separation between sidewalk and street. The housing seems to be run down and before we even blink, we see the main character named “Rocket” standing in the middle of a war between the police officers,”Carrot” and “Knock Out Ned” who were bosses and the self proclaimed boss of the City of God who was known as ” Lil Dice” as a child and now “Lil Ze”. In this instance I realized what I was really in for by watching this particular movie. The art of survival and karma reaps its head time in and time out. “Rocket” was a young boy who stayed on a pretty straight path not following his older brother who was in a gang known as a “The Tender Trio”. The trio was made up of “Shaggy” who loved the rush of being a hoodlum. Next up was “Clipper” who had held the cooler head amongst the group and “Goose” who was the older brother of “Rocket”. “Lil Ze” ran with “Benny” who was his best friend and partner in crime. He was more level headed and calmer than his counterpart, however they both loved and flirted with the idea of one day being the most feared in their town. . The two boys were basically tag a longs to the well known trio . After the first seen we see the ” Tender Trio” robbing a propane truck and distributing the goods to the rest of the community. This was basically a bridge between the kids and the community. See they werent stealing for the sake of it. It was more of survival. However, their careers were cut short one night after they made one huge mistake. The teens were looking to make quick cash, but what they didnt realize that the ideas of “Lil Ze” werent to get money. He fell in love with the ideas of killing innocent people. It was where he got his rush. The young boy sat back while the trio got the money they desired, and afterwards came in for the kill at the age of somewhat around 8 or 9.
Furthermore, karma first shows his head at the point. With the trio on the run things became much worse. Clipper turned his life around and became a religious man. But shaggy and Goose werent as lucky. Lil Ze and Benny were in the slums one day and ran into Goose. Goose always looked down at Lil Ze because of his age and in the eyes of the little boys things had to change. After the young boy feels disrespected for the last time, he pulls out an oversized hand gun and fires many rounds into the body of someone he looked up to. The shocking part of this particular situation was that while doing so the boy laughed and kept shooting until he was satisfied. That was the second time he committed murder and it wouldnt be his last. Lil Ze the spent the next 10 years of his life setting up a drug business and becoming the most feared man in his town. He made it so that any and everyone did as much as looked at him wrong he would kill them. Rocket becomes furious because he witnesses everyone that he has grown up with making money and he decides he wants a part in it. With his brothers gun in hand he has plan after plan to rob individuals, but he falls short. He just thought people were too nice and there was no need to steal from nice people. Rocket then became a photographer was so upset at the murder of his brother, however there was no chance for revenge . While Lil Ze and Benny ran things around town, they had one little problem. A pack of wild children who called themselves “The Runts” would rob and steal from whomever they wanted. The group was a litter of 8 to 10 kids. Lil Ze and he hated the fact that another boss, Carrot, would allow them these brats to continue to rob and steal so the self proclaimed real boss made a statement by killing of the Runts and shooting another in his foot. As you can see, Lil Ze had no problem taking lives and with that said he decides he wants to take over Carrots territory and drug trade. One night Benny decides he has had enough and wants to leave this industry so he throws a party. During that party Benny buys Rocket a camera to increase his skills in photography and within a blink or an eye, Benny is shot and thats where everything changes. Rocket looses his good friend, Lil Ze looses his best friend and go crazy. The same night he runs into Knock Out Ned and rapes his girlfriend an takes her innocence. He and his crew returns to Neds home and ends up killing the majority of Neds family. This is when the real war begins.
Even though he hated the Runts he also needed soldiers and he gave the little ones guns to make sure they would be part of his gang against Carrot and Ned not knowing it would come