City of God

City of God (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus) is a brazilian movie (drama) by Fernando Meirelles based on Paulo Lins' novel. Book and movie are named after the City of God housing district established in 1960 in the western zone of Rio de Janeiro as part of a government strategy to systematically move favelas away from the city centre and relocate inhabitants to the suburbs. Book and movie tell the story of a young man called Rocket who grows up experiencing the rise and fall of the killer and drug dealer Lil Ze (who in the end loses against Knockout Ned who sides with Carrot's gang).

The movie is based on real events and the story of making the film itself. Mr. Lins was raised in a neighborhood housing project and later he spent eight years interviewing people for several anthropological and documentary projects. His research documented people’s lives amid the growing organization of the drug trafficking industry that inspired Rio de Janeiro’s overwhelming violence during the 1980s. The book is historical fiction - it is somewhat autobiographical, part fiction, but many of the events really did occur and several major characters were real people. The tagline of the movie, which dan be seen as an illustration of the life-course concept in criminology, is: "Damned if you do, damned if you don't; Se correr o bicho pega, se ficar o bicho come."

Story

City of God starts with a desperate chicken escaping slaughter and being chased by a gang of pistol-packing prepubescents. It's an apt allegory for the frantic fight for survival of the protagonists in this ferocious blast of gangster mayhem. We meet Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues), who suddenly finds himself surrounded by cops on one side and a gang on the other. All are heavily armed. How did it come to this? Suddenly he's a young boy playing soccer on a dirt field. It's the 60's and this is how City of God came to be. Through Rocket's eyes, we see how the slum was born when the poor were moved to the city's outskirts. The forced isolation and poverty led to petty crimes and robbing the trucks that came through on the dirt roads. It's all somewhat harmless until unexpected, vicious murders are committed in a brothel by Lil Dice, the youngest member of a gang. The page is turned, drugs and weapons are introduced and Lil Dice becomes Lil Ze (Leandro Firmino da Hora), the reigning godfather. Police corruption, drugs, violence and gang wars are explored in this Brazilian epic. Over time, small time robberies lead to savage murders, drugs, weapons, revenge and all-out war. In one humorous but unsettling sequence, the history of an apartment is told. What started off as a little old lady selling weed on the side turned into a cocaine den and axis of operation. In one scene Lil Ze corners a group of small children, "runts", who have taken to the streets to rob without respecting the elder gangs. At first defiant in what they believe is their power, they are reduced to tears when Lil Ze forces one child to kill another.

In the middle of this craziness we see Rocket attempting to win a girl's heart, sometimes getting high, enjoying the beach and trying halfheartedly to become a gangster. He can't hold up a store because the girl is too cute and can't hold up the bus driver because he's always been so nice to him. He's obviously the observer and as the photographer, he can't necessarily make things better. He's no hero, just someone trying to survive.

After Lil Ze and his best friend Benny took most of the drug dealers over, Benny wants to leave the city with his girlfriend. But Benny gets killed at his good bye party instead of Lil Ze. Lil Ze promises revange to his enemy Carrot.

Rocket got a small job at a newspaper. During the time a journalist finds some of his pictures that he took of Lil Ze and his gang. She publishes one of the prints, since nobody can get into the City of God anymore. Rocket thinks his life is endangered but agrees to continue taking photographs, not realizing Ze is very pleased with increased notoriety. Rocket then returns to the City for more photographs, bringing the film to its beginning. Confronted by the gang, Rocket is surprised that Ze is asking him to take pictures, but as he prepares to take the photo, the police arrive, who drive off when Carrot arrives.

The last part of the film chronicles the pure carnage of a gang war. It's almost impossible to know who's killing who and why, but we certainly get a taste for retribution when a man is killed by a child whose father he killed. The message drums on for minutes: the cycle of violence won't end here. The only ones with any hope at all are the ones who can leave.

Lil Ze and Carrot are taken by police with plans to give the media Carrot, whose gang never paid off the police, while they steal Ze's money and leave him alone. He is murdered by the Runts for his forced murder of one of their own earlier. Rocket takes pictures of the entire scene as well as Ze's dead body and goes back to the newspaper. The film ends with the Runts walking around the City of God, making a hit list of the dealers they plan to kill in order to take over the drug business. They mention that a Comando Vermelho ("Red Command") is coming.

Life Course Theory in the City of God

Laub and Sampson saw in their research that all curricula vitae had been very heterogeneous - that the people had taken different pathways toward and away from crime. To explain these different routes they described the life course in terms of trajectories and turning points.

Trajectory

Trajectory is a long-term pattern of behavior, a pathway or line of development through life in areas such as work, marriage and criminal behavior. Rocket doesn't get involved in crime and drug dealing. He stays out of it from the beginning. And even when he tried he couldn't do it. Lil Ze on the other hand has a long term thirst for blood. Even as a young boy he enjoyed killing people. And this behavior stays until his death.

Turning Point

A turning point is an event or realization that leads eventually to a shift in a trajectory. A moment when change begins in a life-course pattern, it can be marked by the onset of criminal behavior, its escalation, or a decision to desist or exit from crime. Rocket could have killed Lil Ze in the apartment scene but he chose not to do anything. He also chose to become a gangster but in each situation he chose not to do anything bad against good people. The Runts, who mostly did robberies, decided to go into drug dealing because there they could make more money. But they also decided that they didn't want to wait so long and therefore kill the bosses to make a faster career. This became a turning point for them because they stopped robbing and joined the gang fights. In the end of the movie they actually killed Lil Ze and took over the lead in the City of God. Knockout Ned went to school, army and tried to stay clean afterwards. He told Rocket and his friend that they should go to school and leave the City of God as fast as possible. But when Lil Ze humiliated Ned, raped his girlfriend and killed his uncle, he chose to be part of Carrots gang. This became his turning point. First he just joined to kill Lil Ze but didn't want to be gangster. But then he started robbing with the rule that no-one gets killed. After Carrot saved Ned's life by killing a guard this rule had exceptions and when Ned killed a guy himself the exception became a rule. His changed trajectory led him to the death by the son whose father got killed by Ned.

Age-Grade

Laub and Sampson speak of life-course transitions as age-graded, meaning appropriate to typical life sequences. It is normal to commit a crime in the adolescence like during the first part of the movie. Rocket's older brother and his friends committed some crime as young adults. This is age graded. But a five year old boy (member of the Runts) is forced to kill a friend which is of course not age-graded. In the end of the movie you see the Runts making a list of people who they want to kill.

Informal Social Control

Against most theories, marriage or work have a positive impact on informal social control by having more relation ships and responsibilities. It is more important how close the bond is. Marriage doesn't prevent from crime, but a good marriage with close emotional ties for the latter creates strong bonds, strengthened informal social control and gives reason to keep out of trouble. When Lil Ze planed to kill Carrot, Benny talked him out of it. Benny had such a close friendship with Lil Ze that he was the only one to keep Lil Ze calm. Without him a lot more would have been killed. Benny was able to build a ralationship with a women which led him to the plan to leave the City with his girlfriend. Lil Ze wasn't able to build a healthy relationship with a girl so he goes even deeper into problems by humiliating Knockout Ned and raping his girlfriend. Only Rocket was able to leave the City of God because he was fully committed to his internship as a photographer - his dream-job which also lead him to his first sexual experience.

The Role of Media

Another theme in the film is the media. The power of publicity is not lost on the gangsters. Recognizing its value Lil Ze is thrilled to have his picture in the paper and wants more. On the one hand the media flocks to the slums for lurid crimes, like the husband who tries to bury his still breathing wife in the dirt floor of their shack, as if these crimes can only be committed by the poor. On the other hand gangsters relish their image and the fear they provoke in the slums and beyond. Rocket is able to manipulate both sides of the fence. With his camera he is at the right place at the right time, taking a photograph of Lil Ze with his gang, guns and girls that lands on the front page. At the end Rocket is seen in the newspaper office looking at all of his photographs through a magnifying glass, and deciding whether to publish the photo of corrupt cops and become famous or the photo of Lil Ze's body and get an internship. He decides on the latter.

Links & Resources

• The movie’s official website at: http://cidadededeus.globo.com/
• A full list of the characters at the Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com
• The director spun off a Brazillian TV series based on the film. The series, called City of Men, continued the storylines of several characters’ lives: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Men
• Paulo Lins: City of God - Cidade de Deus. Bloomsbury Pub., 1997, ISBN 0747576807
• Paulo Lins and Nicolai von Schwede Schreiner (Translater): Die Stadt Gottes - City of God (german). Blumenbar, 2004, ISBN 3936738122.
• Nicole Rafter and Michelle Brown: Criminology Goes to the Movies: Crime Theory and Popular Culture. New York University Press, 2011, ISBN 0814776523.