Citade De Deus

Regular Saturday night, I was flipping through my movie channels to find something I might enjoy watching and usually, I read the info provided by Mediacom along with their ratings. It is easy to see that their rating system is very harsh. Good movies get 2 stars, excellent movies get 3 stars, and so on. I have never seen a movie above 4 stars and tonight, a foreign movie gets 4 stars. I just had to see. I missed the first 20 minutes of the movie but hopefully nothing too crucial, I will have to rewatch it.

Basically, it's based on a true story set in the 70's and 80's. It's about gang violence in Brazil in a town called the "City of God." Two kids start out as friends and grow up to be totally different, one a photographer and the other a drug dealer. The cinematography is excellent. Almost every single "foreign" movie I have watched has been A+ Not only are unconventional filming methods used but the stories are actually entertaining.

The entire movie is in Portuguese I believe, supplied with English subtitles and it is very easy to follow. If Quentin Tarantino watched this movie, he would be impressed. There are some clear Tarantino moments his fans will love. Flashbacks, time-freezes, words that appear on screen to display different chapters and this is all done with style. At one point, one of the main characters wants to rob a bus but figures that the teller is the nice guy and we find out that he is named "Knockout Ted (or Ned)." Before the character attempts anything, he finds out that Ted was a soldier who was ranked number one sharpshooter in his troupe and although he was for love and peace, if he had to fight, he would. The camera then freezes and the main character says that later on, Ted finds himself in that very situation but his story is for another time. Just like a Tarantino film.