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Why I hate City of God (but love Elite Squad)
I know there's a movie recommendation thread but, since I'm not recommending anything, and my opinion about this film has become a bit infamous already, I thought I'd post a new thread - I’m no Sys, but even if you disagree with me, I hope I can make this an entertaining read and worth its own thread. If I fail, feel free to merge this thread with the other one, Stu 
Truffaut was indeed right
Captain Nascimento signaling we should look at his balls.
His inoxydable gravity warping stainless steel balls.
City of God (Cidade de Deus) shows us the life of Rocket, a formidably moral kid who wants to be a photographer in an environment where crime and corruption reign supreme. I’m not sure if his camera is nicked during the film (I guess not) but if it were I’m sure it would instantly snap pictures and blind all criminals who dared touch it, only to summon a capoeira fighting loft of pigeons who would kick ass (without killing anyone) and deliver the camera back to its rightful owner without committing a single crime - and there’s nothing wrong with that, as I’m sure this would’ve made a more interesting flick. Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite), on the other hand, is about a pragmatic shoot-first-ask-questions-later police officer who will fight crime by any means necessary, keeping us fearful of what he might do next. From suffocating criminals to handing out tickets to the next screening of Twilight, he will do the most atrocious acts of violence as if they were trivial.
Now, Tropa de Elite (Elite Squad), released five years ago, is one of the best films ever produced here, having enjoyed public acclaim (8 out of 10 inhabitants of São Paulo rating it as either “excellent” or “good”) and become a phenomenon in its own right. Strangely enough, however, it doesn’t seem to have caught nearly as much momentum outside the country as Cidade de Deus (City of God), released five years earlier. In a stark contrast to Tropa de Elite’s lukewarm reception, it went on to earn a spot as one of Time magazine’s top 100 films of all time, and was nominated for 4 Oscars. Both films are about violence in Rio, based on true events, and portray the country under a less than favourable light. So... what happened?
My guess is that Cidade de Deus is a film made for foreigners, with a dangerous message for some of the domestic viewers, whereas Tropa de Elite seems to have become its opposite - a film that struck close to home and is thus glorified by the locals, but seen as terrifying by foreign critics. And the impact on the domestic market is what I find disturbing (you can watch whatever you want, as long as it doesn't make you go postal and the like...).
Whereas Rocket (we’re back to Cidade de Deus) is an upstanding citizen, Little Joe is a psychopath who just wants to see the word burn - and he’d be delighted to be the one to set it ablaze. The film is quick to show this actually makes sense in context, as it’s pretty much the only path to immediate success in a favela. As a matter of fact, this is such a popular career that within months a brief pax Little Joenica turns into a blodshed of clusterfuckful proportions. All with impeccable photography and sound effects. Everything is so grimy and chaotic and overproduced that I heard Knockout Ned eventually shot Neo at some point, being responsible for the cancellation of Matrix 4. And this is the main reason why I loathe this film: when the photos Rocket took of Little Joe’s gang are published, LJ rejoiced and enjoyed his newly-acquired fame as the leader of his favela’s pecking disorder. This film, even if just accidentally, does just that: it glorifies what should be shunned. It’s like Breivik finally got his very own full length-film and Tom Cruise is not playing him to give more credibility to the interpretation that he’s a completely deranged lunatic with no grasp of reality. By the end of it, you may be excused to think he had no choice but to wreak havoc in a peaceful country where Christian values are threatened by countless shipments of falafel, in which terrorists eat a dozen or so units, walk into a church, and show the world what’s behind the expression “mass destruction”.
I believe we all know that, as Iran is the world’s second greatest provider of natural gas, it becomes a heaven for terrorists, because they’re ready to operate within seconds!
For some reason, this didn’t raise as much concern as Kony 2012. There were no
campaigns, no relief efforts, no nothing... I wonder why cameras panning around
child soldiers like they're in a cyberpunk blockbuster don't make them look real.
So, in a sense, Tropa de Elite is guilty of the very same crime: torturing people is still illegal here, as Dick Cheney has never held office in Brazil. However, whereas it's hard to actually become a police officer, to become a criminal all you need to do is get a gun and take solace on the fact that while you can shoot people's brains out, you're too mentally challenged to have anything come out of your head. Tropa de Elite gives a clear message do drug users in Brazil. Cidade de Deus treats them as something closer to a side effect. When drug pushers walk around with AK-47's, you might want to wait for marijuana to be legalised before you get high... unless, of course, you want to go really high and check if the pearly gates of Heaven exists.
If you take my argument to its logical extreme, you might say that I'd have to hate "Supersize me" because it would make more people eat twice their weight in burgers and chips, and this would be a great idea if you think about it. But, whereas our supersized imbeciles would harm no one but themselves, fame-hungry criminals in slums do need to inflict pain on others to slake their thirst for publicity. It's already bad enough that we need to have these people show up on the news, do we really need to have a blockbuster portray how glamorous their brief existence can be, just for the sake of it? If you're going to exploit our harsh reality, offer a way out, or critically show what you believe is causing it. If only the film showed a way out, other than being a photographer, it would be okay. But it's too harsh a reality to be played with. In this sense, Elite Squad does a much better job.
Last edited by Lira on Aug-09-2012 at 07:09
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