StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Analysis of the Movie City of God - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper "Analysis of the Movie City of God" highlights that generally speaking, the government has a mandate in the initial planning of a city like Rio de Janeiro and implementing subsequent planning interventions to improve the quality of life in a city. …
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER91.1% of users find it useful
Analysis of the Movie City of God
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Analysis of the Movie City of God"

Abdulla Ashkanani PUP200 Kim November 27, of God The nature of life in the Brazilian of Rio de Janeiro is at full display in the movie, City of God. For the youth, life is hard and they have to engage in criminal activities or join gangs to survive in the slum regions otherwise known as favelas. They live in a congested urban setting where the majority of the population struggles to make ends meet. They have a low educational level to warrant for meaningful jobs. Crime is rampant and struggles are manifested everywhere. Sadly, there seems to be no social progress or economic progress to restore the city to its once blossoming and beautiful nature. This paper will examine the planning dynamics of the urban setting with keen interest in the importance of education, the nature and role of government in public housing, youth engagement in crime, slum livelihood, social networks and the general environment of a slum in an urban area. Social networking is a major determiner of the attributes that people will develop, especially the youth. In the movie, youths are portrayed to hang out together in the slum region of Rio. These is a common scene in many areas of the slum as youths idle around and run errands for criminal gangs or conduct independent criminal maneuvers. Interaction within the slum setting helps in spreading the vice of criminality. The process of initiating young boys to crime is clearly depicted in the movie where a young boy is told to kill other young men to prove his commitment. That is a rite of passage in a group of young men who fancy getting money through criminal activities. It is the people that young men interact with and the glorification of criminality in the urban setting that makes the young population view it as the only means of making a living. From the film, social networking has created a culture that glorifies criminal ways of making a living or name in the society. It is a widespread notion that crime can be very rewarding though full of risks. Murder and drug abuse seem not to bother the conscience of the youth in the favelas. The magnitude of the consequences has been reduced by circles of interaction in the setting ("In the Violent Favelas of Brazil by Suketu Mehta | The New York Review of Books"). The importance of education is a key element for emphasis in urban planning. The importance of this cannot be downplayed since the resulting behaviors of the residents depends on it. In the Movie City of God, it is evident that lack of education is catastrophic. According to the reasoning of Steak & Fries, a character in the film, being a man entails smoking, snorting, killing and robbing. This seems normal to him and it is the same with many other young boys of his age in the slum of Rio de Janeiro. This is an attribute of reasoning that could be eliminated by including of a proper education strategy for this urban setting. The enthusiasm with which the boys in the favelas of Rio showed in joining the gangs could be absent with proper education. Coupled with the physical environments, where youths are restricted, the vice of crime and presence of youth gangs who participate in drug trafficking spreads beyond measure. The society becomes ridden with people of identical reasoning. This eliminates the possibility of rectification from within the community since they all pursue the same thing emotionally and physically. There is no one to offer support, therefore more and more youths join criminal gangs. It emerges as important to try as much as possible to improve the physical environment by employing strategies to eliminate presence of slum setting in urban setting. This can only be achieved through sound planning. Due to lack of social and economic mobility, people in urban slum settings are likely to engage in crime to obtain money. As depicted in the movie, money is the motivation for every criminal activity. The second is power. Each member of the of the urban slum setting, as in the Favelas of Rio, especially the youth , is determined to make it economically and make a mark in the society by any means. To do this, they perceive crime as the most convenient means of achieving upward mobility. They are frustrated by the immobility of the economic situation- the economy is not favorable for them to get jobs and make a comfortable living. The economic conditions and poor interventions by the city officials couples by mind restriction to think of crime as a solution make the situation in the favelas worse. Much of the economic policies have no consideration for the residents of the urban Slum setting. While other regions of the country benefit, the film shows that the situation in the slum of Rio de Janeiro remains the same. It shows that the economy of the region is driven by negative vices such as drug trafficking and prostitution among other vices. The reason that crime prevails is due to the failure of the government to focus on the general economic progress of the urban slum region. The government has a mandate in the initial planning of a city like Rio de Janeiro and implementing subsequent planning interventions to improve the quality of life a city. in the film, the Brazilian governments is portrayed as being completely ignorant of the situation and even doing nothing in relation to housing. The culture that glorifies crime and rape seems to have never been rectified by government initiatives. In the film, it is clear that there exists a big gap between the poor from the favelas of Rio and the rich with no solid plan to bridge it. Additionally, the attempts to decongest the urban slum seem nonexistent. The film shows the fault of the government in improving the conditions through housing infrastructure, appraisal of the positive things in the culture and economic intervention with consideration of the slum society. The failure of the government sums up all the things that make life in the urban slum region of Rio de Janeiro very difficult. The film “City of God” was instrumental in understanding urban planning issues that relate to youth crime and urban gang, importance of education, social networking, government and housing, the urban environment and economic influences in urban planning. The film portrayed education and social networks as an important element in influencing people’s choice. It also laid out the role the government plays in setting up urban housing and economic policies. They directly affect the livelihood of people. Finally, the film showed the detrimental effects of youth crime in the society and its retrogressive nature on societal development. It portrayed the impression of how it is like to reside in slum urban settings. Works Cited "In the Violent Favelas of Brazil by Suketu Mehta | The New York Review of Books." N.p., Web. . Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“City of God Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3”, n.d.)
City of God Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1668575-city-of-god
(City of God Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words - 3)
City of God Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words - 3. https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1668575-city-of-god.
“City of God Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words - 3”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1668575-city-of-god.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Analysis of the Movie City of God

City of God(Meirelles, 2002)

city of god by Fernando Meirelles is a sweeping tale that shows how crime negatively affects Rio de Janeiro's poor population.... It was screened at Cannes Film Festival 2002, but it is set in a Brazilian slum, city of god.... city of god by Fernando Meirelles is a sweeping tale that shows how crime negatively affects Rio de Janeiro's poor population.... It was screened at Cannes Film Festival 2002, but it is set in a Brazilian slum, city of god....
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Paper

Analysis of the City of God Movie

The author of the paper "Analysis of the city of god Movie" will begin with the statement that 'city of god' conveys a great film powerful in conception, epic in scope, and brilliant in execution.... Directed by Fernando Meirelles, 'city of god' portrays the violence of life in favelas.... 'city of god' has outstandingly undergone planning to reveal the influence built by the environment on its characters.... the movie reveals social networks in a planned community built to replace a community destroyed in a natural disaster....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Film Analysis of City of God

analysis of the movie: The director of the movie has made an effort to raise the questions concerning the social infrastructure, declining social values and growing youth crimes emerging in Brazil particularly in Robert de Janeiro which holds a strong position as a centre of all criminal activities.... Critical Analysis- The city of god (2002) Introduction: city of god is a Brazilian movie that revolves around country's social, political and cultural issues....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Analysis City of God Movie

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Analysis city of god Movie Introduction city of god is a Brazilian film released in 2002 under the directorship of Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund.... However, the story depicted in city of god is based on real-life events, typifying the intensification of organized crime in the slum town of Cidade de Deus in Rio de Janeiro between the 1960s and 1980s.... city of god is a highly violent and fast-paced film (Meirelles and Lund, city of god)....
4 Pages (1000 words) Movie Review

Analysis of Propaganda in Movies

"analysis of Propaganda in Movies" paper explores the propagandistic content in such movies as Black Hawk Down (2001) by Ridley Scott, Triumph of the Will by Leni Riefenstahl, The Kingdom (2007) by Peter Berg, and Afghan Breakdown (1991) by Vladimir Bortkoand how they inform to the audience.... Narrator: Significantly, the opening text of the film does not offer the spectator a clear idea about Aidid who was a clan leader that was militarily more powerful than any of the other groups contending for the control of the city....
11 Pages (2750 words) Movie Review

Analysis Of City Of God

The movie 'city of god' portrays the effects of poor urban planning and organization.... The paper "Analysis Of city of god" discusses the aspects considered in urban planning and which can have the great effect in the development of an urban area as they are depicted in the movie.... Rio de Janeiro is one of the global cities as depicted in the film 'The city of god'.... In the 'city of god', people are quite ignorant and skeptical of embracing education despite being accessible to them....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

The City of God

From the paper "The city of god" it is clear that kids from poor families get along with slum neighborhoods, the prevalence of gangs, and learn delinquent behavior from others.... After seeing all his friends doing that, Rocket thinks using drugs is a common thing in the city of god because many people do the same thing.... he city of god is a place that has been abandoned by Brazil's government and is characterized by a corrupt police force and an out-of-control drugs and gun culture....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

City of God - Film of Despair

This work "city of god - Film of Despair" describes a brilliant piece of film making.... The city of god is not just another run-of-mill gangster movie.... This description will suit the young inhabitants of an urban slum, but what sets the youngsters of the city of god apart is the fact that they carry guns.... The word 'livelihood' may seem irrelevant to the lives of teenagers in civil societies but not quite in the city of god....
10 Pages (2500 words) Term Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us