Tyree
Task 2.2
City of God Blog Journal
Audience- The main target audience for this film is obviously fans of gangster films, and there are many. The only big difference for this film is that it is a Brazilian film which means that it contains subtitles, which further more could harm the films success with foreign audiences. This gangster film could be considered as an "acquired taste" film because the members of the audience would have to be interested in foreign language film. Even though this film has all of the main narrative and plot points of other gangster films such as 'Carlito's Way' (the lead character 'Rocket' even shares the same goal as Carlito Brigante; to escape a life he did not choose to live in), but I will talk about that when I talk about a later aspect of the film, the success of this film could have been harmed because I think that foreign language films have smaller audience demographics than English speaking films (from an English speaking perspective, of course)
Genre conventions- The film features some of it's own gangster film conventions, as well as sharing some from other gangster films. For example, the film features many shady drug dealings and wars that happen throughout the film, this could be considered similar to 'Scarface' with Tony Montana's drug empire in which he is at war with other kingpin's drug businesses, this is replicated and included in this film with the scenes featuring Lil' Ze (the main antagonist and drug kingpin in 'City of God') who is at war with a smaller scale drug lord named Carrot. Another major genre convention that is played out during the film is the rise and fall of the characters, this is a common plotline for a lot of gangster films like 'Scarface', and it used to full effect in this film when Lil' Ze's "representation" is tattered and his world falls apart and is then ultimately killed. This part of the film is very similar to that of 'Scarface' when Tony gets too big for his boots, although it seems that 'City of God' deals with it in a more realistic way and a more modern way.
Representation- Similar to many other gangster films, the representation of the characters focuses mainly on the men, most notably Lil' Ze and Rocket, who is represented rather differently than in usual gangster films. Lil' Ze is a very powerful man, and in the film, shows that he shows no remorse for any of his actions and he doesn't seem to have any moral grounds, and we can compare this with Tony Montana, even though he is an aggressive and violent man, he does have very high morals and certainly knows when to stop (a good example of this is in the scene in 'Scarface' where Tony is being forced to blow up an enemies car, but has a woman and children inside, so he aggressively refuses and shoots a member of his team instead) whereas in the scene from 'City of God' when Lil' Ze is threatening a duo of small children, he violently shoots them in the foot like it's nothing, and seems to find joy in it. When it comes to our protagonist, Rocket, it is a very different story compared to the conventional main characters from gangster films. Rocket's personal story is very similar to Carlito from 'Carlito's Way', both characters want to escape the terrible life that they have been brought up in and want to move to a better place. For Carlito, he has just been set free from a sentence in prison and would like to raise enough money from his nightclub in order to move to his own personal 'paradise', but his former life as a legendary gangster holds him back, as well as his moronic lawyer and best friend. In Rocket's story, he is a young man who has grown up and lived in the 'favela' (slums) for his entire life, surrounded by death and misery, and all he wants to do is become a successful photographer. In the end, he accomplishes what he wanted, so this 'rise to power' story is told in an unconventional and positive way.
Narrative- When it comes to the key conventional narratives of gangster films, and how they've been incorporated in this film, they are quite the same but told in a different way. First off, the main character of Rocket is NOT a gangster at all, he is a kind, quiet boy who tries to get through life as honestly as possible, and his troubles in the film are realistic worries that anybody from the slums would worry about. Another similarity with 'Carlito's Way' is that the film shows the ending first and then the rest of the film builds up to what is going to happen., this is called a 'cold open' and many films including Quentin Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction' have opened up like this. Another big similarity between Rocket and Carlito (besides both characters wanting to leave the crime- ridden area) is that they both narrate their respective stories, putting us in their shoes in order to view the series of events, it also makes us feel closer to the characters and allows us to relate to them more. Another smaller portion of the narrative could focus on Rocket's crush on a girl named Angelica, who he longs to be with, but she is with somebody else. This small plot line is similar to films such as 'Scarface' and 'Pulp Fiction', where the lead character (Tony Montana and Vincent Vega, respectively) is in love with his boss's/mentors' girlfriend/wife, although the story in 'City of God' is much different because they're just teenagers at that point in the film, but it does share a slightly similar plot point, that is then shrugged off in the rest of the film as a way of developing the characters in a less unconventional way, which is a good thing to do for a gangster film, especially if the film is not a traditional English language one.
Representation- Similar to many other gangster films, the representation of the characters focuses mainly on the men, most notably Lil' Ze and Rocket, who is represented rather differently than in usual gangster films. Lil' Ze is a very powerful man, and in the film, shows that he shows no remorse for any of his actions and he doesn't seem to have any moral grounds, and we can compare this with Tony Montana, even though he is an aggressive and violent man, he does have very high morals and certainly knows when to stop (a good example of this is in the scene in 'Scarface' where Tony is being forced to blow up an enemies car, but has a woman and children inside, so he aggressively refuses and shoots a member of his team instead) whereas in the scene from 'City of God' when Lil' Ze is threatening a duo of small children, he violently shoots them in the foot like it's nothing, and seems to find joy in it. When it comes to our protagonist, Rocket, it is a very different story compared to the conventional main characters from gangster films. Rocket's personal story is very similar to Carlito from 'Carlito's Way', both characters want to escape the terrible life that they have been brought up in and want to move to a better place. For Carlito, he has just been set free from a sentence in prison and would like to raise enough money from his nightclub in order to move to his own personal 'paradise', but his former life as a legendary gangster holds him back, as well as his moronic lawyer and best friend. In Rocket's story, he is a young man who has grown up and lived in the 'favela' (slums) for his entire life, surrounded by death and misery, and all he wants to do is become a successful photographer. In the end, he accomplishes what he wanted, so this 'rise to power' story is told in an unconventional and positive way.
Narrative- When it comes to the key conventional narratives of gangster films, and how they've been incorporated in this film, they are quite the same but told in a different way. First off, the main character of Rocket is NOT a gangster at all, he is a kind, quiet boy who tries to get through life as honestly as possible, and his troubles in the film are realistic worries that anybody from the slums would worry about. Another similarity with 'Carlito's Way' is that the film shows the ending first and then the rest of the film builds up to what is going to happen., this is called a 'cold open' and many films including Quentin Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction' have opened up like this. Another big similarity between Rocket and Carlito (besides both characters wanting to leave the crime- ridden area) is that they both narrate their respective stories, putting us in their shoes in order to view the series of events, it also makes us feel closer to the characters and allows us to relate to them more. Another smaller portion of the narrative could focus on Rocket's crush on a girl named Angelica, who he longs to be with, but she is with somebody else. This small plot line is similar to films such as 'Scarface' and 'Pulp Fiction', where the lead character (Tony Montana and Vincent Vega, respectively) is in love with his boss's/mentors' girlfriend/wife, although the story in 'City of God' is much different because they're just teenagers at that point in the film, but it does share a slightly similar plot point, that is then shrugged off in the rest of the film as a way of developing the characters in a less unconventional way, which is a good thing to do for a gangster film, especially if the film is not a traditional English language one.
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