city of god

Introduction

In my essay I will discuss the differences between national cinema and Hollywood cinema by using Rio de Janeiro¡¯s famous film City of God. There will be three parts in my following main body, the first part is a simple review of the film City of God, I will try to use the review to show the film structure and some different new points from this, show the how did the ¡®Shocking, frightening, thrilling and funny¡¯ (Nev Pierce) work in the film. The second part is my discussion parts; I will refer some typical Hollywood big name films such as Gangs in New York, Shawshank¡¯s Redemption, and Good Fellas to discuss the main differences between City of God and other national films. The third part is my summary, I will use my knowledge to analyse why there have big different between both kind of films and their advantages.

Part One

By simply review, I will say, "City of God" ("Cidade de Deus") is the story of a boy who lives in a "favela" what is the word of slum in english on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. The "favela" is like a shantytown witch called "Cidade de Deus" in the film. And from the beginning to the end, throughout this stylish movie both the boy and the favela grow.

In the film, we can see the story telling styles are quite like the some Hollywood films such as Shawshank¡¯s Redemption. As Morgan Freeman been a narrator Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding in the film Shawshank¡¯s Redemption, The same roll in City of God is boy, Rocket (Buscap¨¦ in Portuguese, played by Alexandre Rodrigues), who is born in Cidade de Deus and grows up in Cidade. He is quiet and easygoing, just a non-violent person seeking a way to survive in a brutal environment.

The director makes Rocket a narrator in this movie; I think the reason is find an intermediary between gangs and the press, inside of the evil world and the outside. So we can see, his voice that accompanies us throughout many of the stories that "City of God" has to offer by Rocket¡¯s photography dream became true.

Still the same as Shawshank¡¯s Redemption, the main character also belongs to Andy Dufresne (by Tim Robbins). So in the City of God, The other main characters in City of God are the gangs, like Li'l Z¨¦ (by Leandro Frimino) who was one of the boys that used to play soccer with Rocket, grow up to become a murderer and a drug lord, someone that makes his own laws.