A brutal gangster film is hailed as a “masterpiece” and has an incredible 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes. City of God (or Cidade de Deus in Portuguese) tells the story of two boys growing up in a violent, poverty-stricken favela on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro in the late 60s and going down two starkly different paths.
The 2002 film’s main protagonist Wilson Rodrigues, also known as Rocket, seeks to avoid a life of crime to survive with ambitions to become a photographer, while Lil Ze is drawn in by the power and influence of gang life. It was directed by Fernando Meirelles and co-directed by Kátia Lund. The screenplay by Bráulio Mantovani was adapted from Paulo Lins’ 1997 novel of the same name, but the narrative also takes some inspiration from real events.
An IMDb user included put the film at number seven in their list of the top 40 gangster films of all time. They said City of God was, “Probably the best Brazilian gangster movie ever made”.
They added that the “masterpiece vividly depicts some of the horrific conditions of children growing up in the densely populated ghettos and gravity-defying slums” of Brazil.
The fan said it’s also not your typical mob flick, and is just as much about “love, friendship, happiness, compassion, family, ambition and deals with real life, real struggles, pain and hardships”.
Another user said the film is “stunning”, adding it’s simply, “in my opinion, one of the best contemporary films ever made”.
“Not only are the characters in City of God absolutely fascinating, and also very endearing, but also convincingly acted by groups of young and unknown actors. The stories are well-told, and at times, funny, and at others, brutally shocking.”
However, they noted that given the film’s violent content it’s “not recommended for the over-sensitive or easily distressed”.
The film has an 18 rating, with strong language, drug use and violence, The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) notes.
Viewers are warned that scenes featuring “strong violence and drug misuse often involve child characters and occur in a realistic context”.
A Rotten Tomatoes audience reviewer called it an “immensely powerful and gut-wrenching look at crime and growing up in an environment wreathed by poverty”, hailing it as “a masterclass in detailed storytelling and immersive character development which makes it an essential foreign film to watch”.
The film is has a 97% score on the site’s Popcornmeter (the percentage of users who rated this 3.5 stars or higher) based on more than 250,000 audience reviews. The high esteem in which its held among critics has also seen it gain “Certified Fresh” status.
City of God is streaming now on Netflix for UK viewers.