Day 39: City of God (2002)

OK, I’m majorly behind with these blogs. I got so far behind that I decided to give up with them as they were taking too long. On reflection though, I think it would be a shame to stop them altogether, so instead I’ll just shorten them a bit and try to catch up. I will try to remember how I felt about the movies both before and after I saw them as best I can.

Movie #18 – City of God (2002) - 130 min, cert 18.

This movie tells the story of the boys who grew up in the slums of Rio de Janeiro during the 60s and 70s. It focuses mainly on Rocket, a budding photographer, who narrates the film, and Li’l Ze, a ruthless gangster, but it takes in the lives and experiences of a myriad of other characters whose lives they affect.

I’m sure it’s technically very good as a piece of cinema, but it wasn’t to my taste I’m afraid. It never really seemed to have any clear idea of where it was going. I admit I was probably put off a little by the subtitles. I do find them distracting at times, and it means you have to work a little harder to follow the story. But I never really found myself caring what happened to any of the central characters.

Score – only 5/10.

Next up is The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which I’ve seen before. In fact this begins a run of 13 films that I’ve already seen, which is a little unfortunate, but my rules say that I must revisit them all, so revisit them I shall.