If I'm Ze Pequeno, Who's Benny?

City Of God (Cidade de Deus) has to be one of greatest and realest movies I have put my eyes on. What do you think this has to do with music? Well besides the music that adds to the score of the actual film, it's movies like these that sometimes are belittled and condemned in the movie industry because of the harsh reality and and pure raw emotion pulsating from the movie. These kind of films your average movie audience might find "too real" or even to the point of disturbing, which I think are some key similarities that I see with music especially genres like Heavy Metal, Hip-Hop, Punk Rock who put that rawness into their material and are pursued and singled out for it.

The Story of City Of God is one of desperation, fear, loathing and greed put through the eyes of the figures taking part in the events going on in their world. It starts of with an amiable boy named Rocket who lives in a slum of Rio de Janeiro named Cidade de Deus (City Of God) a place riddled with crime and poverty. The Tender Trio are three teens who rob from businesses and local companies transporting gas through their city and share the profit with all of the citizens of the city. One of these kids is Rocket's eccentric brother, Goose, who besides hanging out with the rest of the Tender Trio is being followed by an amoral kid named Lil' Dice. They device a plan to rob a motel to which Lil' Dice convinces the Tender Trio that it will be the big times and they will have more profit that they could think of. Willing but a bit reluctant they go into the motel and proceed with the robbery, tying up all the people and stealing their valuables. Lil' Dice acting as the lookout then let's out two shots from his revolver to let them know that the cops are coming and they need to disappear from the scene. However the three later find out that Lil' Dice went into the motel and murdered every single person in there, and that the shots he let go where just to get rid of them so he could have his way with the people in the motel. Knowing that they are the prime suspects and that they were set up by Lil' Dice they have no chance of being absolved, the three of them flee. They take an adamant stand to leave crime in the past, one joins the church the other two continue living without committing crime but constantly fighting it's temptation. A few years later one of the three, Goose, encounters Lil' Dice with his friend Benny who have come back to the City of God after leaving for a few years after the motel incident, he confronts him but Lil' Dice shoots and kills him in cold blood marking the end of the Tender Trio. Meanwhile Rocket is a spectator to all of these events currently happening.



Years pass, Rocket is older and wants to pursue photography as a career. On the opposite side of things Lil' Dice has adopted another name, Ze Pequeno and him and Benny have taken over other drugs cartels and made their own drug ring empire. There is other drug lords out there one called Carrot especially is not happy with Ze's new found position and showing some animosity towards him. This is the climax of the story, events just start happening that shake the entire story and puts the City of God into turmoil. First.........



Wait...nah forget it. I already told you the basic premise of the story the would be antagonist and what happened in the beginning to set up the climax and the best part of the entire movie. This movie is the epitome of great film making so for me to just give you a bare bone description of what happens next I would be maligning this film. If you can, watch it. You won't be disappointed with the conclusion.

These words by Rocket I think, describe the entire atmosphere of the film and describe the movie better than anything I could of written.

"What should have been swift revenge turned into an all out war. The City of God was divided. You couldn't go from one section the other, not even to visit a relative. The cops considered anyone living in the slum a hoodlum. People got used to living in Vietnam, and more and more volunteers signed up to die."