8.5 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.1 |
In the slums of Rio, two kids' paths diverge as one struggles to become a photographer and the other a kingpin.
Starring: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Matheus Nachtergaele, Phelipe Haagensen, Seu JorgeDrama | 100% |
Crime | 41% |
Foreign | 29% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Portuguese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
From the outside, Rio de Janeiro seems to be one of the most fabulously glamorous metropolises in the world. Incredibly scenic, with a gorgeous half moon beach bordering the teal ocean waters the lap at the city’s edge, and with such iconic attractions as the giant statue of Christ which adorns Corcovado, Rio seems to scintillate with the rhythms of the samba, alive with 24 hour a day partygoers and seemingly without a care in the world. Appearances can be deceiving. Brazil’s incredible music reached out and literally grabbed hold of me when I was probably nine or ten and I was introduced to the seductive sounds of the Bossa Nova. Though it was already well past the days of the “Bossa Nova craze,” I was immediately hooked and dove headlong into what became a lifelong near obsession with Brazil’s music, and that ultimately led of course to me attending a theatrical screening of Black Orpheus, which luckily was playing at an Art House when I was in college. Though the musical content of the Marcel Ophuls film was obviously of major interest to me and incredibly exciting, what really threw me for a loop was the sight of Rio’s favelas (slums), teeming shanty towns that are precariously attached to the near vertical topography that surrounds the main downtown core of the city. Even the gritty ambience of Black Orpheus might seem glamorous in comparison to the depiction of life in the favelas in City of God, the acclaimed 2002 film based on an equally acclaimed autobiographical book by Paulo Lins. Playing out like some sort of Brazilian version of a cocaine fueled Warner Brothers gangster flick from the thirties, City of God recounts the “adventures” (for wont of a better word) of a hardscrabble group of kids who grow up on the mean streets (actually dirt roads) of one of Rio’s most infamous housing projects, the ludicrously named City of God. Told from the viewpoint of one youngster named Rocket, the film moves through several decades in the lives of several main characters, whose interrelationships change and evolve (sometimes devolve) in an amazing kaleidoscope of violence and gang activity.
City of God is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate/Miramax with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Meirelles and his cinematographer César Charlone cast the favela in an impossibly golden hue a lot of the time and that creates a dusty saffron ambience that is distinctly at odds with the gritty lives the characters are leading. The film is intentionally filtered to both yellow and blue extremes quite a bit of the time, but for the most part fine detail is exceptional, especially in close-ups. Some sequences, as in the swimming hole segment early in the film, suffer from quite noticeable softness, and perhaps those were done by a second unit with different equipment. But considering how dark (as in dimly lit) a lot of this film is, shadow detail is well above average even when contrast fluctuates from sequence to sequence. Some of Charlone's naturalistic lighting creates incredible plays of shadow and light, and those help to make City of God incredibly moody and ominous a lot of the time.
City of God's original Portuguese language track is presented with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that is abundantly boisterous. The film has some fantastic source cues which throb through the surrounds, and the busy life of the favela is really well detailed sonically throughout the film, with extremely well placed surround activity and a sort of aural sense of claustrophobia a lot of the time. Fidelity is excellent, and low end is especially fulsome here, with great blasts of LFE not only in the expected places like scenes involving gunfire, but also just generally in the low hum of the crowded slum life. Dialogue is crisp, clear and well prioritized with the music and effects. It should be noted that the Setup menu only allows one of the subtitle options to be chosen; there's no way to turn subtitles off.
News from a Personal War (SD; 56:42). This riveting documentary explores the ravages that the drug trade has had on the favelas (the slums) of Rio de Janeiro. It's a disturbing and pretty depressing piece that chronicles the slow slide into degradation that many residents of the favelas experience, and how the proliferation of both drugs and guns have made life intolerable for many if not most who are ensnared in this stratum of Brazil's socioeconomic system.
City of God advertised itself as having been based on a true story, and while there's no doubt some hyperbolic fictionalizing at work in this film adaptation, there's also the ring of truth about it on a fundamental level. This is a disturbing film, and one that is not easy to take at times (especially if you have kids), but it's one of the most riveting exposés of a poverty stricken class' destitution and the horrible choices so many of them make. This Blu-ray looks fine and sounds fantastic, and the release comes Recommended.
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