How true is City of God?

[Al B. Sure!]

has anyone seen the Brazillian movie Cidade de Dios or City of God? I've actually never seen a gangster movie before (excepting road to perdition) so I don't know how the body counts usual are in these movies but City of God had a hell of a high death toll. Was 1970's Brazil really that bad? dozens of children and teenagers dead in the streets...

[Dr Strangelove]

I don't know about gang wars in Brazil, but at one time Rio de Janerio had a problem with vigilantes murdering homeless street people, even children. Store owners felt that the street people were a threat to their businesses, so they would hire thugs to kill the street people where they slept.

[Agathon]

I've seen it, and it's one of the finest films I've ever seen. I recommend it to anyone.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Hey, Speer, you should also check out 'Y tu Mama Tambien'. I'm sure you'd approve, morally .

[molly bloom]

See also 'Pixote' an earlier film set on the wrongside of the tracks in Brazil. The young male star died/was killed some years' ago.

The police/vigilantes/government death squads killed drug dealers/gangsters/political opponents/transvestite prostitutes and the drug barons of the favelas killed their rivals, and so on.

In fact, as I recall, a Brazilian police squad was captured on video publicly 'interrogating' a suspect to death.

[Jagdtiger]

Hi! I've been lurking the OT since 98, but to answer your question:

Yes!

Ok, bye!

[Al B. Sure!]

someone makes their first post in 5 years to answer my question... aint that something?

[Imran Siddiqui]

[Verto]

How....odd.

[Pekka]

Yeah I believe it's (was/is) pretty bad in Brazil.. one of the most dangerous places in the world are there.

[Ned]

I haven't see the film, but my wife is from Brazil and visits often. The crime problem in Brazil gets worse all the time. People live in fear of going out. Brazil today is a nightmare country.

Something has to be done. The police are virtually hepless. It is amazing society can function at all.

[Al B. Sure!]

one thing about the movie didn't make sense though... when lil ze, a drug dealer, basically took over the area, the narrator said that there was no crime on average people in ze's turf but there was a whole lot of addicts. while not having drug dealers compete means there's no violence between dealers, you still have a ****load of addicts robbing random people.

[Ted Striker]

Don't go to the beach at night in Rio

Or Miami for that matter

[Jagdtiger]

Lol, I couldn't resist

Many places all over the country where it is that bad or worse even today. However I can tell you're pretty safe anywhere unless you look or act like a "sucker"...kinda hard to explain that.

I've lived in Rio for two years and my dad has lived there for almost five, and yes there is some violence(He for example once saw a shootout between police and some robbers not 100 feet away from his car, in the middle of the street, at lunchtime on a weekday!).

But again, the sucker thing....you're not going up any hills in Rio or stopping at red lights at 3 am, for example.

Most of this stuff is confined to urban areas. The prez is even considering banning all guns sometime the year after next. I'll be nice to see if this works at all, after hearing all about how this scenario would turn out in other countries, like the US.

The movie was based in real life and believe me, life in those places is ridiculously cheap. In rare situations where you have only one guy in control like that, violent crime does tend to cease in the area pretty darn quick. Anyone making trouble gets wasted right away.

[Ned]

Jagdtiger, my wife is from Belo. Is the crime situation there worse that Rio?