City of Men (Cidade dos Homens)
- Mike Gunn
- Mar 10, 2008
- Series: Film
Directed by Paulo Morelli
‘City of Men' is a sequel to ‘City of God,' but directed and written by different people, giving it a completely different feel stylistically as well as content. ‘City of God' was frenetic in your face film, with lurid sexual content, and graphic violence that sickened even the most ardent moviegoer. You finished ‘City of God' feeling violated; yet educated in regards to the chaotic and violent life of young teens in the Favela (Shanty Town) in Rio de Janeiro. ‘City of God' was brilliant, moving and brought to light the horror and results of poverty and corruption. ‘City of ‘Men lacked both the pace and the intensity that made the former film so powerful.
However, ‘City of Men' is a good film, though it pales a bit in comparison with its big brother. It depicts two boyhood friends (Acerola, "Ace" and Larinjinha "Wallace") who are struggling to makes sense of their fatherless past, and their hopeless future, under the watchful eyes of two rival gangs. The movie is a continuance of the boys violent life from the ‘City of God' some seven years later. Both Wallace and Ace lament their lives sans a father figure. While I liked the ‘City of Men' much of the film was predictable. Wallace and Ace are great friends, the gang wars and the discovery of a terrible family secret split them up forcing them to pick sides in the war, yet friendship and love triumph.
The movie begins with Ace and Wallace and one of the rival gangs going to the beach. Ace brings his young son along with him, because his girlfriend has to go to work. Ace decides to leave his baby under the irresponsible eyes of a reluctant friend, and the baby is left to wander dangerously close to the crashing waves before he is symbolically swept away by the lead member of the gang. Within that opening scene captures the reality of chaos for a child growing up as the child of a child without a caring father. All these boys know is the security and community of these gangs, who provide for them, and look after them. This is not unlike the situation in many of our cities right here in America. We are told by many irresponsible sources that fatherhood doesn't matter; yet we see strewn throughout our cities and suburbs the results of a fatherless culture. Men lacking courage, vision and the manly tenderness that is able to properly lead his family. Instead we have boys that don't grow up and display a reckless machismo that destroys the boy and the family. This movie is about the sins of the father passed on to generations of boys that can't see life beyond the barrel of their AK 47's. Both boys seek after love by using women for their own need assuaging their own pain instead of having a deep well of love in which to give.
In the ‘City of Men,' the gang war is a weird background effect for two boys trying to become men by searching for the missing men in their lives. While Wallace locates his alcoholic father, both boys discover a secret that causes division and a hatred that may perpetuate the gang war in their own lives. In spite of this the love the boys have for one another wins out in the end, and they find a way to reconcile their heinous past and the sins of their father's to make for a better life for themselves and the life of Ace's little boy.
The movie ends with Ace reconciling with his girlfriend who had moved away to find a better job, leaving you with the sense of redemption in this movie.; a redemption that the ‘City of God' failed to leave you with.
‘City of Men' was a different movie. It gave us a softer story of redemption and love. It was not nearly as violent or as dark as the ‘City of God.' With that said it still earned it's R rating for language, violence and its intensity.
Personally I believe that everyone should see both the ‘City of God' and the ‘City of Men." They are movies that remind us of the violence that lie at the heart of everyone of us pushed up against the wall of despair.
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