With the same producers and focus on the street gangs of Rio de Janeiro as the terrific City of God, I had high expectations for the follow-up, City of Men. City of God, directed by Fernando Meirelles, explored the violent, unpredictable life of urban gangs in Rio. The violence of the gangs reflected itself in the dynamic visuals and cinematography.
City of Men, directed by Meirelles's producing partner, Paulo Morelli, largely retains the color of the previous film though it takes a more personal turn as it looks at the effects of poverty and crime in the lives of two young men, Ace (Douglas Silva) and Wallace (Darlan Cunha).
Ace, an 18-year-old with a young child and a wife, is reluctant about the responsibilities of adulthood. Being a father and husband was the result of adolescent fun, which he still wishes to retain.
At the beginning of the film, Ace treats his own son with a reckless abandon as he soaks in the sun on the beaches of Rio. Wallace, who is about to turn 18, is also plagued by demons as he obsesses over his own lack of a father. Wallace dreads receiving the identification card, which will not bear his father's surname.
As Wallace seeks out his father and Ace discovers what it means to be a father, the gang wars of Rio take the backdrop. They start when Nefasto (Eduardo B R Piranha) betrays his boss, the charismatic Madrugad??o - nicknamed Midnight - (Jonathan Haagensen). With a new gang, Nefasto takes over his turf on Dead End Hill, forcing Midnight and his crew to flee. Midnight mounts an even larger and deadlier response.
Like those in City of God, the battles show swarms of armed juvenile soldiers as they run through the streets shooting at each other. The arbitrary violence and futility of it all seems more like a water fight than one with heavy artillery. The film's implicit message on the uselessness and utter silliness of gangs is effectively communicated through these battle scenes of disaffected youths. However, City of Men has more of a human touch than City of God, which portrays a near nihilistic landscape of emotionless bloodshed.
While the gang battles provide most of the movie's action, the stories of Ace and Wallace provide the majority of the drama. As Wallace tracks down his lost father, a story unravels involving both his and Ace's father and the past generation of gangs from the Hill. This narrative is simultaneously surprising and predictable: surprising in what we learned transpired between their fathers when they were young, yet predictable in the emotions that this knowledge elicits in Ace and Wallace.
This is one of the pitfalls of City of Men. Throughout the movie character development happens in the blink of an eye. For a movie where the focus is on the characters, it is unfortunate that their emotional development seems contrived. This is not the fault of the actors, who flawlessly portray the young adults who are at once intimately familiar with tragedy and pain, yet also innocent. In City of God the characters do not learn leading to the cyclical and intergenerational nature of urban crime. The humanity presented in City of Men, on the other hand, lends a sense of optimism and hope to the challenges that seemed impenetrable in the previous film.
The cinematography reflects this shift towards a more character-centered movie. Like its predecessor, the film is imbued with color. Despite the violence and poverty that plague the neighbor that is the movie's stage, it is also a place that is vibrant. The viewer gets a visceral feeling of the locale through the aerial shots of Rio, a city that is part a sprawling urban center and is also part jungle. The beach and party scenes, too, reflect the liveliness of Rio. However, the shots are less rushed and fast paced. The camera often dwells for a prolonged time on its subjects, grating the audience more access into the characters' internal constitutions.
The strength of City of Men is that it not only tackles the plight of poor neighborhoods in Rio, but does so by humanizing the various characters, both the heros and the gangsters.
