City Of God

Analysis of Rocket from the 'City Of God'

Following Rocket, in the 'City Of God', we see visually the story of how the slums of Rio de Janeiro develop and are impacted by the fear and violence of gangs. 

At the beginning of the film, the sound is a mixture between diegetic and non diegetic. The environment of the city and a voiceover of Rocket talking about the setting adding extra information and exploiting issues within the City of God.

"We came to the City of God hoping to find paradise."

 Within this sequence of the film, the time period is set during the 60s. The drug choice at the time was cannabis. With the use of mise-en-scene, this information is shown through the earthy colour palette and natural surroundings of the city. Other techniques, such as editing show this too as a more gradual speed and quite slow of cuts and transitioning to different shots.  

"But for the rich and powerful our problems didn't matter. We were too far removed from the picture postcard image of Rio de Janeiro"                  

At this time, it shows that Rocket is aware of the outside world, as you clearly see further into the film as of his hobby of photography. However you could argue that because to the lack of education and violent ideology of the civil war between Lil Zé and Carrot's gang as well as the conflict with the corrupt police, the youth which live in the slums who are brought up with the surrounding violence are so immersed within this world of killing and conflict they don't know anything about the outside world despite being a miles away from the "rich and powerful" as Rocket sates in the voiceover.    

In this shot, we see a young Rocket and Stringy talking about jobs and they want to do when they become older. The sound within the scene is all diegetic now instead of the extra voiceover of Rocket and non diegetic upbeat music unlike the sequence before. 

This drawn image from 'The City Of God' clearly shows the position Rocket is in, developing from the beginning of the film of not wanting to be a cop or part of the gangs. 

Rocket has only shot an image on a camera, never with a gun. Shows he has never been dragged into the scheme that the gangs within the slums have, controlling over everyone else living in that environment. 

With violence becomes power in this scenario. 

Rocket isn't just stuck between the conflict of the different gangs and the police but also the idea of two different worlds, one being within the gang violated slums and the other being the 'real world' demonstrated when Rocket goes to the office block to do his journalism work. 

Not many people have this opportunity like Rocket has with having photography as a hobby. A camera is considered as of the lack of education within .

The last significant shot of Rocket is when he becomes a photographer and sells his images to a journalist agency at an office outside the slums and in "The Real World".

 The most significant differences between this shot and the normal environment of the City of God is that there is a completely different type of colour palette. No earthy tones, except the clothes Rocket is wearing. The aesthetic for this sequence has much more neutral and cool blue tones. Quite a basic setting of an office however the contrast from having the whole film based on the development of the city as a character with how over time, the gangs and violence distort and change the rules, most significantly the colour palette. 

The cycle continues at the end of the film after Rocket takes his images of a dead Lil' Zé as the knife cutting scene shows that living in Rio de Janeiro slums is just a continuous cycle of gangs being violent to kill for power, as Rocket documents within his images the events that occur. Rocket is someone who survived and uses his images to show this.