City of God

The City Film

Genre within film is the identification of a film’s specific classification. Films that are categorized together tend to share common conventions or formulas. These generic conventions are apparent to the viewer, but contain a different twist each time. At times it poses a challenge to confine films to a specific genre when they contain elements from multiple, contradictory, genres. For example, it is difficult to limit films to the genre of the city film due to the different forms or directions they may take. For this paper I will examine the genre of the city film as it encapsulates three specific films: Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, Spike Lee’s Malcolm X and Fernando Meirelles’ City of God.

As with every distinct genre, the city film contains many generic conventions and formulas. There stand three main conventions that appear throughout these films. First, all city film movies are centered on impoverished neighborhoods. This is clearly evident in Bicycle Thieves as it progresses through its opening sequence. The viewer immediately sees the struggle and desire of a large group of middle-aged men to find any type of work available. Anyone who acquires work is considered a lucky man. The first half Malcolm X focuses on Malcolm Little and his friend Shorty who struggle to scheme their out of poverty. Malcolm works from low-level thievery all the way to the top of the drug game, just to be thrown back into poverty once again. Finally, all of City of God takes place in a slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where impoverishment is synonymous with the location of the film.

Additionally, movies of the city film genre tend to focus on one main character who attempts to rise above and move on from the struggles they encounter in their poverty-stricken part of town. In Bicycle Thieves, the film revolves around Antonio’s struggle to locate his bicycle so he can complete his job and provide a better life for his family. In Malcolm X, Malcolm also tries to rise above his struggle, but does not envision it in as much of a monetary fashion, but rather as an attempt to rise above the omnipresent oppression he continuously feels. As for City of God, the film is centralized on the character of Rocket, a young boy who grows up in a tough town and uses photography as a means of rising above his circumstances.

Finally, all city film movies incorporate problems with the police in one way or another. In De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, Antonio contacts the police early on in hopes that they would be able to help him seek out his bicycle. However, it all comes full circle when the police subsequently arrest Antonio for attempting to steal a different bicycle. Police are present throughout Malcolm X, but their impact is perhaps most notable when Malcolm is put in jail for robbery. Finally, Meirelles not only used the police in his film City of God, but used