Movie Review

PSYCHOLOGY
HUM 4561

NAME: MAISHA MALIHA

STUDENT ID: 170061001
DEPARTMENT: BTM
SECTION: B
SEMESTER: 5TH SEMESTER
 CITY OF GOD
“City of God” is a crucial film in the realm of social action and of pure cinematic
brilliance. It is a powerful and realistic portrayal of the most godawful atmosphere to live
in Rio de Janeiro. Based on true events, this movie is well crafted by persevering life of
the slum in Brazil’s Favelas with a genuine cast of indelible characters. This movie
shows how these characters are growing up in an environment that is full of crime and
brutal gang violence and how eventually they find themselves in the middle of a gang
war. In this dire situation, one character and the narrator “Rocket” attempts to document
the conflict in the hopes of achieving success in his career.
This film tells the story of this boy “Rocket”, who watches his brother and peers growing
up to be gangsters, and his struggle to free himself from the slums' grasp. Though some
characters like Rocket’s brother and Benny, the coolest gangster in the hood who had
some humanity left in them to outgrow this toxic masculinity. At the other hand, the main
character and Benny’s best friend, L’il Ze causes violence and fear as he wipes out rival
gangs without mercy. Even as a little boy he started killing people just for fun. Benny is
the only one here who could keep him on the good side of sanity. Throughout Rocket’s
whole narration following careful observations by going back in time to analyze specific
segments, each character receives a complete synopsis of their involvement in an
event.
Pulling the audience in the right frame with the insane sense of atmosphere, it takes us
to a darkly skewed world of drugs, bloodshed and death following struggles and
injustice which can be difficult to watch and comprehend. The notorious rise of
organized crime by these local hoods goes unchallenged by the police force which
shows the poor law enforcement. This is one of those films where environment is its
own character because the environment depicts so much of the grim circumstances,
creating a climate for the ease of violence. Hence, the characters do as they please
without acknowledging the results of their action. It shows the temptation of power of the
role violence plays in our society driven by Nature vs Nurture theory.
The irony is that City of God is actually a raging hell where little children grow up playing
with weapons, the streets are literally soaked in blood and even the good guys
eventually succumb to the siren call of crime. By adding depth to these going on
conflicts, these characters ultimately find themselves to be the victim of the
circumstance. In this situation the character and narrator Rocket sees the hopelessness
around him and tries to figure out where he fits into it. Although, through a general point
of view he only makes assessments and comments on events and not plays any role in
the situations or their course of change. Yet the audience can effectively acknowledge
his every attempt to break through the barriers that come with his situation and rise
above it to pursue his dream. This film is very inspiring to those who are trying to figure
things out in their own lives as they watch him winning out in an environment without
succumbing to the gang life that many of his peers got involved with.
 PULP FICTION
“Pulp Fiction” is regarded to be the genius director, Quentin Tarantino’s most iconic and
legendary filming achievement at his very peak. The true unique aura of this film
emerged through the great script and the characters who were extremely well defined.
Tarantino allowed the most outrageous of characters to develop using long, melodic
takes and monologues that at times sound almost poetic. It certainly is an iconic piece
of filmmaking in the sense of its high cult status. Also, the cinematography beautifully
depicts the ruggedness of early 1990’s Los Angeles.
This film is the ultimate pop-culture referenced movie including three unique
interconnected short films with their own protagonists. Tarantino pieced these stories
together in a very uncynical and non-traditional way, which made it so interesting finding
out how all these different individual tales eventually come together. It’s a bunch of
crime vignettes joined at some point within the film centering on different characters told
out of sequence and out of time making a non-chronological series. Whether it is Mia
Wallace’s search for happiness, Vincent’s naivety, or Jules’ overconfidence, the
characters of Pulp Fiction are extremely relatable. Mixing the original with the derivative,
Tarantino pushes Pulp Fiction in directions that are equally anticipated and unexpected.
An intimidating crime lord “Marcellus” gets violated and gets his revenge, but he must
keep the incident a secret to retain his masculinity. On the other end of the spectrum,
Jules played by Samuel L. Jackson has the most poignant and powerful realization in
his storyline, which we can see at the end with his remarkable final monologue. In a way
these two characters mirror each other, they were very brutal people but something very
big happens to them which can be very jarring, and they find it in their hearts to have
sympathy for someone else.
It’s the compassion that further deepens the film — invariably forcing the audience out
of their comfort zones and into the imagination of Tarantino. He manifests examples of
pop culture while simultaneously creating a world where there are no normal people and
no normal days. In many movies, the characters say just enough dialogue to advance
the plot. However, Pulp Fiction enhances the art of conversation and language.
Here, the director tried to create kind of a new perspective, something that is very aware
of its conceits. In this case, he uses all kinds of different genres, specifically things like
heist movies, blaxploitation, westerns and the list go on. Each character is so intricate in
terms of the way they have been built. A lot of amount of detailing were put to show
authenticity of these ever most famous characters, starting from the look of the
characters to the accents and the inflections, humor and eccentricity. There are a lot of
core characters that are explored at different points of the film, but not just one
protagonist that is followed all the way through.
This film could really capture comedy, brutality and tension, all of that mostly in just one
shot making it deceptively brilliant. It has become a classic because it emphasizes an
ugly truth in American society. The dream attained in the seedy underbelly of organized
crime is very tempting to a society that wants to get without giving. Power, wealth,
luxury, and fame are all highly desirable in any culture. Easy answers and instant
gratification are distinctive hallmarks of American drug culture. Unfortunately, those
answers and that gratification come at a price. In the end dirty money and corrupt power
turn the American dream into the final nightmare. Thus leaving the audience with a
sense that maybe everything in life is just a collage of concepts, such as respect mixed
into a whole lot of hope i.e. a soft, wet, shapeless mass of material.

MUCIZE