(Jul 10, 2022 ● Oslin Pierrette)
This was a beautifully honest dark film. A classic. Amazing narrative, and depiction & storytelling of that narrative.
The way of the streets is a dark place. It’s a barbaric place. An irrational place. You can’t dictate anything. You have to accept it, or you have to go. The only thing that dictates environments like this. Is cruelty and fear. Power is the top currency, and you have to take it by force. The path to power doesn’t have a happy ending either. It’s an ongoing story. The protagonist of the story has a limited run. Until the next protagonist comes.
The streets are ruthless. Morality, civil, and humane have no value. It’s incentivized to be heartless, a sociopath. Being that will get you the farthest. The way of the streets is carelessness, ruthless, aggression. So whoever does that the most. Whoever instills the most fear. Holds the most power. To instill the most fear. You have to cause terror. To keep your blood thirsty image up. Egos thrive in this kind of place, but love typically dies. You have to detach from loving sentiments. Valuing human sentiments. It’ll hold you back.
The ego is a nasty thing. That’ll take you to nasty places. The City of Gods illustrates the manifestation of the ego in raw form. Lil Z was the pure manifestation of the ego. Of no love. Dead inside. Just fascinated by the life of power and rule. Manifestation of the ego. And the way of the streets. Rarely if peace is present. Can only be held together by a thread. Ego can be disrupted by the smallest things. Ego is a very fragile concept.
That thread was Benny. The glue guy. A person in the streets just trying to make his way. Not trying to hurt anybody. He helped balance out Lil Z’s ego, cool it down. Benny just wanted to live. He did what he had to do in the streets. Then he spent his earnings living, and spreading the joy. Finding love. Something Lil Z couldn’t grasp the concept of, connecting. The currency in the streets. The attributes to gain more currency on the streets. The abrasive lifestyle. Doesn’t work with connecting. Which made him repulsive. It doesn’t matter how much power and control anyone has. How on top of the food chain anyone is. It’s still lonely. And a human need is connection. All humans need intimacy. To get their soul stimulated. Unless you die on the inside. Leading to a life of hurting and despair. You can’t buy or rule your way out of this. Lil Z was hurting. From a lack of love and connection. When the ego rules. Jealousy also rules. That feeling he felt, that hurt. He projected it. If I can’t have love. You definitely can’t have it. So destroy what gets others love. Emasculate the man. And violate his girl. Destroy his manhood. When there was peace in the city. Lil Z’s peace was disrupted. That little thread was cut. And he set fire to a whole city. That’s the thing of the ego. It’s a rule by fire. Everything around you is flammable, and will lead to the path to burn everything down. It’s why you can’t follow someone who rules like this. You will perish too. Being so closed off. No one will ever find the source of the fire. Just be able to fight fire with more fire. Nobody has the ability to defuse the situation. Especially since Benny is gone.
Then the whole city is basically at war, then dies. Secondary succession burns down the way of the current streets. The only thing that is typically left over. Is the roots left over that was learned from the last reign. Then the youth takes over. Reason why it was such an amazing depiction to see the ending. Of the kids takeover. Also depict how imbecile of a system it is.
Then you have people like Rocket. Who has a heart. That human element that makes us human. That allows him to connect to people. His heart and love doesn’t allow him to live the way of the streets. He doesn’t have the ability to be ruthless. All his attempts led him to empathizing and valuing people. He sees and feels them. So he couldn’t live with killing or disrupting them. People like this don’t value the hierarchy of the streets. They just want out. This film depicts what it’s like for people like this in a world of hell like that. There’s typically a low amount of options. Conform to the way of the streets or be poor. So how there’s a way of life for people living “normal lives”. They abide by the system. Go to school, then college. Get a job. Make a family. Abide by the rules and live a happy life. Textbook living you could say. There’s no way for that in these environments. No regular way to achieve social mobility. It’s either conform or be poor. So that’s why it’s understandable why the way of the streets. Is the way of the streets. It’s the only viable way of living. There aren’t any more options really. Definitely not keen on any other ways.
So typically the only way out. Is to find value. Being good at a sport or an artform. For Rocket it was photography. Photography saved his life. The typical story of impoverished people making it out of poverty. A talent saved their lives and got them out. They were lucky to dodge all the life threatening situations. And was able to make it out. A place and a way of life that is simply not for humans.
Such amazingly packed narratives. Rule by fire. Rule by wrath. Maintaining the highest power through intimidation. You make a lot of enemies. One day you’re left vulnerable. You get taken out by people you made build a monster in themselves to survive. And instead of restoring order, defusing the land. Typically what happens is the changing of powers in the hands of a new rule.
Great amazing performances. Great directing. Amazing storytelling. Just great stuff. A masterpiece.
SB: There was like this little side narrative I noticed. The kid is the only person connected to the truth of City Of Gods. He’s lived it. He is the culture. They need him because he is the source. But he doesn’t get the chance to be a fully paid member of the team. He’s a culture gold mine, and he only gets an internship offer. It talks more to the narrative of making it out. People from places like him. Need to be extraordinary to make it out. They don’t have access to get those types of jobs and positions. When he deserves a voice of the culture position more than most people in those seats. When he’s tapped into the culture. He barely gets the minimum.