Starter:
The characters and representation
In managing to extricate himself from the slum
Rocket,
despite his explosive and fiery name, represents hope. His is the
character that escapes the trap of poverty and violence and his soothing
voice often acts as an antidote to the violence on the screen. The shot
of him in the opening sequence is symbolic in that throughout the film
he remains the outsider caught between the police and the gangs. We
sympathise with him because he is hopeless at football, crime, getting a
girlfriend and fails to take revenge for his brother’s murder. At
Bene’s farewell he is apart from the crowd, up on the stage helping the
DJ. He tries to lead a normal life, in the supermarket, and delivering
the newspapers. He does escape, but only because he is able to exploit
his connections in the slum. His role in the film is symbolised by the
shot at the end of the opening sequence, showing him trapped between the
gang and the police, not part of either faction.
In contrast
, Lil Ze represents
hoplessness
. We
know that there is no way out for him except through death. He starts
off as a bullying child, then a killer child, with no fear or
conscience. He assumes control and power through violence, but his
motivation is not through greed, he doesn’t show any ambition to leave
the apartment, but by pure evil. He seems to have no redeeming features,
nothing that we can identify with, and the only occasion when we feel
slightly sorry for him, at Bene’s farewell when he is rejected by girls
who he asks to dance, is followed by the violent rape of Ned’s
girlfriend. He kills Tuba just because he talks too much. He dies when a
child shoots him
, a legacy of his own infantile violence
.
Bene is the opposite of Ze, and is a representation
of a good gangster. A man with a conscience who tries to curb some of
Ze’s violent behaviour. He is both charming and popular, and although he
witnesses violence we don’t see him committing any murders. Unlike Ze
he is drawn to a life outside the slum, initially through contact with
Thiago and the trappings of new clothes, then he dyes his hair to make
him look more European. Like his brother Shaggy, who died when his
girlfriend persuaded him to leave the slum, Bene’s relationship with
Angelica changes him and leads to his death, which is bound up with the
rejection of Ze’s values. In leaving his psychopathic friend he is
leaving hi without any restraining forces and unleashes more terrible
forces.
Knockout Ned is drawn into the Carrots gang to
avenge the death of his brother and father and rape of his girlfriend.
He is the only one of the four leading characters not seen as a child,
and has seen life outside the slum, as a soldier and bus driver. He is
the stereotypical tragic hero forced to use his skills on his quest for
retribution. Initially he tries to tone down Carrots violence, insisting
that no innocent people are shot, but the rules have to be broken, the
irony is that it is Ned’s exception to the rule which causes his
eventual death at the hands of Otto. He is the one destructive character
who seems to retain some humanity. He is visibly moved by Steak n’Fries
death and it his mourning over the body that leads to him being shot
and captured by the police.
Carrot’s character is an enigma itself, we know
nothing of his background – surely in the book all the characters were
thoroughly developed. His function in the narrative is sketchy but
crucial. He is the instigator of Ned’s downfall. He is ruthless, killing
Aristotle who he thought of as a brother. He is white, but most of his
gang members are black, which emphasises the lack of any particular
racial issues in the story.
The Tender Trio represent a
different age. They have no nominated boss, they do things together,
their guns are toys, accessories to their bravado. They are amateurs.
The film centres on the aggressive definition of masculinity. The
female characters
have passive and peripheral roles, they are there to be recipients of
male violence and are attacked murdered and raped. None of the women,
apart from Marina, have pivotal roles.
Ideology, Values, Institution
“If you run away they’ll get you and if you stay, they’ll get you too.”
Violence is the main driving force of the film. Shootings, beatings
and rape form the core of the action. But the film’s attitude to
violence is a means to an end for the film maker’s main motivation for
making the film - the wish for social change. It shows that the
favelas are a breeding ground for this violence because the people have
no hope of achieving anything other than through violence, however,
apart from a brief reference to a flood being the cause of an influx of
people the film makers do not provide any political reference points or
background – the ‘sixties’, the ‘seventies’ are just chapter headings
that don’t explain what was going on in Brazilian society that created
these slums.
The film does have simple lessons to learn – if you live by the gun
you die by the gun, if you avoid violence and retain some honest values
and ambitions you escape. The film’s ending is on the one hand positive –
Rocket is saved, but on the other hand the Runts are a more violent
gang than ever. These are simplistic and stereotype the slum dwellers –
presumably the majority of people are still trying to scrape some kind
of honest living but you don’t see many examples of those except on the
fringe of the plot.
The institutions backing the film had originally intended the film
just for the Brazilian market, but the film’s success at Film Festivals
gave it a life of its own, and Mierelles has used the film’s
unprecedented success as a platform for to focus the world’s attention
on the darkness of Rio’s slums, one of the most violent and dangerous
places in South America. The film could not have been the commercial
success it was without the backing of Miramax, the film distribution
company, but remember Miramax is a commercial company, part of the
Disney Corporation, who do not do things for charity, the people behind
Miramax – the Weinstein brothers – must have spotted a commercial
opportunity in the film.
