A reaction paper on CITY OF GOD

City of Gods: TOO MUCH POWER WILL KILL YOU

by: Aynaderka Odessa Vynn Padilla-Sison

Let my words be few. All I know is that the movie entitled “The City of God,” epitomizes how impunity could live even longer than our life span. It is very heart aching to watch a movie like this because I felt like everyone watches people die but they just don’t care, and acts as if nothing happened. It made me ask myself, “Is there still hope and future to this kind of place?” I am referring to the city where everything took place - the place where everything was rampant such as robbery, killings, injustices, violence, drug dealings, shoot-to-kills, and possibly any source of danger that you might think of.

Everything looks so normal. The little boys even bring with them guns confidently as if those were toys that they were playing with. They were too confident carrying it as if they were proud of their new toy. As the movie went by, I found my self enjoying the movie. The “stupidity” or “ignorance” of Lil Ze, one of the Gods who claim the place as his territory, made me laugh the most. He wanted his picture to be taken by Rocket (the boy his age, whose brother was killed by him) for the sake of fame and for him to be recognized as the real God of the city. Maybe this is the result of being more exposed in the streets doing different vices rather than going to school. It’s even more saddening to know that the government haven’t done something for the youth of the city, for its people and for the development of their place. All along, where have they been? The government is shameful for being like a paralyzed and good-for-nothing institution.

          

I really am ashamed of myself as well because all this time watching the movie, I even had the nerve of making laugh at them, when in fact; this movie was based from a true story. So, all those terrible things that happened in the movie were once true. This is a wake up call to each one of us. The government should do its responsibility. Those who died in the movie are nothing but a victim of the system. We cannot blame the people for being like that – a drug dealer, pusher, user, hold-upper, carnapper, and burglar. If only they were provided by the government the real services for the people, if they were not deprived by their rights, if they were given the opportunity to live in a place where they can feel “human” they could have been the next leader, mayor, even the best President in time. They could have had the power.

           

But they were blinded by the system. They thought that power lies behind their guns and the number of lives that they could put in their hands and end. They thought that this is respect. But they are wrong. It was not respect that they had gained after all, it was FEAR.