Industrialization and Urbanization in Cidade de Deus

Cidade de Deus reflects enormous sociopolitical change in Rio de Janeiro.  During the Cold War, as U.S. attention focused internally, Latin American countries began to produce formerly imported goods.  Industrialization, and more pertinently urbanization resulted, causing many former slaves to migrate into Rio de Janeiro.  Although, as Oliviera writes, “the concentration of blacks in Rio de Janeiro preceded industrialization,” urbanization was already occurring (75).  As richer white Brazilians migrated outwards to the suburbs, rapid black urbanization filled the residential areas in Rio (Oliviera 75).  The film’s creators casted all African-Brazilians; some were straight from the acting programs of urban Brazil, for its cast of favelados (Hart 205). 

After centuries of conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the former established low-income housing in an area proximal to a new industrial center, rapidly increasing population density in the favelas.  Cidade de Deus’ plot is told on two timelines, the 1960’s and the 1970’s, and the backgrounds of the two times are remarkably different.  Urban areas have gotten larger and denser, and criminal, as well as drug, activity has increased greatly.  Unfortunately, not all migrating blacks gained employment in the city.  Julio Cesar Pino’s work indicates the amount of available labor producing economic input declined as urbanization increased (20).    Leaving many immigrants unemployed, similar to Chicago and New York at the turn of the 20^th century, creates a dominant subculture insistent on financial success by criminal means.  Now, Cidade de Deus’ depiction of life in the favela in Rio de Janeiro is contrary to Pino’s opening argument that the “notions of the favelado as street urchin, hustler, scavenger, and criminal have persisted for at least a half century.  The truth is more complicated but no less dramatic” (18).  Pino’s final argument is a matter of honest employment among three major favelas in Brazil.  This notion of honest employment is de-emphasized in Cidade de Deus.  Only a handful of individuals work honest jobs, and the movie’s creators position these few to become victims to the street crime in the favelas. 

Knockout Ned’s conversion from his (only spoken of) life in the favela of the 1960’s to working the bus fares in the 70’s and then his life of crime in Carrot’s gang represents the effect of gang activity.  It is possible to draw a causal pattern  beginning with the urbanization of the 20^th century, to widespread unemployment (or lack of), and finally to a criminal culture in the favelas, like Cidade de Deus.  Stephen Hart’s analysis of the film addresses the societal structure of the favelas and the gangs’ impact on Rio.  Hart writes that the “other side of the tracks” viewpoint of the city signifies the alternate governing body within the favela (205).  Li’l Ze’s rules, compared to those of Knockout Ned, portray him as the ruler of the shanty town.  Ned’s rule for no innocents to be killed is an ill-fated one; his best laid plans are ruined and result in his death.  Li’l Ze’s choice to accept the life of a criminal prolongs his existence, and only upon overthrow from those he abused does he fall from power. 

“Fight and you’ll never survive. Run and you’ll never escape,” said the narrating Rocket.  It rings true for all except a small minority.  A government decision to relocate all those seeking low income housing coupled with boundaries against advancement, such as unemployment and economic inequality, created the environment for Cidade de Deus, an environment where an honest dollar was harder to gain than a dirty one and a gun was easier to get than a camera.

Che and His Big Dreams

Che Part 1 presents the tactics of the guerrilla fighters of the Cuban Revolution appropriately.  This movie depicts the beginning of the revolution in its smaller stages of fighting to the later urban conflicts.  One main notion that Guevara emphasizes in his writings is the existence of the revolution.  He writes in his Guerilla Warfare: A Method that it is not necessary for all conditions to be present for a revolution to succeed.  There is something at work far beyond the capabilities of men or the number of guns.  Che writes that a combination of circumstances in Latin American countries leave them prone to revolution, and he says, “The dictatorship tries to function without resorting to force so we must try to oblige it to do so, thereby unmasking its true nature as the dictatorship of the reactionary social classes.”  Che: Part 1 portrays this idea when the fighters are strategizing an attack plan.  Fidel decides against attacking a supply truck, because the army can, without show of force, deny its existence and the existence of guerrilla presence.  Che of the film goes further with his plan at his UN speech.  He essentially calls out other Latin American countries for their atrocities possibly in an effort to stir feelings around the continent. 

What this film fails to show is Che’s revolutionary ideology in nations outside of Cuba, such as his actions in Bolivia and his thoughts toward other nations.  Che Guevara’s Message to the Tricontinental begins by analyzing the situations of Vietnam, Africa, and other Latin American countries.  Even before the Cuban conflict, as depicted in the film, Che asks Fidel if it is possible for his revolution to be taken to the rest of Latin American.  The distinction between Fidel and Che’s goals and means spells the difference in their ideology.  Fidel, as in the movie, recognizes the importance of the politics in a political-military conflict.  Che, opposed to the Cuban native Fidel, was against affiliation with other nationalist groups, if their views differed from those of the guerrilla group.  The largest disparity between Che’s and Fidel’s ideas is the breadth of their revolution. 

Che, through his travels, is empowered to take the Cuban Revolution to the rest of Latin America.  The movie shows this in the sectioned balcony scene.  His Message to the Tricontinental summarizes his hatred of imperialism and capitalism, labeling the existing social structure of Cuba as feudalism.  Consisting of indebted laborers and few landowners who each own large parcels of land, Che aims to redistribute land to all Cubans.  Che’s Message fulfills his previously written Guerrilla Warfare: A Method.  He, just like the gun-battles in the jungle, attempts to unmask the horrors of the ruling bourgeois, but this cannot be done without the lower class and their ingrained hatred of the upper class.  In Che: Part 1, we see the final evolutionary stage of the lower class.  The Cuban revolution gave each poor Cuban an opportunity to better himself, a situation he or she had never once had. 

Che’s final words before his death, summarized to mean: this revolution is more than a man, and killing me will not end anything, affirm is established tactics.  He required his column in the jungles of Cuba to be educated  This is purposefully done in order to build a fighting force which understands what it is fighting for and does not confuse it for the person in command.  This mindset, which Guevara seeks to instill in his fighters is to be the driving force of their will to fight and die for Cuba.

            Motorcycle Diaries details the onset of Ernesto Guevara’s revolution.  The historical messages to leave this film with are the reasons for Che’s revolution and his overall view of life and equality.  Coupled with the readings for this week, the movie Che, initially portrayed as an middle class medical student, who lies his way across Latin America, witnesses the atrocities of his continent. 

Throughout Diaries, there is a disparity between the wealthy and the poor.  What would a Marxist revolutionary film be without it?  Alas, due to the United States’ influence over Latin America’s production and policy, the Marxist ideals of the growing middle class emphasize opportunity and equality above all.  Diaries displays this in the mining company and the leper colony.  Guevara recognizes an immense problem in Latin American society.  He tries to fix it with whatever is at his disposal, for example the fifteen dollars and his asthma medication.  It is apparent that Che realizes that these issues are larger than him and he does not have access to the required solutions. 

Paulo Drinot criticizes Diaries’ Peruvian oil company scene.  She states that the larger problem in Peru at the time of Guevara’s trip was “the deep racial prejudice that underpins the country’s entrenched inequalities” (118).  Drinot declares the movie Che’s line, that the Peruvians believed the Indians should live and only just, as a “melodramatic device” to show Guevara’s changing social view and the beginning of his anger at the bourgeoisie. 

Eduardo Elena parallels the Peronist era in Argentina and Guevara’s trip.  If memory serves, before Che leaves his home, he mentions something of his father and a revolution, in a mocking manner.  This may allude that Guevara’s father was a Peronist, a political group which favored nationalism (Elena 22).  In contrast to his father, who wished for him to stay and finish his medical schooling, Che leaves on his continental journey.  This presents us a new stage in Latin American history, one from nationalism to revolution.  Eduardo Elena argues that “the guerilla-traveler attempted to lead a revolution among a largely indigenous population about whom he knew almost nothing” (48).  This is entirely possible; Che’s migratory lifestyle may have expanded the reach of his message but it would also reduce the efficacy.