City Of God (2002)

There’s a lot to chew on in City of God, but what I found most intriguing was the evolution of the gangs in the film. Though everything is meticulously and excitingly depicted in the film, when I got to the end I still found myself baffled at how simple armed robbery was able to so quickly evolve into elaborate gang wars with excessive collateral damage? Seriously! In little more than a decade, the Cidade de Deus (d)evolves from something as (relatively) innocent as the quaintly named Tender Trio stealing gas canisters off a truck, to elaborate gang wars with excessive collateral damage. But then I guess that’s just capitalism. Someone invents the horseless carriage and before you know it there’s a billion-dollar industry and people fighting wars over the resource that makes those machines run. It doesn't matter if you’re from the favelas of Rio or the boardrooms of corporate America, the law of the land is survival of the fittest. Get your piece before someone else takes it. Kill or be killed. Isn't this a wonderful system?