Analysis - City Of God Opening

In this sequence from City of God, all of the different film forms are used. In particular, I believe this sequence is heavily influence by the music. The editing keeps pace with the beat, the cuts become faster and more chaotic as the rhythm picks up and the opposite when it dies down. This, in combination with the parallel editing style, provides the audience with an intense sense of urgency in that we know that this rampaging herd of young men with guns chasing a chicken, are going to meet Rocket at some point.

Another interesting thing I noticed the first time I saw this sequence, is that the chicken is our main protagonist for the majority of the clip until it is stopped by Rocket. It is specifically the first ‘character’ we see on camera and we immediately feel sympathy for the chicken as we cut to see its brethren getting slaughtered. I believe this chicken is a symbol of our main protagonist and is a form of foreshadowing of what will happen in the film.

This sequence also has an example of a narrative shift when Rocket is caught in the middle of a standoff. A flashback occurs to give emotional emphasis to the current situation and give backstory to some of the characters. When the flashback occurs so does a sound bridge in the form of distorted clock ticking. This smooths out the transition and lets the audience know that there is a flashback happening as that particular distorted ticking noise is often associated with time moving backward. When we reach the setting of the flashback immediately the light becomes much harsher and the colour palette turns warmer with immense amounts of yellow and orange, colours that are hardly visible in the ‘real world’ of the film. This is used to determine past from present and in a way shows the past to be somewhat simpler yet intense as the whole screen seems to be just one colour but that colour is immensely bright and harsh.

By Aedan Bruitzman