Before watching the film City of God (2002), I had known very little about the slums of Rio de Janeiro. However, what surprised me even more than the conditions of living was the lack of police forces in the City of God. The ability for crime and injustice to prosper was limitless, and as a result a lot of people suffered from any strong foundation of law and order. So, during the point of the film when Lil’Zé started to take over a majority of the City of God, it became very interesting to see a sort of make-shift hierarchy transform the community as a result of the actions of a murderer. Crimes of rape, theft, murder, and other serious crimes were harshly punished, and to some degree, for a time, order was reached.

This to me is a very interesting demonstration of a character like Lil’Zé. A murderer with a psychopathic personality, it would be easy for filmmakers to simply show him as pure absolute evil. Yet, there are glimpses of humanity in him. The death of Benny causes extreme pain to a man who feels no emotion when taking away the lives of others. He also bans the crimes that he himself commits, somehow determining that its incorrect for others to steal, rape, or murder, while excluding himself from those constructs. The audience will definitely not empathize with Lil’Zé, in fact, on the contrary. There is no ambiguity in the matter that questions whether he is a good person or not, he most certainly isn’t. But the very small contradictions that do occur make Lil’Zé seem like he was a real person. In that essence, it was extremely interesting to watch the actions and motivations behind Lil’Zé, as well as disturbing.