Cidade De Deus

Cidade de deus is a film from 2002 based upon a real-life favela (ghetto) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The film illustrates the issues of drug wars and how they can absolutely take over a neighborhood. The two primary dealers were Li’l Ze and Knockout Ned who were vying for control of the neighborhood and their wallets. A few key elements of the film are the corruption of the local government, the struggle to gain and maintain majority control and power, and the change that occurred when City of God transitioned from a rural area when they were children to an urban area when they grew into their late teens.

In the story we see several symbolic characters, including Rocket, the younger brother of a hoodlum who died at the hands of Li’l Ze and sought to expose the violence of Cidade de Deus, Bene, who illustrated the desire to get out of the favela and do better for himself, Knockout Ned who  did not want to do any harm, but got sucked into the underworld by Carrot, coupled with the knowledge that Li’l Ze wanted him dead, and finally was Li’l Ze himself, the crazed product of the original trifecta of power in Cidade de Deus. He, according to the Harton Article, epitomized the subaltern class that is marked by violence, illiteracy, and murder. The upbringing of Li’l Ze shows the viewer the gradual corruption of youth through limited exposure to violence as a small child, and the breaking point (in the case of Li’l Ze, the hotel robbery turned massacre) where the shift in mindset takes over. Then we gradually see him become the foremost gangster of Cidade de Deus and turning that corruption over to the next generation of gangster, as we can see when he forces steak and fries to shoot the 2 “runts” in the foot for stealing and then forces him to kill one of them.

Aside from the violence, changes in power from one drug lord to the other brought about relative stability to the region, as described in the Oliviera article, this is a result of being overlooked by National Economic Policy and essentially having to fend for themselves. The realization that the police were not the saviors that they should be, instead of eliminating the crime, they were supplying the criminals with small arms, and it was through photojournalism of people like Rocket, were the pieces of the puzzle put together that would lead the trail back to the Police. This underground world of violence, murder, and corruption was bound together only by fear, fear that drug lords like Li’l Ze would kill them and their entire families if they went against him or his orders .

Che: Part 1

The film “Che: Part 1- The Argentine” tells the story of Che Guevara during the July 26^th movement, including cutbacks to him addressing the United Nations in 1964 as well as cutbacks to an interview between him and Lisa Howard of ABC news. Che’s overall goal for the revolution was to fight imperialism and cut it off at the head, which, according to him, was the United States of America.(Tricontinental Address).

The United Nations speech in the movie reinforces what was said at the Address to the “Tricontinental”. The whole driving force behind his argument is that the imperialism that was so evident in the Roman and Byzantine empires of the Middle Ages is still very much alive within the Empire of the United States of America, leader of the United Nations. He makes the claim that the US/UN uses their combined powers to “blackmail humanity by threatening it with war” (Tricontinental). This is (allegedly) due to the strategy of installing puppet governments and overthrowing governments perceived to be a threat to the well-being of the US/UN.

 Che’s strategy is to utilize guerrilla warfare to achieve his goals of fighting off American imperialism in Latin America.(guerrilla warfare article) His goals were to prove that a militia can win a war against an army, to create conditions of revolution through insurrection, and the battleground should be in the undeveloped countryside as opposed to in the urban environment.

Che Guevara’s strategy and motives were played out through the actions of the July 26^th movement, which took place largely in the jungles and sought to recruit literate Cubans who were unsatisfied with the government in order to change their way of life through a violent revolution against imperialism. He gained his support by touting the guerrilla fighters as the heros of the revolution, saying that “Facing the general superiority of the enemy at a given place, one must find tactics with which to gain relative superiority at the moment” (GW) these were accomplished by force concentration and effective utilization of the terrain to know whether or not it is wise to act or sit in wait for a better opportunity in which to strike against the army.

Tactically, his logic is sound, according to Alfred Thayer Mahan, "War, once declared, must be waged offensively [and] aggressively. The enemy must not be fended off; but smitten down. You may then spare him every exaction, relinquish every gain, but 'til then he must be struck incessantly and remorselessly." This was Che’s strategy throughout the revolution. To consistently be on the dominant side of the battle, or else a battle would not take place, doing this helped to ensure more wins and thus gaining more support for the cause of the revolution, thus increasing the guerrilla army.

Motorcycle Diaries

Motorcycle Diaries is a film based upon the diaries of Ernesto “Che” Guevara as he traveled through Latin America in the early 1950’s . The film specifically focused on Ernesto (Fuser) “Che” Guevara’s and Alberto Granado’s travels throughout Latin America, but especially Peru and their interaction with indigenous cultures throughout the area, most notably being the Peruvian Leper Colony in San Pablo where he noticed a stark difference in status between the physicians and clergy and the Lepers. It was the experiences gained during this journey that influenced Che’s beliefs that would be his driving force later in life. This is evident in the Drinot Article, which states “the poverty and injustice that [Che] observed struck a sensitive chord’ while he came ‘to identify United States imperialism as the source of the injustices and poverty that he observed in South America.” (Drinot, 90)

The focus of Guevara’s expedition was to have a fun adventure but the route let him experience the inequities present in the more rural areas when compared to a large city like Buenos Aires. His work in Peru as well as the speech made at his birthday party gave light to his political motivations. He said (in the film) “We believe, even more after this journey, that the separation of America in false and uncertain nationalities is completely fictitious. We are a single mixed race, from Mexico to the Strait of Magellan. So, trying to free myself from any nationality load I raise a toast for Peru and for America united—Cheers.” Immediately following this he swam across the large river (despite his asthma) to spend his final night in Peru with the San Pablo Leper Colony that he had been providing care for the last two weeks. The Drinot Article further goes on to postulate that he had the power to heal the lepers by treating them like humans and interacting with them in a less sterile but more humane manner, like people instead of captive animals. This description served to portray Che Guevara in a Christ-like manner, with the power to right societal wrongs and make the world a better place. When this is coupled with the analysis presented within the Elena Article which described Che Guevara’s interactions with the indigenous and rural populations, we see the genuine concern for the well-being of these lower-class people, but what is also evident is the the unavoidable ability to distinguish between classes by stage of development. This sort of unintentional classification of people is minor in the grand scheme of things but interested nonetheless as it is something he was actively seeking to put an end to, he wanted one race, one equal America.