City Of God Analysis

We watched the opening scene to City of God and 28 Days Later. During which we had to analyse the Equilibrium, the Disequilibrium, the Enimga and Action Codes etc.


The frist thing we hear in the scene is the sound of a knife scraping. I immediately thought that someone was going to be stabbed. The next shot was a chicken being prepared to be skinned. The music in the background is that of a livley, celebrtationry type. It is then here we see the a chicken in the box. The chicken escapes and a man yells for somone to chase the chicken. A group of men, wearing no shoes chase the chicken. The next few shots show the men cahsing after the chicken. It is here where we see the rural town where the film is set.


After the scene with the chicken, it runs out into the middle of a road. It is in this scene that we meet the protagonist of this movie. It is also where we are introduced to the New Equilibrium. The Protagonist is told by the antagonist to pick the chicken. He attempts but as he bends down, a police car arrives behind him. The film then  travles back to the sixties where the protagonist starts to reminscene on his life.


There were a number of different shots in the film. The first few shots I previously explained are 1-2 seconds long. The scene/ shot canges were very fast. This could be used to create suspicion, as we are trying to figure out what is going on with the chcickens and the knife scrapping. The sound overlapped in the opening scene of the film. This could be used to make the scenes flow. Most of the shots used in the opening scene are filmed at low angles, some of them were close-ups. This could have been used as a way to increase the suspicion that has been presented.


In the opening scene, we are presented with a few enigma codes. The first being the scrpping knife; we immediatly assume that someone is going to be killed. The second is the kid(protagonist) being stuck between the police and the anatagonits weapons. This could mean that he is always getting stuck between the two as he tries to please the anatagonist. The third enigma introduced is the drawing of the weapons. The police and the gang draw guns. The guns could be pointed at the chicken, the boy in the middle or each other. However it is also where are presented with a disequilbrium. Which is the arrival of the police, who could be there for the boy or the gang. This then creates a new equilbrium for the film.