Best movies to learn power dynamics
This movie is considered by many a crown achievement, for my part I really really like it!
City of God (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus) is a 2002 Brazilian crime film co-directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, released in its home country in 2002 and worldwide in 2003. Bráulio Mantovani adapted the story from the 1997 novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins, but the plot is loosely based on real events. It depicts the growth of organized crime in the Cidade de Deus suburb of Rio de Janeiro, between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1980s, with the film's closure depicting the war between the drug dealer Li'l Zé and vigilante-turned-criminal Knockout Ned. The tagline is "If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you."
The cast includes Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Phellipe Haagensen, Douglas Silva, Alice Braga, and Seu Jorge. Most of the actors were, in fact, residents of favelas such as Vidigal and the Cidade de Deus itself.
The film received widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for four Academy Awards in 2004: Best Cinematography (César Charlone), Best Director (Meirelles), Best Film Editing (Daniel Rezende), and Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) (Mantovani). In 2003, it was Brazil's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but it did not end up being nominated as one of the five finalists.
Meirelles and Lund went on to create the City of Men TV series and film City of Men (2007), which share some of the actors (notably leads Douglas Silva and Darlan Cunha) and their setting with City of God.
some extreme power moves here and group dynamics:
Oz is an American television drama series created by Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co-wrote all of the series' 56 episodes.[1][2] It was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by the premium cable network HBO.[3] Oz premiered on July 12, 1997 and ran for six seasons; the series finale aired February 23, 2003
Plot
The majority of Oz's story arcs are set in "Emerald City", named for a setting from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). In this experimental unit of the prison, unit manager Tim McManus emphasizes rehabilitation and learning responsibility during incarceration, rather than carrying out purely punitive measures. Emerald City is an extremely controlled environment, with a carefully managed balance of members from each racial and social group, intended to ease tensions among these various factions.
Under McManus and Warden Leo Glynn, all inmates in "Em City" struggle to fulfill their own needs. Some fight for power – either over the drug trade or over other inmate factions and individuals. Others, corrections officers and inmates alike, simply want to survive, some long enough to make parole and others just to see the next day. The show's narrator, inmate Augustus Hill, explains the show, and provides context, thematic analysis, and a sense of humor.
Oz chronicles McManus' attempts to keep control over the inmates of Em City. There are many groups of inmates throughout the show, and not everyone within each group survives the show's events. There are the African-American Homeboys (Wangler, Redding, Poet, Keane, Adebisi) and Muslims (Said, Arif, Khan), the Wiseguys (Pancamo, Nappa, Schibetta, Zanghi, Urbano), the Aryan Brotherhood (Schillinger, Robson, Mack), the Latinos of El Norte (Alvarez, Morales, Guerra, Hernandez), the Irish (The O'Reilly brothers, Kirk, Keenan), the Gays (Hanlon, Cramer, Ginzburg), the Bikers (Hoyt, Sands, Burns), the Christians (Cloutier, Coushaine, Cudney) and many other individuals not completely affiliated with one particular group (Rebadow, Busmalis, Keller, Stanislofsky). In contrast to the dangerous criminals, character Tobias Beecher gives a look at a usually law-abiding man who made one fatal drunk-driving mistake.
Some great suggestions and descriptions here.
I think it's getting close to a level where it's shaping up to be a great article -I'll quote in there-.
I've seen City of God quite some time ago now, it was a great movie indeed.
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Quote from John Freeman on September 2, 2020, 6:58 pmGodfather: I'm blown away by this movie. Once you have done Power University course you see lots of stuff I had not seen nor understood before. Numero uno! Must watch after being more aware of power dynamics.
and the OST is wonderful!
It is an extreme example of this:
6. To more quickly regain power and respect with an aggressive display of force: if people long treated you like a low-value individual it might take quite some time of assertive behavior to regain their respect. In those cases, a stronger display of power through aggression can rebalance the situation quicker.
Oh wow, yeah, extreme fits well, and it does indeed belong to that category.
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Godfather part III: the first half of the movie is quite weak and gimmicky but the story and acting from most of the actors revives the movie later on and makes it a solid movie in the end. Again about the tension between love and power. Also about the cost of acquiring and wielding power. Must watch! Just stick for the first half as it is worth it. The screenplay with the opera concert and the action happening in Sicily is an example of great movie making. Coppola is a master at film making and it shows. Whatever the critics might have said about his daughter's acting ability. It's a minor distraction from the otherwise high level of overall craftsmanship.
Yeah, it's actually an OK movie. In the end, maybe even "good movie".
Of course, compared to the first two, there is obviously a big gap, and that's where the terrible rep of "The Godfather III" comes from.
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Of course, but considering it's 16 years apart from the last one I think the judgment is too harsh on it. 16 years after the 1st Jurassic park...
Agreed.
There is also a lot of status-posturing that fuels all the criticism.
It indirectly says:
"I criticize, therefore I'm a real connaisseur. I know how to appreciate the first two installments of the series, and I can tell apart great cinema from "just good", and if you you don't agree, you're not at my level of refinenment"
Basically, a status power move :).
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