Fernando Meirelles' "City of God"; an entirely different choreographed set piece from the last time Elton John's 1973 original featured here on SibLINGSHOT ON THE BLEACHERS.
Even though you might never have physically set foot in the favelas of Rio De Janeiro, you will be acquainted with the routine savagery of a community left to police itself.
Its slow dive from more optimistic beginnings into socially engineered neglect.
With unschooled natural talent fostered in Vidigal and Cidade de Deus itself, writers Paulo Lins and Bráulio Mantovani navigate us reluctantly deep into the festering heart of life on the hill. Its relentless cycle of nominal alliance and indiscriminate retribution.
Underpinned by Rocket's fascination for the camera, the lens leads us this way and that like truffling pigs. A city of children simultaneously bent on projecting a tenuous identity while walking in perpetual fear of exposure.
Benny's tale is just one more unravelled thread.
▼ THE BEASTIE BOYS: BENNY AND THE JETS from "Anthology: Sounds Of Science" CD (Grand Royal) 1999 (US)
