The opening of the City of God movie is rather comical yet quite significant in terms of the nature of the film; the chasing and killing between characters. The use of an obscure character, a chicken, grabs the attention of the audience even more than a human character in a more conventional situation like a car chase, would; even though both situations would consist of a chase due to fear or fear of death. However, a car chase would settle by the character being caught but in this movie, the chicken is never caught. The chicken could also represent the value of money in a place like the favelas. The mindless pursue of the chicken could also be thought as the mindless purse of money; the same way that the gang foolishly follow the paths of the get-a-away chicken, most people living in the same conditions would do the same thing for money
The camera exposes a group of people in their usual life routine in the favelas. It starts by showing a eye-catching extreme close-up of a blade which is being sharpened. The size of the shot makes the object quite relevant to the chicken, although in a negative way. The camera cuts repeatedly to make the knife difficult to be seen yet the sound of the sharpening of the blade is easy to hear. There are also close-ups of short cuts of the surroundings; people cooking, playing instruments, what they are wearing and preparation of other chickens. This influences the audience to guess why the chicken is there in the first place. During all this, a continuity shot is used to show the chicken trying to free itself from the string wrapped around its leg using a low angle close-up of the legs of the chicken. This scene also shows the intelligence of the chicken; pecking at the string, and pulling its legs loose.
The imprisoned chicken manages to escape into the alleyway. The music stops and the camera cuts to a close up of chicken blood on a plate to emphasize one of the themes of the movie which includes blood and killing, hence the slaughtering of the chickens in the throughout of the opening scene. The escape of the chicken is significant as it results into the introduction of new characters, disequilibrium's and restorations within the narrative. The disappearance of chicken is shortly noticed by the man who seems to be the leader of the gang who are ordered by him to go after the chicken through the narrow alleyways and streets. It seems that every member of the gang are carrying guns as during the birds eye view of the group running after a chicken, gun shots are heard. This also emphasizes the killing theme throughout the film.
A hand held camera chases after the chicken from a low angle, to make the audience feel as if they are present at the scene. However, no matter how close the camera and the gang members get to the chicken, they never manage to catch it. This could give the audience an idea that the innocent/most harmless character will survive. There comes a point were the chicken 'flies' into the road. It's attempt of flight, which usually connotes freedom, even though chickens can't fly, shows the level of desperation to get away from its death. Also, after flying into the street, the chicken is continued to be chased unintentionally by a car. The car gets as close to the chicken to make the audience feel as if the chickens going to be killed. However, the chicken yet again survives a near death situation. This could be foreshadowing of one of the characters in the story line.
The chicken eventually stops, as it is trapped again but this time between a young boy, Rocket, and the gang. This is shown by the 360 degree camera movement around Rocket showing the entire mise en scene and all characters in the scene. The young boy realises that he and the chicken stands between an armed ganged and the armed police. This makes Rocket as powerless over his life as the chicken, making the animal and himself equal.
