Clockers (1995)

Good crime-drama, and even better social commentary. The crime aspect to the movie was very interesting. Even though you think you know what happened, nothing is revealed until the end, and there's a few surprises.However, it is the social side which is most impactful. It is a Spike Lee movie, so you expect an examination of race relations, and Lee does not disappoint. The dead-endedness of housing projects, the almost-inevitable turning to crime, the exploitation by the drug kingpins, the indifference (to a degree) by the (white) police. Yet, in spite of the bleakness that Lee paints, there is hope. It's not all doom-and-gloom.

Young drug pushers in the projects of Brooklyn live hard dangerous lives, trapped between their drug bosses and the detectives out to stop them.When watching this film, knowing it first went through the hands of Martin Scorsese, one cannot help but wonder how Spike Lee does it different than Scorsese would. The obvious answer is that Lee is able to provide an authenticity that Scorsese may not have. While it is not true that only black men can tell the stories of other black men, but few handle the material like Lee does. Scorsese would likely have shifted the emphasis to Rocco Klein, the white cop.And that would have worked, as well. Klein (played by Harvey Keitel) is the co-protagonist, as his search for the killer is an important plot point. Roger Ebert says, "He is a weary professional who acts as a witness to death. There is a tendency in his business not to linger too long over the death of one young drug dealer, but he cannot get stubborn questions out of his mind." Keitel does a fine job in this role, and it is nice to see him take his gritty gangster image and put a spin on it towards law enforcement.

Clockers is directed by Spike Lee who also co-adapts the screenplay with Richard Price from Price's own novel of the same name. It stars Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, Delroy Lindo, Mekhi Phifer, Isaiah Washington, Keith David, Peewee Love and Regina Taylor. Music is scored by Terence Blanchard and cinematography by Malik Hassan Sayeed.Young drug pushers in the projects of Brooklyn (Clockers) are caught between loyalty to their drug boss and the detectives out to stop them.It's not as incendiary as one might expect of a Spike Lee joint, but the director's concerns and astute knack for story telling are very prominent features. It was originally going to be a Martin Scorses film, but he chose to make Casino instead, he does, however, get a producing credit and you can see in the material why Scorsese was interested in directing. Pic is basically a take on urban drug dealing in the Brooklyn projects and the impact said dealing has on anyone who comes into contact with it. From the downward spiral of life for young men earning their pay by illegal means, to fretful mothers desperately trying to keep pe-teen kiddies from joining the ranks of what they think are cool operators, the morality of the play is forcibly rammed home by Lee. Unfortunately this comes at a cost to the white cop characters, who are too thinly drawn to offer up a law and order counter point to the illegal activity involving drugs and murder, they serve only as the "man", and damn the "man" at that. The Rocco Klein (Keitel) of the book is not evident here, sadly, while Torturo may as well not be in it! Cast performances are well in tune with the material, with Lindo as the "black godfather" turning in a scary one, and Lee's camera-work, coupled with Sayeed's moody photography, has a nifty grasp of realism. Soundtracking is soulful and pleasant.A mixed bag for sure, but it's a story that needs to be told. Bleak and brutal at times, but still offering hope, it's middle tier Spike Lee that always remains intriguing. Even if it at times feels like he was bored telling yet another "black on black is bad" message movie. 7/10

I'm glad that Spike Lee has apparently outgrown his need for polemics. Inside Man was a wonderful mature film that focused on character and motivation far beyond the Afro-centric purview of earlier Spike films. And while Clockers is perfectly serviceable for anyone coming to the story without having read the novel, I submit that Spike's attempt to refocus Richard Price's 1992 masterpiece as a singular black story, with a bone-throwing portrayal of white Detective Rocco Klein within an indictment of white police tactics, short-changes the audience of the profound respect, balance and humanity that made Price's novel so unforgettable.It is truly one of the five best novels I have ever read, while Spike managed to produce one of 1000 best movies I have ever seen.Read the book. It will stun, shock, amaze and delight you.The movie, on the other hand, might just keep you from falling asleep.