South Central - In den Straßen von L.A.

Years ago I saw Donald Bakeer speak to talk about his book, "Crips", and upcoming movie, "South Central," based upon his book. I saw the movie then but I lacked the maturity and life experience to truly understand the significance of the movie. It wasn't Godfather, nor Scarface, nor was it Boyz n the Hood--this was a story of reformation.

Bobby Johnson (Glen Plummer) helped start the Deuce gang in L. A. (I remember Mr. Bakeer saying that the name "Crips" couldn't be used in the movie) with friend Ray Ray (Byron Keith Minns). Bobby earned his heart tattoo after killing a local drug dealer named Genie Lamp (Kevin Best). Bobby would serve time for that murder and reform while in prison. His sole goal became saving his son.

I really appreciated this movie's message and direction. Reforming would be hard, changing one's attitude would be hard, and doing all of that in the same environment would be doubly hard, but someone has to break the cycle so why not let it be you.

This movie was filmed around the time of the Rodney King riots that ripped South Central Los Angeles. Let's face it, the heart and soul of Los Angeles isn't Hollywood. It's the people like in this movie who try to make living, earnestly, honestly, and respectively. Sadly, this film is still realistic to the plight of urban problems. I spent a lot of time in one of the great urban cities of the East Coast and the problems of poverty, the lure of leading drug dealing lives is real and tempting, domestic violence, child abuse, gangs, etc. still exist and will exist much to the attempts of prevention or society ignoring their presence. Anyway, this film is truly about the heart and soul of a city of ten million Angelenos and the father's attempt to save his son from a life of crime, violence, death, and drugs in the city. It's not an easy battle.

Though the film is "serious" and well intentioned, telling a heart-breaking story with a valid message, its impact is considerably weakened by a naïve story-line and a undistinguished screen-play. I hunted around to see if this was "based on a true story", like "The Birdman of Alcatraz", but I found no evidence; that might have excused some of the awkwardness. There are some movingly warm scenes, though I was never groping for a kleenex. It reminded me of one of those Worthy Westerns I watched as a kid, where the bad guy meets a good guy/woman who changes his life: it had too many predictable and not totally credible steps. When, at the end, the hoodlum about to shoot him says, "Prison sure turned you stoopid!", I was inclined to agree. He talked his way out of the jam, but only because the narrative demanded it: his speech would never have convinced me, any more than Eli's words in the prison cell would have made me turn over a new leaf. These key "speeches" lacked any eloquence, and I frequently found myself predicting the dialogue. Nevertheless its best moments, especially the confrontations, are really gripping - until the end, that is, when it's too easy to foresee that no harm will come to anyone and Good will prevail. It's unfashionable and courageous to give such a story a happy ending (cf. "La Haine", where the vicious circle of hate is NOT broken and a bleak future is foreseen), and perhaps its optimism speaks more deeply to audiences in the States.

South Central (1992) is a movie I recently rewatched on HBOMax. The storyline follows a man that grew up thinking the gang life would be the life for him. Shortly after his son is born he is sent to jail for ten years where his gang affiliation protects him from other inmates. When he discovers his son has joined the gang he is part of and starts his own life of crime, the father reforms, drops out of the gang, and works to gain parole so he can get out of jail and hopefully save his son from the life he lived. This movie is directed by Stephen Milburn Anderson (Ca$h) and stars Glenn Plummer (City of Lies), Byron Minns (Black Dynamite), LaRita Shelby (Martin), Reginald T. Dorsey (Hill Street Blues) and Tim DeZarn (Fight Club). The storyline for this film is very well done and does a great job of developing the characters so that you genuinely care about what happens to them. The roots of the storyline and why people make decisions is well told. The prison dynamics are also well presented. I really enjoyed the messages and the scriptures used to mentally get the father where he needed to be. The film also does a great job of showing how the responsibilities of parenting changes your perspectives on life. The evolution of all the characters in this film over the ten years are a delight to see and this is a powerful film that is really well done. While not perfect, I still strongly recommend this gem and would score it an 8/10.

This movie makes you care about its characters. This should be said about all films, but this one accomplishes it where others do not. The story revolves around a young man in South Central Los Angeles who is involved in a gang that is slowly making itself successful by selling drugs. He goes to jail after being convicted of shooting another gang lord. While in prison, his son grows up and is drawn by the romance and easy money of his father's old gang, and becomes involved as well. The story is a little over-simplistic, and the dialogue is a bit thin at times. But the director and cast rise to the challenge and turn this into a film about relationships and philosophy, rather than going for the easy solution of shooting off as many guns as possible. The ending is one of the most sappy we've seen in a while (just a bit too much 'Mom and apple pie'), but given the situation you are willing to go with it. While it's not perfect, this film ultimately works -- which is better than 95% of this genre.