Our America

First of all, disregard anything the last post said. "Socially Irresponsible" is the last thing yous should say about this movie. If you want to call anything or body irresponsible, it should be our government for allowing fellow Americans to live like this. I noticed the person who posted last is from orange county and its really crazy that people who don't live in these situations are so quick to judge. This movie was one of the best projections of the "projects" that I've ever seen. Growing up in South Central L.A and Chicago's Robert Taylors, I'm here to tell you that EVERYTHING that was mentioned in the movie is true. This is one of the best "hood" movies I've seen yet. And as far as the game they were playing on the overpass, when you are poor, you'll find fun things to do on nothing. Of course it wasn't right, but kids are doing far worse things than that.

There is much not to like about the movie "Our America". The stereotypical nature of most characters involved, the great white savior aspects, and the alternating afternoon special light weight fare that switches to riveting restricted viewing violence are all reasons to dislike the film. If a person approaches this film as laughable lightweight fare on par with "Finding Forester", then they can extrapulate some good from it. The discussions that can result from the film are numerous. The two lead characters' tendency to listen to the radio hosts and apparently fail to have any mentionable adult ties to those in their own community. Muhammad Ali once made the joke, "Where are the real pilots" when talking to an all black flight team. His humor was a healthy adjustment. The students in this film appear to have the typical unhealthy internalized doubt of those in there community as much of what they reported was negative while outreaching to the strangers at the radio show. This film makes a launching point for discussions on race and socioecomics.

I don't agree with the first reviewer at all. The movie does show illegal activities on the part of the main characters as he pointed out, but that reality needs to be shown for the movie to be the least bit credible. The vandalizing of private property is not, unfortunately, and uncommon occurrence for young people. The movie shows that if you can reach these young people before random acts of vandalism grow into more serious criminal acts, you can save lives and improve society. The movie does have a unique message because it depicts, in a powerful way, the negative "world" that many similarly situated inner-city youths face. And.. it is inspiring because it reminds us of the untapped potential that may be festering beneath the surface, just waiting for inspiration and guidance. As I usually find with these kinds of movies, it takes both an intellectual thirst, and intellectual maturity, to truly appreciate the film in the way it was intended.

"Our America" follows the lives of two African-American teenagers who become reporters for the NPR. They first start out by recording their daily lives growing up in a rough Chicago neighborhood. As time goes on, they start to move on to bigger subjects such as exposing the troubled lives of people in their neighborhood. They soon gain national attention when they cover a story involving two boys (ages 10 and 11) who cold-bloodily murder a four year-old boy by throwing him out of a 14th story window.

This is a truly touching story that really shows us the brutality of African-Americans living in rough neighborhoods. The acting is great too. Ernest R. Dickerson who directs this film, was also the cinematographer for several of Spike Lee's films and he really makes this movie look good. Constantly alternating between black and white and color, the film really captures the essence of the characters.

"Our America" gets a 10. Don't miss it.

I was caught off guard by this film for the only person that I recognized in the cast was Peter Paige from Queer as Folk, he only plays a tiny role of public radio producer. Anyway this film is based on a true story of 2 adolescents from the housing projects of South Chicago that are asked to document their lives by a public radio station. The producer from the radio station is accused of exploiting the youths and tempers flare. The film is a harrowing and brutal portrait of life in the projects and how many residents there don't see much hope of improving their lives. While many detractors of the film will see that this film concentrates on the negatives there are several positive characters also. The character of LeAlan Jones and his family are beacons of hope. Overall I enjoyed this film.