Supremacy

When the film "Supremacy" begins, you see a message that says that this story is based on a real case. I did a bit of research and could find nothing about this case--but it sure left me wanting to know more. The opening scene is just outside a prison and Garrett Tully (Joe Anderson) has been released. A women he doesn't know is there to pick him up, and obviously some sort of wicked plan is uniting them. Before too long, their pickup truck is stopped by the police and Tully panics and kills the cop. They flee and soon take refuge in a home full of people. The choice of homes is ironic, considering that Tully is an avowed white supremacist--and their captives are a black family. Through the rest of the film, you see Tully and his female accomplice terrorize the family and you wonder if any of these people are going to end up alive by the end of the story.

As you can tell by my description that this film has a very simple plot. However, it makes the most of it and is an awfully well made film considering its humble pedigree. The director (Deon Taylor) and the writer (Eric J. Adams) are relative newbies with filmmaking. And, apart from Danny Glover who plays the family patriarch, the actors are mostly folks who will be unknown to the viewer. But it all works so well. In particular, the acting of Anderson as the kidnapper, Lela Rochon (Odessa, the mother) and Glover (Mr. Walker) are really superb and make the story seem quite real.

This is not a perfect film but it is far better than I'd expected it to be. The ending alone is more than enough reason to watch the film. My only reservations are about the appropriateness of the film for all audiences. It has a few violent scenes, one sexual encounter and a ton of language that might just make you blush. While the language certainly help to give this one an R rating here in the States, I appreciated how the film avoided being politically correct--and used extremely vivid and offensive racial epithets and stereotypes. After all, racism is ugly and here it is shown in all its ugliness. Well done and worth seeing.

I know the sister of this man, Robert Scully Jr. She was my caregiver for 2 years and she shared stories about her family with me. This is a true story. Robert was in trouble with the law since he was young. He had just been released from prison the very day he killed a sheriff and broke into the home of an African American family and took them hostage. The deputy sheriff was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he is the real victim in this story. Of course so was the family who was taken hostage was terrorized by his actions. Thank God they all lived. Scully and his accomplice who I feel set some of the events that happened on this day into motion, deserve what they got. For those of you who were unable to find information about this crime, I'm not sure what to tell you except it is a true story. You might try a Google search for Robert Walter Scully Jr.

Based on actual events (so a bit of licence has deffo been taken) this is about Garrett Tully (Joe Anderson) who has just done a fifteen year stretch for armed robbery. He is the sort of guy who has a modicum of intelligence all designed to back up his racist philosophy and more tattoos than a Colombian drugs cartel. He is also one of the White Supremacists and the brotherhood or what ever they want to call themselves, arrange for some cheap trailer park trash to pick him up on his release. This is Doreen played very convincingly by Dawn Olivieri ('American Hustle').

Then things go South very quickly when Tully guns down a cop. They then high tail it to a local house where an extended African American family live and they take them hostage.

Danny Glover plays the man of the hostage house here and he does so with a gravitas and vulnerability that actually raises this film up a level or two. It is an indie effort but does not suffer from that. Some of the police procedures are a bit questionable, but as ever are done for dramatic effect rather than accuracy. It has an air of menace and panic and for all its minor flaws remains a strong film with some very credit worthy performances and the direction is to be commended too. Not action packed either; much more psychological so if that is your thing then this will be one you may want to watch.

I thought the storyline was believable. I think you're acting was just okay. If it wasn't for Danny Glover, the movie would have sucked.

As a thriller this works nicely, mostly because of the performances. The characters and the setting is pretty simple. As is the mindset of certain individuals in this. Danny Glover showing is once again, that contrary to what one of his characters says, he's not getting too old for this. Good performance to counter the other lead performance. Racism and violence meets with dignity and calmness.

In the most crazy situation, where everything seems to fall apart, it's tough to stay cool and not be affected by this. The movie is obviously a morality tale, not only about crime (and that you're alone in it, even when it seems like you have an ally), but the stark contrast between hate and love. Real family and made up family too ...