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Clockers

DVD Release

  • Release Date: 1999
  • cc
  • Production notes
  • Cast & filmmakers' bios
  • Theatrical trailer
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  • Rating: StarStarStarStar
  • Genre: Drama
  • Movie Type: Urban Drama, Crime Drama
  • Themes: Drug Trade, Murder Investigations, Inner City Blues
  • Director: Spike Lee
  • Main Cast: Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, Delroy Lindo, Mekhi Phifer, Isaiah Washington, Keith David
  • Release Year: 1995
  • Country: US
  • Run Time: 128 minutes
  • MPAA Rating: R

Plot

Based on Richard Price's grim best-seller, and directed by Spike Lee from a screenplay co-written with Price, Clockers takes the structure of a police procedural to build a chilling portrait of despair, hope, and the unanswered problem of black-on-black crime in an urban housing project. The film's haunting themes are vividly visualized during the opening credits, which run over police photos of dead young black men, shot and sprawled on sidewalks, in streets, and hanging over fences. Strike (Mekhi Phifer) is a 19-year-old African-American "clocker" -- the lowest link on the drug dealing chain -- who hangs around park benches and street corners selling small amounts of druges at all hours of the day. Strike drinks chocolate milk to soothe an ulcer and plays with model trains in his apartment, dreaming of a way out of his dead-end life. Drug kingpin Rodney (Delroy Lindo) asks Strike to kill another clocker, Darryl, for skimming money, saying that this will be Strike's ticket to a higher post in Rodney's organization. Darryl is indeed shot, and suspicion immediately falls on Strike, but a weary cop named Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel) thinks there's more to the case. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Review

Spike Lee's film adaptation of Richard Price's epic novel on the effects of the crack trade has flashes of the director's characteristic brilliance, but, in its lack of focus and overall familiarity, it falls well short of his best work. A project assumed by Lee after the departure of Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro, its relentless deglamorization of the drug trade suggests that the director was attempting his own Goodfellas (1990). But despite Price's highly tuned ear for the bluster, the edgy evasiveness, and the suicidal delusions of these "clockers," the film often feels like a banal reworking of TV-cop show material, or more accurately, the Warners' socially conscious crime melodramas of the '30s. To his credit, Lee has completely stripped the dealers of the charisma Bogart and Cagney lent to the gangsters in those films, revealing them to be venal, petty, and foolish pawns in a game they must eventually lose. But like Harvey Keitel's enlightened detective, Lee has a measure of compassion for his protagonist Strike (Mekhi Phifer), revealing just how difficult it is for him to extricate himself from a life he begins dimly to grasp as a mistake. It's unfortunate that the dynamics of his relationships with the cops and with the solid citizens struggling for respectability are, at this point, so shopworn. Still, there moments of prime Lee, such as the hallucinatory flashback of Rodney's (Delroy Lindo) first murder, and the editing of the sequence in which Strike describes the virtues of the crack trade to his young protégé. Keitel and Lindo stand out in a cast that is almost uniformly superb, and Terence Blanchard's original, minimalist score is among the film's pleasures. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide

Cast


Rick Aiello - Cop
Lisa Anderson - Sharon
Michael Badalucco - Cop
Graham Brown - Mr Herman Brown
Paul Calderon - Jesus at Hambones
Michael Cullen - Narc
Frances Foster - Gloria
Ken Garito - Louie
Michael Imperioli - Jo-Jo
Tim Kelleher - Narc
Brendan Kelly - Big Chief
Harry J. Lennix - Bill Walker
Pee Wee Love - Tyrone
J.C. MacKenzie - Frank the Medic
Norman Matlock - Reverend Paul
Anthony Nocerino - Teen
Scot Anthony Robinson - Earl
James Saxenmeyer - EMS Attendant
Maurice Sneed - Davis the Bartender
Mike Starr - Thumper
Regina Taylor - Iris Jeeter
Leonard Thomas - Onion the Bar Patron
Marc Webster - EMS Technician
L.B. Williams - Bike Cop
Ginny Yang - Kiki
Spike Lee - Chucky
Jeff Ward - Bike Cop
Steve White - Darryl Adams
John Fletcher - Al the Medic
Joanna Gardner - Corrections Officer
Paul Schulze - Detective
Hassan Johnson - Skills
E.O. Nolasco - Horace
Ron Brice - Dead Man Begging
Christopher Wynkoop - Detective
Thomas Jefferson Byrd - Errol Barnes
Lawrence B. Adisa

Credit

Terence Blanchard - Composer (Music Score); Terence Blanchard - Songwriter; Ruth E. Carter - Costume Designer; Steve Kirshoff - Special Effects; Spike Lee - Director; Spike Lee - Producer; Spike Lee - Screenwriter; Ina Mayhew - Art Director; Andrew McAlpine - Production Designer; Sam Pollard - Editor; Richard Price - Co-producer; Richard Price - Screenwriter; Richard Price - Book Author; Monty Ross - Producer; Debra Schutt - Set Decorator; Martin Scorsese - Producer; Jon Kilik - Producer; John Lyons - First Assistant Director; Robi Reed-Humes - Casting; Tom Warren - Supervising Art Director; Malik Hassan Sayeed - Cinematographer; Rosalie Swedlin - Executive Producer; Diane Hammond - Makeup; Skip Lievsay - Set Designer; Mike Ellis - First Assistant Director; Richard Price - Production Secretary; Danielle Hollowell - Costumes Assistant

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Boyz 'N the Hood; The Children of Times Square; Colors; Homicide; Menace II Society; New Jack City; Rodrigo D: No Future; The Young Savages; Fresh; Little Odessa; New Jersey Drive; L.627; Dead Homiez; I'm Bout It; Bobby G. Can't Swim; The Corner; Traffic; 'R Xmas; Baby Boy; 100 Kilos; Packing Suburbia; The Wire [TV Series]; Prison Song; Empire; Maria Full of Grace; Four Brothers; The Glass Shield; Barrio De Cholos; The Departed
 
 
Wikipedia: clockers (film)


Clockers
Clockers.jpg
Tagline: When there's murder on the streets, everyone is a suspect.
Directed by Spike Lee
Produced by Jon Kilik
Spike Lee
Martin Scorsese
Written by Richard Price (novel and screenplay)
Spike Lee (screenplay)
Starring Harvey Keitel
John Turturro
Delroy Lindo
Mekhi Phifer
Music by Terence Blanchard
Cinematography Malik Hassan Sayeed
Editing by Samuel D. Pollard
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) September 13, 1995
Running time 128 min.
Language English
Budget $25,000,000 (est.)
IMDb profile

Clockers is a 1995 film directed by Spike Lee, based on the novel by Richard Price. The film stars Mekhi Phifer in his first role.

Plot


The movie begins with a disturbing look of dead citizens on the ground, while the credits are rolling. When the credits are over, we see a young man walk up to sit on a step, drinking chocolate milk. This is Strike (Mekhi Phifer), who is a low-level drug dealer, which is a clocker. We then also see Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel), and Larry Mazilli (John Turturro), police homicide detectives, riding around eyeing the neighborhood. Just then we are back to the clockers, who talk about what rappers are the hardest. Just then, when detectives see that there may possibly be drugs being sold at the moment, they run up to the clockers, and check them everywhere. Just then, Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo) drives up, and just looks at all of them. Rodney Little is Strike's drug boss, as the clockers work for him. After the detectives are gone, Strike's stomach starts hurting, as we see he has a stomach ulcer problem. Later that night, Rodney and Strike are riding in a car together, as they pull up to a burger joint named AHAB'S, and Rodney tells Strike that the cleaner who works there, Darryl Adams, is stealing from him. Rodney tells Strike that Darryl "got to be got", not really being clear if he wants Strike to kill him or not.

Strike then gets out of the car, and holds a gun, while he hides it in a newspaper, and hesitates around the AHAB'S shop, thinking whether he should kill Darryl or not. Instead, he goes into a bar, where he meets his brother, Victor Dunham (Isaiah Washington). Strike lies and tells Victor that Darryl is a girl-beater, and that Darryl beat an innocent little child of an angry mother. Victor thinks he is playing, but when Strike becomes more serious, and tells Victor "the mother wants revenge", Victor becomes weirdly uncomfortable, and tells Strike that "My Man" will get him. Victor doesn't tell Strike who "My Man" is, but just that he will do it. In the next scene, Strike walks up to the AHAB'S burger joint, and knocks on the door, as Darryl answers. Darryl teases Strike with remarks about Strike's weak stomach, as Strike just stands there, glaring at Darryl.

Det. Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel), Ronald "Strike" Dunham (Mekhi Phifer), and Det. Larry Mazilli (John Turturro) at the murder scene
Enlarge
Det. Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel), Ronald "Strike" Dunham (Mekhi Phifer), and Det. Larry Mazilli (John Turturro) at the murder scene

Soon after, Rocco and Larry, the homicide detectives, are riding to the scene of a murder, as they go in front of the burger joint, and see that Darryl is dead. Strike is even in the audience, who watches the body bag in awe. When the detectives open the body bag, they notice it is Darryl, and they recognize him. The aftermath of Darryl's mortal wounds are shown, as he was shot in his teeth, the back of his head, and two more places, while the white detectives are actually taking his death for a joke. The detectives make racial remarks about him, saying that Darryl is "one less nubian to worry about". In the next scene, when Strike is leaving the AHAB'S shop he runs into Errol Barnes (Thomas Jefferson Byrd), a violent, erratic, sociopathic gangster who works with Rodney. Errol just tells Strike about drugs, as if Strike doesn't know about it already.

The next day, Strike is on the benches with his friends, clocking, as we are introduced to Andre (Keith David). Andre is a muscular, no-nonsense cop. Andre hastily checks Strike for drugs, as he tells everyone to leave the gang life alone. After that he goes to a little boy named Tyrone Pee Wee Love, and tells him to stop hanging around the clockers. The next day, Strike tells Tyrone to come to him, as he takes him to get his hair cut, telling him his hair is "some nappy shit". Over the next one or two scenes, we see that Strike is taking Tyrone under his wing, as he is playing a video game in Strike's car, hanging out. The next day, Tyrone's mother (Regina Taylor), menacingly goes to the clockers, and asks them who cut Tyrone's hair. When no one answers, she threatens them, and then walks away.

In the next scene, we see Larry and Rocco picking up Victor at church, to question him for the murder. When they go into the questioning room, Victor tells Rocco that he was the one that shot Darryl over self-defense. Rocco doesn't believe it, as he keeps on asking him to tell the story over and over again. Victor then gets irritated, as he yells at Rocco that he did it.

Sometime during the day, Tyrone is sitting on a bench near where the clockers hang out, and is drinking the same chocolate milk Strike drinks every second. When Andre comes over to him, he sees this, and goes to Strike. He tells Strike that he was always looking out for him Strike was a kid, and also tells him that not to look in the direction of taking Tyrone under his wing, or else he will severely beat him. Strike says "yeah", as Andre walks away.

Soon After, Rocco Klein starts to ask people all over the projects about the murder, as he thinks Strike did it. He asks people at the bar Strike was at, and other places. Rocco then repeatedly keeps on coming to question Strike about the murder, as Strike gets more and more irritated. Also, Detective Jo-Jo (Michael Imperioli), goes undercover for Rocco, as he tries to bribe Strike, but Strike knows better. When Rocco goes to the 1st place Victor ever worked, which was a Chinese store, he asks the lady about Victor. She reports that Victor was a good man, as a flashback is shown, where Victor tried to help a low-life gangster, who wants to buy something from the store. When Victor misunderstands what the man is saying, the gangster gets mad and threatens as him. Victor, very kind and polite, just doesn't say anything, as he just goes back into the store when the gangster walks away, like nothing ever happened.

In the next scene, we see that Strike goes overboard, and takes Tyrone in his house, to show him his train set (Strike has an unusual hobby of collecting train sets), and to show him some cocaine, telling him selling is the only way to get money. He also shows Tyrone his gun, telling him that he keeps it for protection. He also tells Tyrone that he should look out for Errol Barnes, and that if Errol comes near him, that Tyrone should kill him. The same day, Strike goes into Rodney's hideout, as Rodney tells Strike about the first time he killed somebody, since Errol Barnes made him do it. A flashback with Errol and Rodney is then shown, as we ultimately experience Errol's sociopathic and villainous deeds. Errol kills two guys, since they and another guy sold them some bad dope. The third guy is waiting to get killed, as Errol has a gun to his head, and psychotically talks to the man, saying that he should've never sold him bad dope. Errol then tells Rodney that Rodney is going to kill the third man, or else Errol will kill Rodney. Rodney tries to back out, as Errol puts a gun in Rodney's mouth, threatening him to kill the third man. Rodney then falls to Errols demands, as he shoots the third man two times in his head. Errol laughs psychotically. As the flashback ends, Rodney tells Strike that the reason Eroll wanted him to shoot the third man was because Errol wanted a shade hanging over his head too, or else Rodney might give him up someday.

Over the next few days Rocco asks around, including a fast food restaurant (which was Victor's second job), about how Victor was. It is then revealed in a flashback that Victor was an extremely kind and gentle man, who knew how to control his temper, especially when clockers started trying to set up their clocking space in the fast-food restaurant.

Over the next few days, things start to get complicated, as Strike is mildly attacked by Tyrone's mother, as she tells Strike to stop trying to be Tyrone's "daddy". Rocco then gives him a ride to talk, soon after that, as Rocco confronts Strike with anger, telling him that he was the killer. Strike then gets angry also, telling Rocco he doesn't know anything, as Rodney comes in his car. Strike jumps in. Strike and Rodney have an argument as to whether Rodney was telling Strike to kill Darryl or not, as when Strike tells Rodney "fuck you", Rodney gets angry. He pulls the car over, and punches Strike in his stomach, pulls his head over to his lap, and put a gun to his mouth, and tells him if he ever sees him talking to Rocco again, he'll blow his brain to pieces with the gun. Rodney then takes the gun out of his mouth, and tells him to get out of the car. Nearby, Strike sees that Errol is menacing Tyrone. Rodney tells Errol to lay off of Tyrone, as Strike walks away. When he sees Tyrone, he tells him that they are not friends anymore, and that he's just a kid, when really, Tyrone is trying to give him something important. Later that day, Rocco and Larry arrest Rodney, while Rodney thinks Strike ratted him out. That night, Rocco confronts Strike in front of his drug-dealing friends, and tells him Rodney is in jail, and that he thinks Strike ratted him out. Rocco, knowing that Rodney will kill Strike when he gets out of jail, tells Strike he is on his own, unless he tells him the truth about Darryl's murder. Strike refuses, and Rocco rides away in his car. When one of Strike's drug-dealing friends is convinced Strike ratted Rodney out, he pushes Strike, as Strike punches him in the face. In jail, Rodney calls Errol Barnes, giving him an errand: to kill Strike.

The next day, Strike starts to look over his life, as he notices drugs are not worth it. He then starts to pack his bags, as he is ready to move. When he goes outside, he sees his same friend that pushed him. His friend tells him Errol is looking for him. Strike is then confused, as he sees Tyrone trying to give him something again, as Strike once again rejects him. Errol from afar gets out of his car. Strike then finally figures out Errol is trying to kill him on the behalf of Rodney, as he hides behind bushes. Errol's evil look on his face is put together by his junkie behavior, as Tyrone is riding down Errol's direction. When Tyrone confronts Errol, Errol says two words, and then Tyrone shoots Errol with a gun, which was hidden inside a bag. The gun was what Tyrone was trying to give to Strike, which is what is revealed when Rocco questions him. When Andre asks Rocco to lie on Tyrone's statement, so that Tyrone won't go to juvenile hall, Rocco does. When Tyrone reveals he got the gun from Strike, Andre gets angry, and goes to the place where he hangs out, as he beats Strike to a pulp. He tells Strike that he is banned from the projects, also New York, and that if he ever sees him again, he will kill him, and tell the authorities that he was trying to retaliate for the beatdown Andre's giving him now. Strike then goes in his car, and drives away. He goes to Rocco for questioning, as Strike tells Rocco different stories. When Rocco gets irritated, he grabs Strike, and pushes him to a wall, just as Strike's mother comes in, with Larry. Strike's mother then reveals that it was true that Victor killed Darryl, as Victor came home the night of the shooting, crying and telling his mother he killed somebody. Rocco, feeling stupid, lets Strike, go, and drives him to his car, as he finds out Rodney wrecked his car. Rocco then drives Strike to Penn Station, as he thanks Rocco. He gets out of the car.

It is revealed that Victor got out of jail after all, Tyrone never went to juvenile, and that another murder occurred in the place Strike used to hang out. The last scene of the movie shows Strike on a real train, looking out the window.

Reception

The movie was critically acclaimed by many film critics. Roger Ebert gave the movie a three-and-a-half stars, and it earned a 76% "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Despite significant praise, the film received no major award nominations and is generally regarded as underrated. However, the movie (along with the novel) would foreshadow similar projects, such as The Wire, for which author/screenwriter Richard Price is also a writer.

Film poster

Critics and film buffs were quick to notice that the poster, designed by Art Sims, was extremely similar to Saul Bass' art for Otto Preminger's 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder. Sims claimed that it was a homage, but Bass nonetheless regarded that as a rip-off. [1]

Cast

External links


 
 

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