Movie Type: Crime Thriller, Post-Noir (Modern Noir)
Themes: Going Undercover, Drug Trade
Main Cast: Laurence Fishburne, Jeff Goldblum, Victoria Dillard, Charles Martin Smith, Gregory Sierra
Release Year: 1992
Country: US
Run Time: 107 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Laurence Fishburne plays no-nonsense LAPD narc Russell Stevens, Jr., who has worked all his life to expunge the memory of his dope-addict father, whom he saw die in a liquor-store robbery. DEA agent Jerry Carver (Charles Martin Smith) orders Stevens to work as an undercover operative on a major case. The cop is to pose as a dealer in order to get the goods on South American drug lord. Stevens is so convincing as a dealer, that he fast works his way up through the ranks and gains the trust of lawyer and narcotics dealer David Jason (Jeff Goldblum) and his sinister associates, all lackeys to the kingpin who is the target of Stevens' assignment. Through a series of fantastic but credible circumstances, Stevens eliminates the lower echelon, getting closer to his quarry, but in the process he finds himself so deep into the sinister and seductive world of the drug trade that he may never get out. In a surprise move, and just when he is about to bring the ringleader down, the DEA pulls the plug on his assignment, because the top dealer, an influential Latin American politician, may someday be useful to the State Department. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
What could have been just another crime thriller becomes a startlingly effective neo-noir, charged with a sublime racial outrage. Deep Cover's racial politics give the film a complex, world-weary subtext so crucial to a noir. They start with Laurence Fishburne's character, doomed to a life in the drug world he's quietly desperate to escape. They continue with the anti-Semitism Jeff Goldblum's David Jason suffers with his Hispanic partners, who are bitterly aware of the racism shutting them out of legitimate business. Of the police in the picture, one (Clarence Williams III) is black and near saintly; the other (Alex Colon) is Italian and corrupt. The movie's dénouement presents Charles Martin Smith -- in the movie's sole WASP role -- as all-knowing ("I'm God" is his refrain) but powerless to infiltrate -- and ultimately indifferent to -- the film's minority-dominated world of drugs. Director Bill Duke's knowing take on the collateral destructiveness of the "war on drugs" places his film with Menace II Society, Boyz 'N the Hood, Fresh, and Juice as one of the keynote black film movement works of the late '80s and early '90s. It also establishes Fishburne (just plain old "Larry" in the credits) as a black leading man on par with Denzel Washington and Wesley Snipes. Yet Deep Cover is no civics lesson: Duke fluidly handles several revved up action sequences and pays homage to groundbreaking '70s minority artists by casting Williams, Gregory Sierra, and Rene Assa in key roles. (Also watch for Sidney Lassick of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest fame.) ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide
Clarence Williams III - Ken Taft; Rene Assa - Hector Guzman; Alex Colon - Molto; Roger Guenveur Smith - Eddie; Sidney Lassick - Gopher; Kamala Lopez - Belinda; Julio Oscar Mechoso - Hernandez; Glynn E. Turman - Russell Stevens, Sr.; James T. Morris - Ivy; Arthur Mendozo - Gallegos; Sandra Gould - Mrs. O.; Bruce Barbour - Policeman; Anna Berger - Congresswoman; Ed Cambridge - Crackhead #2; Jaime Cardriche - Shark; Alisa Christensen - Ivy's Driver; Cory Curtis - Young Russell Stevens, Jr.; Def Jef - Bartender; Yvette Heyden - Nancy; Ric Mancini - Congressman; Lionel Matthews - Officer Winston; Clifton Powell - Leland; John Shepherd - Undercover Cop; J.W. Smith - Video Dealer; Ron Thompson - Guard; Tyrin Turner - Dealer; Mike Radner - Coroner; Donald Bishop - Judge; Erik Kilpatrick - Dealer; Nick LaTour - Republican Congressman; Harry Frazier - Lunatic Santa; Tony Perez - Guzman's Lawyer
Credit
Daniel W. Bickel - Art Director, Deborah Moore - Co-producer, Arlene Gant - Costume Designer, Bill Duke - Director, John Carter - Editor, David Streit - Executive Producer, Michel Colombier - Composer (Music Score), Pamela B. Warner - Production Designer, Bojan Bazelli - Cinematographer, Thomas Baer - Producer, Henry Bean - Producer, Pierre David - Producer, Michael De Luca - Producer, Doanld Elmblad - Set Designer, Henry Bean - Screenwriter, Daryl Haney - Screenwriter, Michael Tolkin - Screenwriter
Deep Cover was released on April 17, 1992 in 901 theaters grossing $3.4 million on its opening weekend. It went on to make $16.6 million in North America.[1]
The majority of critics responded favorably towards Deep Cover. It holds a certified "Fresh" rating of 84% on film review website Rotten Tomatoes and 73 metascore on Metacritic. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and praised the voice-over narration as "poetic and colorful. That's part of the process elevating the story from the mundane to the mythic".[2]Janet Maslin, in her review for The New York Times, praised the "quietly commanding Larry Fishburne and the wry Jeff Goldblum, who make an interestingly offbeat team".[3] In his review for The Chicago Reader, Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote, "What emerges is a powerhouse thriller full of surprises, original touches, and rare political lucidity".[4]Rolling Stone magazine's Peter Travers wrote, "Duke (A Rage in Harlem) makes the perks of the drug lifestyle palpably seductive. But this time there's something new in the snortscrew-slay formula: a working conscience".[5] However, in his review for The Washington Post, Desson Howe wrote, "With Boyz N the Hood, Fishburne broke through to the big time. Here, his acting career takes a step backwards".[6]Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B-" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote, "The movie peels away every layer of hope, revealing a red-hot core of nihilistic despair. Fishburne, with his hair-trigger line readings and deadly reptilian gaze, conveys the controlled desperation of someone watching his own faith unravel. And Goldblum reveals a new dimension of comic rottishness".[7] In her review for The Independent, Sheila Johnston wrote, "The disappointment of Night and the City has left some critics lamenting that film noir is dead in the water, but Deep Cover displays many hallmarks of the genre, down to the diffuse paranoia (perhaps the entire operation is a high-level Washington cover- up). It was the most unexpected pleasure to arrive here in many a month".[8]
