Main Cast: Glenn Plummer, Byron Minns, Lexie Bigham, Vincent Craig Dupree, LaRita Shelby
Release Year: 1992
Country: US
Run Time: 99 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Glenn Plummer delivers a powerful performance in this angry film based on Crips, a novel written by South Central Los Angeles high school teacher Donald Baker, and directed by Steve Anderson, who served time in prison. Plummer plays Bobby, a young black man trapped in a self-perpetuating cycle of hatred, incarceration, and bloodshed. On his first day out of prison, he comes back to the streets of South Central LA and the only family he knows --the gang. He finds that his best friend Ray-Ray (Byron Keith Minns) is now the leader of the Deuces. Ray-Ray, with plenty of sweet talk, easily talks Bobby into committing a murder, killing a rival gang leader. But before the killing Bobby finds that his girlfriend Carole (LaRita Shelby) has given birth to his son. He also sees that she is becoming too dependent on her drug supply. After the killing, Bobby is hauled back into jail for a ten-year stretch. In jail, Bobby undergoes a transformation. Introduced to the Muslim community and mentored by an older convict named Ali (Carl Lumbly), Bobby begins to read W.E.B. Du Bois and Martin Luther King. He learns about self-respect and how gangs use people like him. When he is once again released from prison, Bobby is a new man. But South Central has gone from bad to worse. Carole, now completely addicted to cocaine, works as a hooker to support her habit. He also discovers that Ray-Ray has recruited his 10-year-old son Jimmie (Christian Coleman) as a junior gang member, stealing car stereos. Jimmie looks upon Ray-Ray as a role model and Bobbie must find a way to save his child from the violent and doomed future of a gang member. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Kevin Best - Genie Lamp; Allan Hatcher - Baby Jimmie; Christian Coleman - Jimmie-Age 10; Ivory Ocean - Willie Manchester; Starletta DuPois - Nurse Shelly; Carl Lumbly - Ali; Mark E. Anderson - Sakett; Donald Bakeer - Dr. King; Musa Bakeer - Young Boy; Leonard Boyles - Termite; Richard G. Camphuis - 1st Policeman; Ron Chovance - Parole Officer; Tim de Zarn - Buddha; Reginald T. Dorsey - Bastille; Lanier Edwards - Muslim; Linda Fontanette - Neighbor Lady; Clynell Jackson III - Intern; Sal Landi - Detective; Julius Le Flore - 1st Prison Guard; Darren Leong - Kim; A. Michael Lerner - Broken Nose; Rana Mack - Girl in Club; Diane Manzo - Undercover Cop; Michael McNab - 2nd Policeman; George Mulholland - 2nd Prison Guard; Vickilyn Reynolds - Willie's Wife; Baldwin C. Sykes - Ken Dog; "Big Daddy" Wayne - Henchman; Eugene Williams - Local Tough; Terrence Williams - Boody; Bonnie Oda Homsey - Patty Chin; Jaki Brown-Karman
Credit
Andrew D. Brothers - Art Director, Steve Anderson - Co-producer, Mary Law Weir - Costume Designer, Phillip Christon - First Assistant Director, Steve Anderson - Director, Steve Nevius - Editor, Tim Truman - Composer (Music Score), Marina Kieser - Production Designer, David Brian Miller - Production Designer, Charlie Lieberman - Cinematographer, Lowell D. Blank - Producer, Brad M. Gilbert - Producer, William B. Steakley - Producer, Oliver Stone - Producer, Janet Yang - Producer, Michael Spielberg - Producer, Caroline Stover - Set Designer, Paul Staples - Special Effects, Steve Anderson - Screenwriter, Donald Bakeer - Book Author
South Central is a 1992dramafilm, written and directed by Steve Anderson. This film is an adaptation of the 1987 novel Crips by Donald Bakeer[2], a former high school teacher in South Central Los Angeles. The film stars Glenn Plummer, Byron Minns, and Christian Coleman.
Bobby (Glenn Plummer) is a young black gang member of Hoover Street Deuces, who gets convicted and jailed for a murder he committed. Shortly before he kills a drug dealer, Bobby's girlfriend Carole (LaRita Shelby) gives birth to his son Jimmie (Christian Coleman). While in prison, he converts to Islam, matures and transforms himself, and decides he wants to live an honest life.
After serving a 10 year prison sentence, he returns to the neighborhood he once controlled, South Central Los Angeles, along with his former gang. His childhood friend Ray Ray (Byron Minns) is now leading the Deuces. Carole has become a junkie, and works as a hooker to support her habit. And, he and Carole's 10-year old son Jimmie is now a junior member of his old gang (Hoover Deuce), with Ray Ray as his mentor. Bobby must use everything he has learned from prison to save his son from the violent future as a gang member.
