Spike Lee’s new joint punches in on time
Clockers
Four eyes (out of five)
directed by: Spike Lee
starring: Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, Mekhi Phifer and Delroy Lindo
By Leslie Seaforth
Clockers, another movie dealing with America’s inner city, starts with an instant attention grabber: various no-holds-barred crime scene photos of black gunshot victims. This, both fortunately and unfortunately, sets the tone for the rest of the film.
Co-produced by Spike Lee and Martin Scorcese (how did Spike pull this off?), Clockers centres on Strike (newcomer Mekhi Phifer), a “clocker” (drug dealer) in the New York projects who’s tired of dealing drugs from a park bench in front of his own building. His boss Rodney (Delroy Lindo) casually suggests that if a local rival dealer was to “meet early retirement,” Strike could take his place. An opportunity? Not when the rival dealer is inexplicably found dead and Strike’s “God-fearing family man” of a brother Victor (Isaiah Washington) is implicated in the murder. Making matters worse, the two homicide detectives assigned to the murder investigation, Larry and Rocco (Turturro and Keitel, respectively), differ in opinion. Larry considers the case cut and dry; Victor is guilty. Rocco, however, is not convinced. In a search for answers, Rocco starts hassling Strike, humiliating him in front of his boss and fellow clockers in the process. Strike is forced to make decision that could either send his brother to jail, get him arrested or shot.
While the plot may be a little worn out for Hollywood, the cinematography and dialogue are excellent, true to Spike Lee form. Memorable scenes include a clocker explanation of how Public Enemy are soft rappers because they haven’t shot anyone and Strike’s brother Victor ordering drug dealers to leave a fast food restaurant (not forgetting to add “please” and “thank you”); grim moments that punctuate the film with sarcasm.
All the actors do a fantastic job with Spike Lee’s script, making an already dark peek into reality even darker, while still providing the audience with a glimmer of hope: that one day the only places people can encounter gun-toting, drug-dealing worlds like this will be in the movies, rather than outside somebody’s window.
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