Clockers

 Clockers 1995

• Director: Spike Lee
• Seen by the director: BlacKkKlansman, Miracle at St Ana, Malcolm X, Jungle Fever, Mo’ Better Blues, Do the Right Thing, She’s Gotta Have It
• Based on book by Richard Price
• Cast: Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, Delroy Lindo, Mekhi Pfeifer, Isiah Washington, Regina Taylor
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Harvey Keitel – Moonrise Kingdom, Be Cool, Wanted, Lulu on the Bridge, Cop Land, Smoke, Pulp Fiction, The Piano, Reservoir Dogs, Sister Act, Thelma and Louise, The January Man, The Last Temptation of Christ, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
• John Turturro – God’s Pocket, Miracle at St Ana, Margo at the Wedding, Flight of the Conchords, Romance & Cigarettes, Secret Window, The Man Who Cried, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Cradle Will Rock, The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink, Jungle Fever, Miller’s Crossing, Mo’ Better Blues, Do the Right Thing, Desperately Seeking Susan
• Delroy Lindo - Cymbeline, Romeo Must Die, Cider House Rules, A Life Less Ordinary, Feeling Minnesota, Get Shorty, Malcolm X
• Mekhi Pfeifer – Dawn of the Dead, 8 Mile, O
• Isiah Washington – Romeo Must Die, Bulworth, Dead Presidents
• Regina Taylor – I’ll Fly Away
• Why? Spike Lee
• Seen: Once before. Now 15June 2022      

       This is so depressing. Drugs, murder, jocular white cops, strutting macho dudes both black and white, hit jobs, stuck-in-this-shit-life despair. One black cop who tries to talk the homies into getting themselves out of this shit life. Mothers and wives desperate to keep their men out of this shit life.

       Oddly, it doesn’t hold my attention. It’s realistic and tragic but all their male posturing just irritates me.

       Has this film convinced a single drug dealer, drug abuser, or gun-toting killer to leave this shit life? If so, OK, good, it has a purpose. But has the system changed? Is drug dealing less? Do black lives matter more now? I think we all know the answer.

       The acting is good though.

       The film is probably worth 5* but I’m just so depressed from watching it. 

3 * of 5