As I left the theater I realized that I had not been hard pressed by the writer/director to come to a conclusion of "what the film meant". So, if I were positioned to come to any conclusion, it would be "somewhere in the facts". Is every moment factual? Yes or no. I cannot say. However, I do feel that the hip hop criminal crowd is not known to be kindly and respectful to the police. And as such they attract hostility from others. Live by the sword; you can die by the sword. Oscar Grant did not earn my full sympathies for the admitted cheating that he did, for example. A scene wherein he seems to give up the drug selling life did not seem believable to me, though he was a "casual seller". This is a conflicted young man who is still trying to live in an alternative culture and struggling to find success in a more work-a-day environment as a butcher. It shows how blacks are trapped by an adolescent be-cool, kick back, criminal culture. They are not easily permitted into the more successful conventional culture of society until they give up this popular hipster cool cat hip hop kickin' way of life. And Oscar Grant seems to be inside this personal struggle for employment. So here we have some deeper issues to ponder about. It seems to me that both the police and the hip hop crowd have a kind of inflexibility, a kind of hostility for each other. Each side hates the other's attitudes; I believe, although the film does not overtly state this. The viewer is left to fill in details not shown through his own experience of life. Nonetheless, Oscar Grant did not seem to be a lethal threat. He had no weapon. I cannot believe that the policeman mistakenly drew the wrong weapon. I do believe that the young hip hoppers antagonized the police. If you antagonize a German Shepard, God help you. If you antagonize the police, God help you. If you antagonize any stranger, God help you. If there is any lesson to be learned by this movie, it is that antagonism, arrogance, deceit and lack of respect for any person of authority can attract trouble to oneself. The Oakland black criminal crowd needs to grow up and become a worthy member of society. Until this happens, only God and an expensive attorney can help them. The police won't. It isn't their job to provide a rational father figure to model their lives from. No doubt these two groups, the police and the criminal hip hop crowd will clash again and again. Perhaps this is the unstated message of the movie. Go see it. You decide.
This film has a acting which seems quite natural and believable otherwise. The movie flowed from scene to scene in a logical time sequence. It is not a "High Noon" with increasing tension and sympathies for the protagonist however. If it could do that, then it could earn a "9" in my book. Failing that, I give it a "7". The professional "metacritics" have graded this movie too highly. The movie simply tries to "follow facts" in a natural feeling fashion. The actors are to be commended for their believability and skills. However, the facts presented do not lead me to any new break through moments of insight. What we have here are moments of antagonism that may incite feelings in some but not I.
This film has a acting which seems quite natural and believable otherwise. The movie flowed from scene to scene in a logical time sequence. It is not a "High Noon" with increasing tension and sympathies for the protagonist however. If it could do that, then it could earn a "9" in my book. Failing that, I give it a "7". The professional "metacritics" have graded this movie too highly. The movie simply tries to "follow facts" in a natural feeling fashion. The actors are to be commended for their believability and skills. However, the facts presented do not lead me to any new break through moments of insight. What we have here are moments of antagonism that may incite feelings in some but not I.