MENACE II SOCIETY

US, 1993, 97 minutes, Colour.
Tyrin Turner, Lorenz Tate, Jada Pinkett, Samuel L Jackson, Charles S Dutton, Glenn Plummer, Anthony Johnson.
Directed by The Hughes Brothers, Allen Hughes, Albert Hughes.

In the first half of the 1990s, African- American writers and directors came to the fore in American film production and in Hollywood. Many of the films were about the various neighbourhoods, about crime gangs as well as riots. There were memories of the 1960s and the riots in Watts (in this film incorporating actual footage of those riots). There was a focus on families, relationships between fathers and sons, sons following in the criminal footsteps of their fathers. There were devoted mother’s and grandparents – but there were also mothers who became drug addicts and died of overdoses.

There was continued racism, the riots after the Rodney King confrontation with the police, there were shootings in the streets.

Some of the directors of this time included Bill Duke, John Singleton with emerging stars like Laurence Fishburne and films like Boyz in the Hood and thrillers like Rage in Harlem.

Allen and Albert Hughes were 21 when this film was released. It was a bold step in filmmaking, significant at the time and the emergence of the African- American city stories. It was frank in its storytelling, narrated by the central character, Caine, Tyin Turner, a very early scene with an angry shooting of Koreans in a store, the vanity and amorality of the killing in the character, Dog, Larenz Tate.

There are flashbacks to Caine’s childhood, the influence of his father, including a guest appearance from Samuel L Jackson. Caine is also graduating from school and his options are before him, the influence of his friends like Dog who is very boastful of his way of life, watching the video surveillance tape of the shooting and relishing it. Caine is also involved in drug dealing. There are friends and relations around LA who are influencing him to continue in this way of life.

There is some hope for him in his relationship with a young woman whose husband is in prison, Ronnie, Jada Pinkett, and her little boy. She is keen that she and her son leave LA and that he go with them. He is also encouraged in this by a friend who has had quite a change of heart about his way of life and wants to do better. These values are inculcated by his grandparents who dislike swearing, quote the Bible, are shown watching It’s a Wonderful Life on television and the irony of this family, black, watching this very white film.

There is also some sympathy and understanding from a wise teacher played by Charles S Dutton who reaches out to Caine, even encouragement from Ronnie’s husband during a visit to him in jail.

There are quite a lot of shootings, drive-by, even drive-by from one car to another, young men shot, bleeding on the streets, going to hospital, as happens to Caine. Then there are revenge killings with Caine ultimately deciding to leave LA, though angrily stomping on someone who criticises him, in the presence of his grandfather who then exiles him from the house. But Caine is shot and doesn’t have the chance to continue or change his life. His grandfather had asked him whether he cared whether he lived or died – and it is only in dying that he realises he wanted to live.

This is a film of African Americans in Los Angeles from the 1960s and 1990s – and the question whether these films and social concern changed attitudes in the coming decades.

The Hughes Brothers went on to make Dead Presidents, From Hell and The Book of Eli.