DOING HARD TIME
US, 2004, 95 minutes, Colour.
Boris Kodjoe, Michael Kenneth Williams, Sticky Fingaz, Regan Gomez-Preston, William L.Johnson, Steven Bauer, Giancarlo Esposito.
Directed by Preston Whitmore II.
As might be expected from the title, this is a tough film. It opens with a drug deal going wrong, dealer and client shooting at each other, the dealer accidentally shooting a young boy at the side of the road. His father is consumed with grief, upset that the trial does not indicate the guilt of either man, though both are sentenced to prison terms.
The screenplay stretches credibility in the sense that the father, with his grief, decides to commit a crime, actually bashing a policeman and reducing him to life in a wheelchair, so that he will be arrested, sentenced and sent to that prison where he can avenge the death of his son. The father is played by German actor, Boris Kodjoe.
Michael Kenneth Williams plays the shooter and the film focuses on his coping with prison, bribing a corrupt guard, having visits from two girlfriends, dealing with the father and his desire for revenge. There are severe guards. There is the prisoner who lorded over the others. There are some sympathetic prisoners.
The screenplay does not quite enfold as might have been expected, especially concerning the father and his fight with the shooter, and his death.
A grim entertainment.
- The title? A prison film? The setting of the prison, the range of prisoners, black and white, the guards, harshness, regulations and routines, fights, corruption?
- California, the city, drug deals, violence, the shooting of the boy? Police precincts? The street, the speeding car, bashing the policeman? His being wheelchair-bound?
- The credibility of the situation, the father, his grief, the death of his son? The court case, the two accused, lenient sentences? Neither men specifically blamed? The reaction of the father, his decision, to go into the prison, to get revenge, the car speeding, his bashing the policeman? In court, the sentence, prison?
- Michael Mitchell, age, experience, education, single-minded motivation? The routines of entering prison, the cell, sharing the cell? Making the links? The powerbrokers in the prison?
- Eddie Mathematic, status, playing cards, domination, the relationship with Craig? Michael Mitchell? The authorities? The deals with the guard?
- Curtis Craig, drugs, the pursuit by the younger man after the deal, the chase and shoot out, killing the boy? In court? His status in prison, with Mathematic, the interactions with Michael Mitchell? The visits from his girlfriend, the daughter? His white girlfriend? His violence, killing in the prison? Money and the guard?
- The guards, the corrupt guard, money deals, Curtis Craig and his girlfriend, the investment? Going wrong?
- The friendly prison with Michael Mitchell, his appeal, giving the money to Mathematic? His support of Michael Mitchell?
- The buildup to a confrontation, the use of the many shower sequences as a location, the weapon, the fight, Michael Mitchell being stabbed, Craig Curtis and his surviving?
- The years passing, Craig Curtis going to visit Michael Mitchell’s grave? His girlfriend and his daughter picking him up? His going scot-free – yet his being the killer of the boy, murders in prison…?
- Audience identification with the characters – or not? The situation?
