VeteranLight
I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
Sexyloutak
Absolutely the worst movie.
Theo Robertson
A young black man Anthony Curtis is about to graduate from college in 1969 and volunteers from the United States Marine Corps . Coming home after a tour in the early 1970s . Needing a focus in life Anthony finds himself being drawn in to a life of crime DEAD PRESIDENTS was released in 1995 with a fair amount of hype . Directed by the Hughes brothers it was marketed as a film that marketed the black experience of coming home after Vietnam . One can understand why the film was marketed this way since the Hughes did make the critically acclaimed MENACE II SOCIETY , part of a short lived but acclaimed " Ghetto subgenre " in the early 1990s . DEAD PRESIDENTS might try to fit in to this type of genre but what ever type of movie it's trying to be it fails because there's an obvious flaw - there's not one single likable character in the movie If the Hughes brothers had been white I'm sure they'd have been accused of playing up to ethnic stereotypes or at the very least making a blacksplotation movie twenty years too late . The film starts with some foul mouthed characters lamenting the lack of sex in their lives and goes downhill from there . The film then cuts to Vietnam and if Anthnoy ( And the audience ) thought the ghetto was bad then Vietnam is a lot worse . The war scenes are genuinely disturbing and violent but again this seems very old hat when we'd already had a glut of anti-war films featuring the 'Nam ten years earlier and most of them making an anti-war point much better too . When Anthony returns to America he gets involved in a robbery that makes the Vietnam war look like an episode of TELETUBBIES This is a muddled , unfocused violent film that becomes more and more depressing as it goes along . If the Hughes are making a comment that returning soldiers from conflicts regardless of their colour are callously ignored by the country they fought to defend then they have failed . There's little incitement for the characters to become the violent ruthless criminals they are . Just because an educated college boy fought in a war zone it never seems a convincing character motivation to become a criminal , and the robbery itself on an armoured car is done so graphically and violently is enough to evaporate any potential sympathy one might have had at Anthony's plight Despite being a competently made film , the editing is very good for example , DEAD PRESIDENTS is a classic example of a film having to elicit empathy from the audience and if it fails to do this then the entire film fails
hannah-britten
I think my disappointment for this film is based partially on the hype of a well known UK film journalist who talked of this as a 'must see movie.' So expectations were high but when the credits rolled on at the end I wondered what on earth was so special about the film.The plot was predictable and with so many short scenes there was little time for atmosphere which left the funk and soul heavy sound track to work overtime. I would align this film with Forest Gump in its attempts to show a young man growing up. Weaving adolescence, romance, violence and adventure into the story. This is the most slight reference since the two films qualities are markedly different.Not a single character in Dead Presidents incites any reaction from the audience. The scripts plausibility is questionable in many places, chasms of time are treated as though they have been emotionally filled in. Characters act out their two dimensional emotions towards these situations to move seamlessly onwards.If you feel sympathy for the lead character to begin with once it is revealed he comes from a loving supportive family this is quashed. I don't think you can identify with a character who throws away so much due to arrogance and selfish pride. So if this is the case what where the directors trying to say about this mans life? Nothing in the film allowed us to be enlightened.I wouldn't recommend this film but then I like films which have a depth and are written in a more considered way.
tonymurphylee
*** out of ****The directors of MENACE 2 SOCIETY teamed up again for this 1995 hit, DEAD PRESIDENTS. It is the story of a young man who gets involved in too many complicated things and it all goes way over his head. It is a brutal, effective, and very intense film that I can recommend if you think you can handle it.The story is basically this. During the 1960s a young adult named Anthony can't take anymore school, so he drops out and works petty crimes at the billiard hall with the owner who has no legs. When he finally gets tired of that lifestyle, he decides to enlist in the army. Since the Vietnam war going on, he goes in and becomes mentally unstable due to the atrocities. When he gets back home, his girlfriend has had his child and he tries to support her and his daughter. Unfortunately, the food place with the part time job that he had been contending to has gone bankrupt, leaving him with no job, no money, no food, and no choices. His desperate search descends into a downward spiral of war flashbacks and his overall loss on morality.This has been billed as an action movie for some odd reason. I mean, sure, there are action scenes in it, but not the kind that action movie fans would enjoy. The action scenes in this are quite realistic and unpleasant. The violence is pretty ugly. The scenes that take place between Anthony and his girlfriend, Juanita, are extremely creepy and quite believable. When he yells at her when she nags him, the viewer feels like they really hate each other.The most interesting aspect about this film is the character played by, believe it or not, Chris Tucker as the childhood friend whose life ends up being worse off then Anthony's. He becomes addicted to heroin, has flashbacks almost all the time, and is about ready to self destruct. Chris Tucker takes a surprisingly serious and very believable turn as this tortured character. It's quite neat to see a man who is known for normally being a funny and annoying actor take such an extreme role. He does a fine job.The film's war sequences are super gruesome, but it makes sense for them to be considering the main character and his dilemma. The violence he sees in the war is not at all what he is used to and the viewer feels this too. When it occurs, it is usually surprisingly realistic and over the top. Since it feels appropriate for the story, it's unlikely that the film would surprise you with such gritty realism outside of the war, but you'd be wrong. Somehow, the filmmakers are able to have the scenes that take place out of the war to be just as harrowing as the war scenes. I don't know how they did it.The underlying message of the film is that the Vietnam war veterans deserved way better than what they got when they returned home. The government did them no favors and granted them no opportunities. It's sad, especially since people like Anthony are poor and need government support to just be able to live. It doesn't matter if they dropped out of school or if they didn't join the army for the right reasons. They are still human beings, and no human being should live their lives regretting something they were involved in that left such a dark mark on the history of America.Rated R for strong graphic violence, language, a sex scene and some drug use.
Tag Heuer
This is more than just a great genre flick, but a film that captures the essence, for lack of a better term, of living and growing up in Bronx during 60's and the buildup to the Vietnam war. All of the actors played their parts very well and found Chris Tucker's character a morbid yet apt comic relief to a very serious topic, which in turn was captured in Bokeem Woodbine's part and who played "Cleon" - The look on the faces of those in the unit when they were trying to get him to get rid of the head of the dead enemy soldier was uncompromisingly gripping.Another great performance was had by Keith David, of Platoon fame who played the worldly and elder part to-a-T. And not to mention Larenz Tate, whose boyishly-looking features cleanly established the groundwork in the development of the story. And although a lot of profanity was employed in this movie, it does capture the gravity of what the story hoped to convey.The movie is so vivid and compelling, I believe that this account was based on reality, than that of imagination or fiction. Kudos to the Hughes bros. who've once again given us yet another thought provoking glimpse of life from another perspective.Wishful thinking: Beginning with the lives of the principal actors when they first met as children.Memorable movie quote: "Fuck you, man. It stinks like a sack full of assholes!"
