Published via Ecency

(source: tmdb.org)

When onscreen depictions of War On Drugs become topic of conversation, most people take television shows like The Wire or Narcos as example. However, there are also feature films that not only took that dark subject, but also managed to comprehensively depict many of it aspects, as well as the toll it had on its victims. Some of them were also so successful that they have set the trends for Hollywood in next decades, like New Jack City, 1991 action crime thriller directed by Mario Van Peebles.

The plot begins in 1986 New York City. Nino Brown (played by Wesley Snipes) is leader of Cash Money Brothers, small-time drug dealing gang operating in Harlem. He believes that he had found a way to expand his operation into drug dealing empire. It is crack – new drug which is cheap, but immensely addictive and thus able to bring enormous profits to whoever controls the street trade. Showing the knack for business innovation, he violently takes over entire apartment building and uses it to have all of his activities under one roof – large drug laboratory, drug market and even rooms where his customers can consume his product unmolested. Three years later, Nino Brown became drug lord whose power is equal to Mafia, while the police seems unable to stop his brutal reign. The only exception seems to be Scotty Appleton (played by Ice T), detective who is determined to bring down Nino Brown for personal reasons. He and his partner Nick Peretti (played by Judd Nelson) become part of task force which would employ unorthodox methods that include high-tech surveillance. The key, however, appears to be Pookie (played by Chris Rock), former street dealer whom Appleton helped to get rid of crack addiction. He volunteers to join Nino Brown’s organisation in order to provide information to police. The sting operation goes disastrously wrong, but Appleton and Peretti are determined to continue their work, while overconfident and arrogant Nino Brown is unaware of danger that lurks from within his own empire.

New Jack City was directing debut of Mario Van Peebles, son of famous black film maker Melvyn Van Peebles famous for starting the trend of “blaxploitation” films in early 1970s. Young Van Peebles (who appears on screen in the role of Appleton’s boss) obviously took inspiration from those films, but also from countless gangster genre classics including Brian De Palma’s Scarface, which is explicitly referenced in the film. But the greatest source of inspiration is the sad reality of American inner cities, which were struck by crack epidemic in mid 1980s, when the new, cheap and potent drug found fertile ground among, mostly black, people struck by the effects of Reagan’s economic policies, poverty and despair. Script by Thomas Lee Wright and Barry Michael Cooper, very loosely inspired by real life events and personalities in Detroit and Harlem, addresses those issues very directly, not only by showing horrific toll of addiction and violence, but also in characters’ dialogues that makes film often too didactic and preachy. On the other hand, New Jack City is very honest in explaining why the drug dealing business, even with all the risks included, could be so attractive for so many young people. It shows how dealers like Nino Brown, if they succeed in pursuing their own warped version of American Dream, can live in luxury unattainable to most other Americans, and especially to members of his own impoverished community. New Jack City marvels in depicting the material aspects of drug lords’ lifestyle, but also serves as a very good time capsule containing aspects of hip hop culture, like music and fashion, which were associated with it in late 1980s and early 1990s. Van Peebles, who began his career in music videos, uses a lot of MTV aesthetics and employs slow motions and unusual shots, making the film look too artificial in certain scenes.

Yet, New Jack City is, despite those shortcomings, a very good film. A lot of credit for that should go to a great cast. Wesley Snipes is simply great in the role of villain, a man who is ruthless and violent, but also very intelligent, manipulative and charismatic. This performance paved the way for Snipes to become the great star in 1990s. New Jack City was also a very good acting debut who rap star Ice T, who would later have successful career on film and television. But the most impressive performance belongs to Chris Rock, who was relatively unknown at the time. His depiction of an former dealer struggling with fear and former addiction represents the best performance of his career. New Jack City helped not only those actors to become proper stars, but have also set various trends in 1990s, including creation of specific genre dealing with black and Hispanic experience in inner cities called Hood film. Although some details like the MTV style make him look a little bit dated from today’s perspective, New Jack City nevertheless represents powerful piece of cinema that can be enjoyed despite dealing with problems that apparently haven’t been solved in past decades.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)