Colors
While Dennis Hopper will always be known as one of the great, one of a kind actors of his or any other generation, his rather limited output as a director (with one confirmed undisputed masterpiece in Easy Rider) hopefully will one day be reaccessed and reevaluated in terms of the small number of effective, potent classics that he achieved from the director’s chair, sometimes without even actually acting in the movies themselves. Among them was this 1988 release that was truthfully promoted as being the most definitive examination of the gang warfare scene in South Central Los Angeles having been made to date. So true in fact, that upon arriving in theaters several real life gang members showed up to screenings and (usually upon seeing their rivals there) engaged in real life violence that led many to state that perhaps the movie itself should not have even been made. But made it was, with the “colors” of the movie referring to the gangs known as the Bloods (red) and the Crips (blue) along with the curious notion that actual killing of human life would occur based solely upon which colors you sported in your clothing and which gang you belonged to, made even more curious by the idea that race itself had little to do with it as both sides would feature (mostly black) members of various ethnicities. Hopper’s major achievement as director here in orchestrating the story was in while not necessarily shying away from the horribly negative aspects of gang life (early death at a young age), he still retained an objective view of the motivations that these young men have for being a part of such a thing, namely in that joining a gang was not really a racial requirement, but rather a byproduct of growing up poor and being made to feel that you are a part of a “family” that will stick together, take care of their own and have your back always. Of course, the paradox here is in which side you would call your own (and which side of equally poverty stricken minorities are your sworn enemies) of which that divide is the true cause of why many of them cannot have a better life while fighting amongst each other simply because of your afflilation which depends on either where you grew up or who your circle of friends and family are. Some viewers laughed at the idea of Hopper (long considered an anti establishment figure who himself was known to have had many run ins with the law) making his two main characters a pair of LAPD cops on the gang task force whom through their eyes we see much of the carnage and surely they became even more dubious upon seeing that it was the old “veteran cop / young rookie” scenario which we’ve all seen before, but fortunately it’s redeemed by the casting especially in the capable hands of Robert Duvall (in an Oscar worthy performance) as the veteran teaching the ropes to his young hothead partner (Sean Penn in a role that Hopper originally intended for Mickey Rourke) and in presenting the opposing philosophies and approaches of the two characters, Hopper creates an even more interesting paradox. Penn believes in the notion that a cop should be an asshole and a bastard at all times towards the gangbangers while on the job in order to instill fear and respect from them towards the police while Duvall employs a more diplomatic approach, getting to know everybody by their street names, wanting everyone to think that he just might be a good guy after all underneath the badge and seeming to spend more time reasoning with the gangbangers rather than arresting them because he thinks that having these good public relations will compel them to be more forthcoming with intel and information if and when any sort of big, major crime comes up. Surprisingly, both approaches are well known to have been adopted by law enforcement as a way of cleaning up the crime, and while in real life Penn’s so called bulldozer approach is widely considered controversial, it can also be said that Duvall’s kinder, gentler ways can also backfire in our own reality and inflict more harm than good, especially in creating an environment that encourages “snitching” and the woeful repercussions that can occur as a result. But the more disturbing notion within the film is that Penn’s alpha male really does have no fear of either the gangland environment or its denizens, while Duvall (counting the days until his retirement) has possibly adopted his methods as more of a survival technique for himself than anything else, figuring that if half the LA gang members are on somewhat friendly terms with him, it’ll actually increase his chances of coming home every night in one piece. But Penn just wants to bash heads, earning the nickname “Pac Man” for the yellow, unmarked police car that he and Duvall ride around in and soon becomes the most hated cop in LA all while making the stupid mistake of dating and having a personal relationship with a beautiful Mexican gang girl (Maria Conchita Alonso) before finding out the hard way just exactly what the gang lifestyle is like for a female. The film features a surprisingly strong supporting cast with a good number of name actors in the mix, starting out with a horrific scene of a shotgun toting Crip (Don Cheadle) blowing away some kid for no other reason than the colors thing before we witness a second drive by at the same kid’s funeral in which none of the targets are hit. A later scene showing another Crips driveby also results in none of their rivals being hit but they do manage to kill an innocent child next door which brings up the major issue of civilian endangerment. The movie also serves up the sight of a (possibly gay) Damon Wayans whacked out completely on angel dust, one hit wonder Geraldo (Rico Suave) as a trigger happy Chicano gang member, respected character actors Sy Richardson, Glenn Plummer and Grand L. Bush all leaving a mark, and most interestingly, Trinidad Silva in the most chilling, frighteningly effective performance in the movie as Frog. What makes this character so unnerving is that he can successfully make himself come across as a “concerned citizen” type (who is readily trusted by Duvall) when in actuality he is really a VERY high ranking gang member who possesses the power to order hits and in many ways manipulate people into the belief that the gang life is the most ideal for those who are situated low on the totem pole of society. The real tragedy though was that the actor (who shows real poise and screen presence here) was himself killed by a drunk driver shortly after filming just as the big acting offers started coming in based solely on the strength of his performance here. As Hopper deftly navigates through both worlds of the law and the lawless and portrays the conflicts within both realms, we are left to ponder on why how even today the gang warfare continues on and the unfortunate souls who join up mostly do so because the unfortunate circumstances which they were born into make the gangbanger lifestyle far more easier and appealing than trying to work hard enough in order to achieve a normal, “real” life (and the fact that law enforcement would rather work to control and contain it rather than eliminate it altogether is almost equally as disturbing in being a sign that the reality of gangs is something that is now “accepted”) along with the ongoing conflict between Penn and Duvall in terms of the “beat em or baby em” debate being almost as interesting as Hopper successfully shows how both of these approaches can lead to disaster. And with the current heroin epidemic at an all time high leading to kids being turned into mindless puppets who can be sold into prostitution or worse, the world as we know it has turned fighting crime into a mere chess game where certain groups will gladly sacrifice and throw under the bus certain members of their own so that a blind eye can be turned to their own illegal activity (which Hopper also portrays in the movie) while cops nowadays are literally negotiating with criminals the terms of which ones they can easily arrest to make it look like they’re protecting the community (when they’re really not). The hindsight of this almost comes to make Penn’s Pac Man seem like the real hero of the movie now with his seething contempt for the entire gangbanger lifestyle and take no prisoners approach to how he treats them. But that is what makes a great work of art sometimes in the way that the true meaning can actually evolve over time and thus confirms Dennis Hopper as being one of the great and most underrated film artists of all time…
9/10