Colors - colors of violence

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Movie
German title Colors - colors of violence
Original title Colors
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1988
length 117 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Dennis Hopper
script Richard Di Lello ,
Michael Schiffer
production Robert H. Solo
music Herbie Hancock
camera Haskell Wexler
cut Robert Estrin
occupation

Colors - Colors of violence ( Colors ) is a film drama with Sean Penn and Robert Duvall from the year 1988 .

action

The experienced police officer Bob "Uncle Bob" Hodges is assigned the young Danny " Pac-Man " McGavin as a partner. Hodges has worked for the LAPD for 19 years and is a Vietnam veteran. Together they work at the CRASH unit, Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums. In their turf, the slums of Los Angeles , there is a bloody gang war between the Bloods and the Crips . Hodges, respected by the gangs, first has to convince the hot-blooded McGavin that calm behavior often does more than excessive police violence. However, McGavin quickly turns the gangs against him with his aggressive nature. When McGavin destroys their assigned civilian vehicle in a car chase, they are assigned a bright yellow civilian vehicle. From now on, McGavin is referred to by his colleagues and gang members as a "garbage man".

He begins a relationship with the saleswoman Louisa, for whom life between the gangs is part of everyday life. However, she separates from him when McGavin sprays paint on her cousin's face as punishment for graffiti . The gang war for supremacy in the drug trade escalates, and Hodges and McGavin try to keep the situation under control. Hodges, who is about to retire, dies during a raid by a gang member.

Some time later, the now conservative McGavin is assigned a new, black partner who grew up in the neighborhoods where they patrol. The new partner is a hot spur like "Pac-Man" used to be. Now it is McGavin who persuades his partner to behave calmly. McGavin tells him the same joke about the two bulls that Hodges told him and the young colleague reacts as young McGavin did. The film ends with a McGavin who becomes aware of future events as the two police officers go on patrol.

Reviews

Roger Ebert praised certain scenes in the Chicago Sun-Times . The scene in which the gang members try to explain why the gang is so important to them remains particularly clear in his memory. The central theme of the film is the helplessness of the police. The plot is "unnecessarily complex", some characters of the gangsters cannot be distinguished. Frauke Hanck wrote in tz : “Hopper staged relentlessly; one violent action follows another, but never glorifies. This is an achievement in which the no less rigorous cameraman Haskell Wexler played a decisive role. His pictures cause almost physical pain. Robert Duvall as the old professional policeman with no illusions and Sean Penn as his hot-headed colleague carry the tension of the film convincingly. For strong nerves. "

Awards

Herbie Hancock won the BMI Film Music Award in 1989 .

additional

  • Penn is a graduate of the CRASH (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) unit in the film. This unit existed from 1977 to 2000.
  • Penn was detained for 33 days for beating up a cardboard parazzo.
  • Real gang members were hired to advise the film. Two were shot while filming.
  • The title song of the same name was sung by Ice-T , who was still at the beginning of his career . This reached number 70 with Colors in the US single charts and thus its first placement in the Billboard Hot 100 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Roger Ebert . In: Chicago Sun-Times , April 15, 1988
  2. ↑ Frauke Hanck, cited above. based on Just: Film-Jahrbuch 1989 .
  3. ↑ https://www.billboard.com/music/ice-t/chart-history