Hoodlum A Film Review By Michael Redman Copyright 1997 Michael Redman
*** (Out of ****)
Gangster films have long been a major mainstay of cinema lore. While there have been superb movies of this genre and several different approaches to the subject, in some ways they have a sameness. "Hoodlum" is a good looking film and offers a high level of entertainment but little new.
Loosely based on a true story of the struggle for the numbers racket in Depression-era Harlem, the film follows the rise of "Bumpy" Johnson (Laurence Fishburne). South Carolina teenager Johnson, sent to live with his older sister in New York rapidly ran into trouble with the law during the Harlem Renaissance of the Roaring Twenties.
After doing time at various institutions, he is released in the early Thirties. This is where the film begins. Johnson rejoins his old buddies and immediately becomes involved with Madame Queen's (Cicely Tyson) numbers "business". The numbers game, similar to the lotteries available now in almost every state, was illegal of course because it wasn't being run by the government.
Dutch Schultz (Tim Roth) has taken over the numbers concession in every New York neighborhood except Harlem and is making his ruthless bid for those pennies. Bumpy isn't about to let that happen.
When the Queen is arrested by a crooked cop in Schultz's back pocket, she turns control over to Johnson and he declares all-out war against the Dutchman. The blood is about to flow and everyone knows it.
Lucky Luciano (Andy Garcia) has organized the gangs in the city but is having trouble with Schultz who is crude, unrefined and, perhaps even worse, not Italian. His politician, the Special Prosecutor, makes loud noises when the fighting breaks out of Harlem as Bumpy brings the war uptown.
Luciano brings the gangsters to the bargaining table but to no avail. These two aren't built for compromise. Seeing that the battle is not near an end, Bumpy decides to fight Schultz with the weapons where he is clearly superior. He is going to out-think him.
Director Bill Duke ("A Rage In Harlem"), set designer Charles Bennett ("Roots") and costumer Richard Bruno ("The Untouchables") combine with cinematographer Frank Tidy ("Under Siege") to craft an especially attractive one if you can excuse the graphically violent scenes.
Harlem of that time was a study in contrasts. The extremely poor co-existed with the high fashion. The well-known Cotton Club featured Black performers but non-Whites were not allowed in the audience. This film captures the mood with style.
Fishburne is exceeding prolific recently, appearing in a number of movies and turning in a respectable job with each role. He and Garcia adopt the respectable mobster look with chic clothes, sly smiles and talk of chess. It is Roth who takes the chances here when he portrays Schultz as a cultureless sadistic low life. Coming dangerously close to overplaying the role, he takes it to the edge but not a step further.
The scene-stealer of the film is Chi McBride as Bumpy's cousin Illinois Gordon. Every time he is on the screen, he captures all eyes. Serving as the gang's conscience, he repeatedly points out that innocent people are dying as the war heats up and Bumpy hardens. His romance with his "big woman" is especially touching while providing the film with some of its lighter moments.
Bumpy's love doesn't hold as much interest. While Francine (Vanessa Williams) is certainly a looker, her "good girl falling for the tough guy" character isn't very convincing. Most of her scenes could have been dropped from the overly long (almost two and a half hours) film and we wouldn't have missed a thing.
The trend towards romanticizing mobsters is troublesome. Was Bumpy Johnson really a Robin Hood, stealing from Schultz to give away the money to the poor? Was he defending Harlem from outsiders so that the community could control their own business and provide jobs to 2,000 otherwise unemployed number runners? The body count provides evidence that Bumpy was no angel.
Bad politics and stylish demeanor: looks like the wave of the cinematic future.
(Michael Redman who has penned this type of thing for over 22 years is looking forward to the beautiful southern Indiana autumn and losing this muggy stuff that passes for weather.)
[This appeared in the "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana 9/4/97. Michael Redman can be reached at mredman@bvoice.com ] -- mailto:mredman@bvoice.com
-- mailto:mredman@bvoice.com
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