Clockers (film)

Clockers
Directed by	Spike Lee
Produced by	Jon Kilik Spike Lee Martin Scorsese
Written by	Screenplay: Richard Price Spike Lee Novel: Richard Price
Starring	Harvey Keitel John Turturro Delroy Lindo Mekhi Phifer
Music by	Terence Blanchard
Cinematography	Malik Hassan Sayeed
Editing by	Samuel D. Pollard
Studio	40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	September 13, 1995
Running time	128 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$25,000,000 (est.)
Box office	$13,071,518

Clockers is a 1995 thriller film directed by Spike Lee. The screenplay, written by Lee and Richard Price, is based on Price's novel of the same name. The film stars Mekhi Phifer in his first role.

Plot summary

In a Brooklyn housing project, a group of "clockers" - street-level drug dealers - sell drugs for Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo), a local drug lord. Rodney tells Ronald "Strike" Dunham (Mekhi Phifer), one of his lead clockers, that another dealer, Darryl Adams (Steve White), is stealing from him and "got to be got", implying that he wants Strike to kill Darryl. Strike then meets with his brother, Victor Dunham (Isaiah Washington) and tries to persuade Victor to kill Darryl Adams.

Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel) and Larry Mazilli (John Turturro), homicide detectives, ride to the scene of Darryl Adams' murder. Larry and Rocco receive a phone call from another detective who says a man has confessed at a local church that he killed Darryl. The police meet Strike's older brother Victor at the church and take him in for questioning. In the interrogation room, Victor tells Rocco that he shot Darryl Adams in self-defense. Rocco finds holes in this story and starts looking into Victor's background which includes two jobs, a wife, two children, no criminal record, and aspirations to move out of the projects; Rocco comes to the conclusion that Victor is covering for his younger brother.

Rocco pressures Strike but Victor sticks to his story, so Rocco convinces Rodney that Strike has confessed and informed on Rodney's drug ring. Rocco arrests Rodney and then humiliates Strike in front of his crew. Strike gets together some money and decides to leave town, but a younger boy who admired Strike shoots Errol, Rodney's enforcer, with Strike's gun. Rocco lets Strike leave town.

Reception

The film received generally positive reviews. Roger Ebert gave the movie a three-and-a-half stars, and it earned a 67% "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes. The movie (along with the novel) would foreshadow similar projects, such as The Wire, for which author/screenwriter Richard Price is also a writer and Fredro Starr and Hassan Johnson cast members.^{[citation needed]}

Film poster

Critics and film buffs were quick to notice that the poster, designed by Art Sims, was similar to Saul Bass' art for Otto Preminger's 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder. Sims claimed that it was a homage, but Bass regarded it as a rip-off.

Cast

• Harvey Keitel — Det. Rocco Klein
• John Turturro — Det. Larry Mazilli
• Delroy Lindo — Rodney Little
• Sticky Fingaz — Scientific
• Mekhi Phifer — Ronald 'Strike' Dunham
• Isaiah Washington — Victor Dunham
• Keith David — André the Giant
• Pee Wee Love — Tyrone 'Shorty' Jeter
• Regina Taylor — Iris Jeeter
• Fredro Starr — Go
• Elvis Nolasco — Horace
• Thomas Jefferson Byrd — Errol Barnes
• Lawrence B. Adisa — Stan
• Hassan Johnson — Skills
• Frances Foster — Gloria
• Michael Imperioli — Detective Jo-Jo
• Mike Starr — Thumper
• Lisa Arrindell Anderson - Sharon
• Brandon Jay McLaren — Johnny

Soundtrack

Title	Composer	Performer
"People in Search of a Life"	Raymond Jones	Marc Dorsey
"Children of the Ghetto"	Christopher Amoo & Edward Amoo	Philip Bailey
"Reality Check"	Branford Marsalis and Ricky Dacosta	Buckshot Lefonque
"Silent Hero"	Des'ree and Prince Sampson	Des'ree
"Changes"	Gordon Chambers & Ike Lee III	Marc Dorsey
"Reality"	Duron Edwards & Shawn McFadden	Brooklynytes
"Sex Soldier"	George Kahni & Mekael Henningham	Rebelz of Authority
"Love Me Still"	Chaka Khan and Bruce Hornsby
"Crazy"	Seal
"Bird of Freedom"	Seal
"Blast of the Iron"	Rebelz of Authority and Salaam Remi Gibbs	Rebelz of Authority
"Newborn Friend"	Seal
"Outta Here"	Lawrence Parker and DJ Premier	KRS-One
"Survival of the Fittest/Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers"	Chubb Rock O.C., Jeru The Damaja and DJ Premier	Crooklyn Dodgers '95
"Illa Killa"	Rasheed Brown	Strictly Difficult
"Bad Boy No Go a Jail"	Monk Higgins and Garth Williams	Mega Banton
"Posidrive"	John Fiddy	John Fiddy and Sammy Burdson

External links

• Clockers at the Internet Movie Database
• Clockers at Rotten Tomatoes