Get Rich or Die Tryin' (film)

Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Directed by	Jim Sheridan
Written by	Terence Winter
Produced by	Jimmy Iovine Chris Lighty Paul Rosenberg Jim Sheridan
Starring	Curtis Jackson Terrence Howard Joy Bryant Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Bill Duke Ashley Walters
Cinematography	Declan Quinn
Edited by	Roger Barton Conrad Buff IV
Music by	Gavin Friday Quincy Jones Maurice Seezer
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	November 9, 2005
Running time	134 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$40,000,000
Box office	Domestic $30,985,352 Foreign $15,457,176 Worldwide $46,442,528

Get Rich or Die Tryin' is a 2005 film starring Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. It was released on November 9, 2005. Similar to the Eminem film 8 Mile, the story is a semi-autobiographical account of 50 Cent's own life. It was directed by six-time Oscar nominee Jim Sheridan.

Plot

At the beginning of the film shows Marcus, Bama, his future manager Terrance Howard, and two associates robbing a store that is a front for a money laundering operation. After they leave, Marcus is shot various times by a man in a black bandana, covering his face.

As the audience begins to hear Marcus's thoughts, a flashback begins showing Marcus as a child driving with his mother down the street. His thoughts reveal that he was constantly looking for his father, whom he did not know. This scene also shows that Marcus knew his mother sold drugs, but he felt that it was only for his benefit. After an altercation with a man who resembled Rick James, it is shown that Marcus's mother was murdered and her body burned along with the rest of the house.

Marcus goes off to live with his grandparents in a crowded house, and is taunted by the other children for having old and worn out shoes. After a fight with his cousin, Marcus's grandfather moves a mattress down to the laundry room to give him his own room, away from the other kids.

Not long after, Marcus says it's "time to join the family business", and begins to sell drugs on a corner like his mother in order to have money for new shoes. During a fight with two other dealers who say that he is selling on their turf, he is taken away by Majestic, a well known drug kingpin who worked with Marcus's mother and will now work with Marcus.

He buys a .357 gun from a man in an alleyway later, saying he didn't know what he wanted a gun for, but he got one anyway. While holding the gun to a mirror, Marcus is portrayed going from his childhood, to his young teenage years.

He begins pushing drugs more often, and his gun is eventually found by his grandfather resulting in Marcus leaving the home. However, the police find packets of cocaine hidden in Marcus's socks and arrest him. This leads to a fight between Marcus and his grandfather, after which Marcus leaves his grandparents' home.

Marcus buys an apartment after running away from home, and after giving up on his rapping dream in three hours, begins to sell drugs again. Majestic then holds a meeting between the local drug pushers in the gang Marcus's mother was in, which is run by a man named Levar, where Majestic makes cocaine in crack form, and lays down a few rules;

• "Rule Number One: Never leave the product in your house."
• "Rule Number Two: Get your own crew."
• "Rule Number Three: Have discipline in your crew, trust."
• "Rule Number Four: Don't praise a nigga too much or he will think you're soft."

And the most important being "Rule number Five: Don't show no love. Love will get you killed." It's also shown by now that these drug dealers, all of them African American are in a turf war with the Colombians. Many are slain on both sides, leading Levar to shake hands with the Colombian head after all the escalation led to a Korean liquor store owner shooting two innocent young African-American teens.

Shortly after, Marcus forms a 'crew' with a childhood friend named Antwan, a man named Justice he helped in a drug turf fight with the Colombians, and another man named Keryl. At this time too, he rekindles his romance with his childhood friend Charlene, her having been sent somewhere else when her parents find a mix-tape from Marcus, where he dubs himself as Young Caesar (His rapping alias for the time, and in the future) which strongly suggests they have some kind of sexual relationship, despite Marcus commenting he didn't know what the things he said meant when Charlene and Marcus had been together.

One night while at a club, Marcus is shot at by the Colombians and Antwan is hit, leaving him a paraplegic. In further retaliation, Marcus shoots the Colombian who crippled Antwan, and is about to execute him, but ends up shooting him in the leg after the man cries out for his father, which incidentally reminded Marcus of his own search for his father (Which may be misunderstood as 'mommy' when he says 'Pappy' in an accent), forcing him to feel slight sympathy for the Colombian. The plot eventually leads to Marcus being arrested for the shooting, with cocaine being found in his apartment. This is odd because one of Majestic's rules was not to leave the product at home. Marcus is sent to a penitentiary, where he meets his future manager and friend, Bama, who saves him from a knifing in the shower which was organized by the Colombian Marcus almost killed earlier in the movie. Charlene visits him during this time and reveals she is pregnant with Marcus's child.

During this time, Levar is sent to prison for the hit Marcus made, leaving a political associate in charge. Majestic has the new leader killed after having his right hand man shoot a police officer, and framing the man for this. Majestic then elevates himself to gang leader.

After leaving jail with Bama, Marcus informs Majestic he wanted out of the game, to pursue his rap career because he is going to be a father and needs to be responsible. Bama and Justice don't get along due to Bama's relationship to Marcus. At a recording studio, Marcus records a song to insult Dangerous, a rapper that Majestic supports. Also, after Marcus's child is born, Majestic visits Charlene in the maternity ward, picking up the recently born Antwan, and tells her it is in everyone's best interest that Marcus' should not continue with his career and apologize. Marcus becomes enraged when he learns about this, and starts giving 24 hour protection to Charlene and Antwan. Back in the studio, Marcus swears to kill Majestic by humiliating him in a song called Click Clack Pow (Officer Down). Justice reports this to Majestic, who orders him and Junebug to end Marcus and get rid of Bama. Since Majestic could not get to him, he made sure Marcus could not get a record deal.

After Marcus is unable to get a record deal, his crew (at this time Marcus, Bama, Justice, and Keryl) ends up robbing a store run by the Colombian head, and the story leads back to the beginning of the movie. Right before he's about to be shot, the shooter takes off his mask, revealing himself to be Justice, who had followed Marcus alone after Bama and Keryl left in a separate car. As Marcus is shot, his grandmother screams out his name, the final bullet meant for his head shattering his jaw instead.

After a long and painful recovery by Marcus, he begins his rapping dream again. He becomes successful, once again, and this time begins indpendent rapping instead of working for a record deal. After a while, he becomes even more famous, and plans to do a live concert at Pelham Hall. Justice arrives at Majestic's hideout only to find out Marcus was still alive even after shooting him nine times. Majestic in rage stabs him vigorously with his sword in an executionary style.

Before the concert Marcus goes to Levar, who was imprisoned, to ask about his mother's death. Levar confessed that he and Katrina were in a relationship and Majestic had grown very jealous of him since then.

During this time, we see Marcus being a loving father to his son. Before his concert, he drops off little Antwan and Charlene at his mother's house, leaving big Antwan with a Uzi. His aunt, remembering his near fatal shooting, warns Marcus that if he goes out there tonight, he endangers not only himself, but his child and Charlene. Marcus tells her he has to go out there for that very reason.

On the night of the concert, people are outside in the streets protesting the crack cocaine pandemic at this time. Marcus and Majestic also meet face to face at this time. Majestic offers Marcus to be respectful to Majestic, and after Marcus declines, Majestic tells Marcus before his mother died he raped her then killed her, and the two begin to fight.

At the end, Marcus leaves to start the show, after nearly throttling Majestic, leaving him on the ground. Majestic rises from the floor and pulls out a sword, and is shot in the arm by Bama, falling to the ground and begging Marcus to be the one to kill him. But, as Marcus walks away and down the hall, Bama shoots Majestic three more times, in the head, killing him.

Marcus approaches a mirror, and has a revelation on his life, saying "All my life, I had been looking for my father. I realized, I had been looking for myself." And then continuing to say "It felt like I was walking away from the old me, and the new me was being born.", representing his change from cold-blooded murderer, robber and gangster, to a responsible father, adult, and now rapper, his rivalry and former drug situations resolved with the death of Majestic, and revolt by the population of the area to crack cocaine, among other drugs. He ends up going out to perform the concert, performing the song Hustler's Ambition, which summarizes most of his life, talking about his time in jail, the fighting between drug runners in the city, his drug pushing, and other things from the movie, the story ending with him finishing off the song Hustler's Ambition. At the start of the concert he takes off his bulletproof vest as a symbol to show he's bulletproof.

Reception

The plot received many criticisms, being described as 'flawed' and 'ambiguous'. However, notable film critic Roger Ebert defended the film, giving it 3 out of 4 stars, and quoting it, "a film with a rich and convincing texture, a drama with power and anger.

Cast

• 50 Cent as Marcus
• Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Majestic
• Joy Bryant as Charlene
• Lloyd Banks as RiRo
• Tory Kittles as Justice
• Terrence Howard as Bama
• Ashley Walters as Antwan
• Marc John Jefferies as Young Marcus
• Viola Davis as Grandma
• Sullivan Walker as Grandpa
• Serena Reeder as Katrina
• Bill Duke as Levar
• Mpho Koaho as Junebug
• Russell Hornsby as Odell
• Joseph Pierre as Uncle Deuce
• Leon as Slim
• Michael Miller as Dangerous

Soundtrack

Main article: Get Rich or Die Tryin' (soundtrack)

Controversies

On October 27, 2005, movie posters for the film featuring 50 Cent with a handgun in one hand and a mic in the other were removed from billboards in Los Angeles school areas after complaints that they promote gun violence and gang activity. 50 Cent later responded that the controversy only further increased the publicity for his film. The two objects in the controversial poster were intended as symbols to represent the transition of the main character from drug dealer to rapper.

Controversy was further created when a 30-year-old man, Sheldon Flowers, was shot three times and killed in a cinema near Pittsburgh on November 9, 2005, after watching the film. The cinema stopped showing the film as a result. Also, a cinema chain in Toledo, Ohio, stopped after-midnight screenings of the film because of fears the violence depicted may prompt further civil unrest as seen during the 2005 Toledo Riot.

Samuel L. Jackson publicly turned down an offer to co-star in the film, citing that he did not want to lend credence to what he believed was an inexperienced and unproven actor. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote of Jackson's decision: "Like Bill Cosby, Jackson is arguing against the anti-intellectual message that success for young black males is better sought in the worlds of rap and sports than in the classroom". Jackson reportedly still thinks that rappers should not be in films, but has spoken with 50 Cent several times about it and has made amends with him. The two later co-starred in the 2006 film Home of the Brave.

External links

• Official website
• Get Rich or Die Tryin' at IMDb
• Get Rich or Die Tryin' at AllMovie