Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
Set in the projects of Brooklyn, we focus on the life of a street drug dealer, or “clocker”, Mekhi Phifer’s Ronald “Strike” Dunham, working for Delroy Lindo’s Rodney Little, the local kingpin. The main drama in the film kicks off when Little tasks Strike with the removal of another of Little’s goons, who Little believes to be stealing from him.
The homicide of said goon falls to Harvey Keitel’s Detective Rocco Klein and John Turturro’s Detective Larry Mazilli, although it would seem to be an easy one to clear up, what with Strike’s brother Victor confessing to having shot him in self defence. Rocco doesn’t buy it, though, suspecting he’s trying to take the fall for his brother, and sets about trying to prove it.
This has all proven too much for Strike, who’s now looking to exit the drug dealing game, and perhaps stop some of the kids mistakenly looking up to him as a role model, like Pee Wee Love’s Tyrone, following his life choices, although unsurprisingly Little is having none of that, especially when he starts to suspect that Strike may be coming to an arrangement with the cops to bust him.
The event that really causes all this to come to a head is perhaps best left for the viewer to discover, even if it does seem barely related to the actions and decisions of the main characters, and there’s also a little rope-a-dope concerning the narrative that Detective Rocco’s some up with in the later stages that’s a semi-effective twist, only undermined by the somewhat questionable character motivation required for it.
This is another Lee film where the setting, the characters and the politics of it are much more compelling than the narrative that they are living through, which is more of a problem in Clockers than the other films discussed today purely because it’s for once more focused on that narrative. And, it’s just not all that great. Not bad, to be sure, but not great.
Again, by no means an unenjoyable film, and one that has more than enough acting chops on display across a very talented cast to get by on, but it’s not essential viewing.