The life of climbing rap star Tupac Shakur was one that
ended in tragedy when he was gunned down on the streets of Las Vegas on
September 13, 1996 at age 25. It’s hard to believe that it’s been that long
since it happened. Since that time there have been a number of documentaries
based on what happened and his life. It’s a surprise that it’s taken this long
for a biography to be made about his life.
ALL EYEZ ON ME takes its title from the double album he made
of the same name. The film opens with Tupac yet to be born as his mother Afeni
(Dania Gurira) is released from jail with her fellow Black Panthers after being
acquitted on various charges. It then moves on to a young Tupac who witnesses
atrocities to blacks in his neighborhood while being raised to protest by his
mother and his stepfather Mutulu. Throughout his young years his life is one of
constant surveillance due to his mother’s activism.
When things begin to go wrong and his mother’s idealism is
replaced with drug dependency, Tupac (Demetrius Shipp Jr.) takes out on his
own, attending the Baltimore School for the Arts. As he begins to develop his
inner voice and ability to rhyme, he eventually finds himself in a position to
work with the group Digital Underground. He eventually sets out on his own, his
songs controversial but as he says these are songs from the streets that he
lives on.
As he becomes successful he takes care of his mother and
younger sister, becomes friend with rap star Biggie Smalls and begins to find
roles in films like JUICE offered to him. But even as a star he still
encounters racism from the police and more problems as well. Befriending a
local hood things run smooth until he finds himself in a hotel room with a
young woman screaming he raped her. While not convicted of rape he is sentenced
to 18 months for “illegal touching”.
No, this is not the entire movie and actually by this point
it might just be halfway through. The movie is told in flashback to this point
as Tupac is telling his story to a documentary crew while in prison. From this
point forward we begin to see things as they take place. The film moves forward
to his involvement with Death Row Records owner Suge Knight as well as the
violence that plagued him from this point forward. It talks about his
successes, his problems with management and his frustration at being cornered
by the business. The end is his death, no spoiler since most know going in what
happened.
The movie isn’t great but it’s not terrible either. It feels
like it’s trying to cram so much movie into 2 hours and 19 minutes but still
touches on things in the life of Tupac in snippet fashion. Scenes jump from one
to another in a linear mode but still feel disjointed. With so many characters
to get used to and know it only makes it more difficult to follow at times. For
those who know the whole story it might be easy, for those of us who don’t not
quite.
Shipp’s performance suffers here but I don’t blame him for
that. There are moments when he presents a caring and thoughtful Tupac but they
are overshadowed by the outburst of temper that most will not remember seeing
when it came to this man. And those sequences are always played the same way,
as if they are just taken from one moment and stuck in again later on. This is
the fault of the editing and directing, not the actor.
The standout performance here is given to Gurira. In part
that’s because this role is so far removed from that of Michonne the character
she plays on THE WALKING DEAD that most of us have grown accustomed to seeing
her in. But even while a good performance like that of Shipp it becomes one
note for the majority of the film, the outraged activists constantly yelling.
Once more it would have been nice to see her allowed to do more or at least
have allowed those scenes to remain in the film.
In the end I finished this film feeling I knew bits and
pieces about the life of Tupac but only surface material. I have no doubt he
was exposed to bad policemen but the depiction here in this film is that all
police are corrupt and looking to inflict damage on any black person they see.
On the opposite side of the scale it makes it looks as if all rappers do is
smoke grass, drink, party and have sex with any female in the room and those in
charge are little more than gangsters employing the same techniques at keeping
their artists down that major record labels do.
Having recently watched the documentary TUPAC ASSASSINATION:
THE BATTLE FOR COMPTON I felt like I got more information from that film than
this one. At the same time that movie could have been nothing more than a
collection of conspiracy theories. And yet it felt more real than this film
when it came to the life of Tupac Shakur.
Fans of Tupac will certainly want to make a point of
watching this film. Those curious about Shakur will likely enjoy it as well.
Know going in that the film does not paint a pretty portrait of the man who was
one of the most acclaimed rappers of all time.
Click here to order.
No comments:
Post a Comment