Colors (film)

''Colors'' is a 1988 American police procedural action crime film starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall, and directed by Dennis Hopper. The film takes place in the gang-ridden neighborhoods of Los Angeles: late-1980s South Central Los Angeles, Echo Park, Westlake and East Los Angeles. The film centers on Bob Hodges (Duvall), an experienced Los Angeles Police Department C.R.A.S.H. officer, and his rookie partner, Danny McGavin (Penn), who try to stop the gang violence between the Bloods, the Crips, and Hispanic street gangs. ''Colors'' relaunched Hopper as a director 19 years after '' Easy Rider'', and inspired discussion over its depiction of gang life and gang violence.

Plot

Two policemen, "Uncle" Bob Hodges, a respected LAPD officer and Vietnam veteran, and rookie officer Danny McGavin, have just been teamed together in the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) unit that patrols Northwest Los Angeles, East Los Angeles and South Los Angeles.

Hodges is appreciated on the local streets. He is diplomatic on the surface, preaching "rapport" to gang members to encourage them to offer help when it is truly needed, recognizing that every action cops take is scrutinized by the people they are trying to help. Hodges explains his view on policing to his young partner with a joke about bulls and cows. The 21st Street Gang throw a rock at Hodges's car and run until young member Felipe gets caught by Hodges. Elsewhere, the Bloods have a funeral for Robert Craig, until the Crips open fire on the church. Hodges and McGavin chase after the Crips until their car flips over and explodes, killing the gang members.

At the 21st Street Gang hangout, Ron Delaney tells the gang members to walk away from the gang life, but they ignore his advice and decide to stay in the gang.

McGavin has a short-lived romance with a waitress named Louisa. Although the pair bond quickly, life lessons are seemingly lost on the aggressive, cavalier McGavin, whose stunts soon bring him notoriety among the gang members and the regular citizens, such as attacking a graffiti artist by spraying his eyes with the paint can. A drug dealer named T gives drugs to young kids before McGavin and Hodges arrive to question him. McGavin punches him in the face in view of angry bystanders before putting him inside their car. At the police station, Hodges physically reprimands McGavin about his wrongful actions against people. Like the offended Hodges, Louisa is angry about McGavin's aggression. She reveals that the graffiti artist that McGavin assaulted was her cousin. Amidst the strain of these relationships, the murder of a Bloods gang member escalates tension between two other gangs. A series of seemingly random incidents culminates with the two partners finding themselves in the middle of the Crips, Bloods and Hispanic barrio war. McGavin wrecks their first unmarked car during a pursuit. Its replacement is vivid yellow, resulting in McGavin being nicknamed " Pac-Man" by officers and gang members alike.

CRASH raids the house of a gang member named Oso and arrest him. He tells the sheriff about the drug dealers, including Hi Top. Hodges and McGavin see Hi Top and he steals a motorcycle from a random civilian. Hodges and McGavin chase after Hi Top and he crashes through a restaurant window. After a physical fight with McGavin and Hodges, he is subdued and arrested. Later, McGavin apologizes to Hodges about his wrongful actions. In response, Hodges tells McGavin that he will be working with a new partner at the start of the next month. In jail, Hi Top gets severely beaten by other inmates. The sheriff questions him about the murder of Robert Craig. After some coercion, Hi Top claims that Rocket (leader of the Crips gang) is responsible for the murder.

Hodges, McGavin, and the LAPD spot a dark blue van that was used in the murder of Robert Craig. They arrest and question two black males about the van and Rocket's girlfriend.

The police search for Rocket in connection with the murder of Robert Craig. They raid the house of Rocket's girlfriend and Officer Baines kills a Crips gang member named Killa Bee, who they had mistaken for Rocket. Killa Bee was reaching for his pants to get dressed, but Officer Baines believed he was reaching for a weapon. The gang members mistakenly believe McGavin killed Killa Bee and put a hit out on him. LAPD questions Officer Baines about the killing of the Killa Bee.

The 21st Street Gang, led by a criminal named Frog, attempts to negotiate a peace and steer clear of the violence. To protect McGavin, Hodges unwittingly exposes Frog as his source of information about the Crips plan to kill McGavin. The Crips learn of this and decide to attack the 21st Street Gang in retaliation for giving information to police. As the 21st Street Gang and Louisa are having a party at their house, the Crips do a drive by shooting on the house. Hodges, McGavin, and LAPD arrive at the scene after the shooting. McGavin encounters Louisa dressing after having sex with a 21st Street gang member and she angrily confronts him, but McGavin leaves. The 21st Street Gang retaliates against the Crips, assaulting their hideout with shotguns, automatic rifles, machine pistols, and grenades. All of the Crips members are killed, along with one 21st Street Gang member. Each group attempts to right the wrongs against their respective crews as police strive to prevent the violence and regain their authority.

In the end, CRASH moves in on 21st Street Gang. While arresting Frog, Hodges is fatally shot by a 21st Street Gang member nicknamed "Bird". CRASH shoots and kills Bird in retaliation. With medics en route, McGavin comforts the dying Hodges and breaks down with regret as Hodges falls into delirium and finally dies.

Sometime later, a more reserved McGavin has a rookie partner, a black cop who grew up in the neighborhood where they patrol and sports an attitude like the "Pac-Man". McGavin tells him the same joke about the bulls that Hodges taught him, and the younger officer reciprocates in the same way as the young McGavin. The film ends with McGavin considering the cycle of violence as the pair drive on and continue their patrol.

Cast

* Sean Penn as Police Officer Danny "Pac-Man" McGavin, Los Angeles Police Department
* Robert Duvall as Police Officer Bob Hodges, Los Angeles Police Department
* María Conchita Alonso as Louisa Gomez
* Randy Brooks as Ron Delaney
* Don Cheadle as "Rocket"
* Glenn Plummer as Clarence "High Top" Brown
* Trinidad Silva as Leo "Frog" Lopez
* Grand L. Bush as Larry "Looney Tunes" Sylvester
* Damon Wayans as "T-Bone"
* Leon Robinson as "Killer Bee"
* Romeo De Lan as Felipe Lopez
* Gerardo Mejía as "Bird"
* Tony Todd as Vietnam Vet
* Charles Walker as Reed
* Courtney Gains as "Whitey"
* T. Rodgers as "Dr. Feelgood"
* Mario Lopez as a 21st Street Gang Member
* Karla Montana as Locita
* Brian Davis as Robert "R.C." Craig
* Sy Richardson as O.S.S. Sergeant Bailey Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
* Sherman Augustus as Police Officer Porter, Los Angeles Police Department
* Rudy Ramos as Lieutenant Melindez, Los Angeles Police Department
* Lawrence Cook as Police Officer Young, Los Angeles Police Department
* R. D. Call as Police Officer Rusty Baines, Los Angeles Police Department
* Clark Johnson as C.R.A.S.H. Police Officer Lee, Los Angeles Police Department
* Jack Nance as Police Officer Samuels, Los Angeles Police Department
* David Raynr as J.C.

Production

The movie was filmed entirely in Los Angeles in 1987. The original script by Richard Di Lello took place in Chicago and was more about drug dealing than gang members. Dennis Hopper ordered changes, so Michael Schiffer was hired and the setting was changed to Los Angeles and the focus of the story became more about the world of gang members.

The joke that Hodges tells McGavin regarding the two bulls was lifted from the Pat Conroy novel '' The Great Santini'' (which was made into a movie that also starred Duvall) and explains how the character Lt. Col. "Bull" Meechum got his nickname.

Real gang members were hired as "on-location security" as well as actors/extras by producer Robert H. Solo. Two of them were shot during filming. Well-known gang leader and community activist T. Rodgers was cast as Dr. Feelgood.

On April 2, 1987, Sean Penn was arrested for punching an extra on the set of this film who was taking photos of him without permission. Penn was sentenced to 33 days in jail for this assault.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack containing mainly hip hop music was released on April 15, 1988, by Warner Bros. Records. It peaked at 31 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and was certified gold on July 12, 1988.

The theme song, "Colors", was written and performed by American rapper Ice-T, and issued as the title track for the soundtrack to the film.

Release

Box office

''Colors'' earned over $46 million in its domestic release.

Critical reception

''Colors'' received both praise and criticism. The film has a 77% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 39 reviews, with the consensus; "''Colors'' takes a hard-hitting yet nuanced look at urban gang violence, further elevated by strong performances from a pair of well-matched leads."

Janet Maslin of ''The New York Times'' stated that it "has a superb eye for the poisonous flowering of gang culture amid ghetto life, and an ear to match; along with brilliant cinematography by Haskell Wexler, it's also got a fierce, rollicking sense of motion."

Roger Ebert hailed it as "a special movie – not just a police thriller, but a movie that has researched gangs and given some thought to what it wants to say about them."

''The Washington Posts critics, Desson Howe and Hal Hinson were split, with Howe stating that Hopper "covers the mayhem with unadorned, documentary immediacy that transcends otherwise formulaic cop-fare" and Hinson stating that it "must be the least incendiary film about gang life ever made."

One of the more negative reviews of the film appeared on the BBC's Ceefax service, on which critic Louise Hart remarked: "The main weakness of the film is that it concentrates far less on the street gangs than on the growing relationship between the two cops."

Novelization

A novelization based on the film, written by Joel Norst, was published in 1988

Legacy

The film has been blamed for inspiring gang violence in the country of Belize, with many members of the Crips and Bloods deported to the country from the United States in the 1990s bringing the film - and their own gang affiliations - with them to the country.Archived a
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Wayback Machine

See also

* List of hood films

References

External links

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{{Dennis Hopper

1980s American films
1980s buddy cop films
1980s buddy drama films
1980s English-language films
1980s hood films
1980s Spanish-language films
1988 action thriller films
1988 crime drama films
1988 drama films
1988 films
1988 independent films
African-American action films
American action thriller films
American buddy cop films
American buddy drama films
American crime drama films
American gang films
American independent films
American neo-noir films
American police detective films
Bloods
Crips
English-language action films
English-language buddy comedy films
English-language buddy drama films
English-language crime drama films
English-language independent films
English-language thriller films
Films about the Los Angeles Police Department
Films about racism in the United States
Films directed by Dennis Hopper
Films scored by Herbie Hancock
Films set in Los Angeles
Films shot in Los Angeles
Hispanic and Latino American action films
Hispanic and Latino American crime films
Orion Pictures films
Spanish-language American films
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