Black police officer Russell Stevens applies for a special anti-drug squad which targets the highest boss of cocaine delivery to LA—the Colombian foreign minister's nephew. Russell works his way up from the bottom undercover, until he reaches the boss.
Laurence Fishburne Jeff Goldblum Victoria Dillard Gregory Sierra Clarence Williams III René Assa Alex Colon Roger Guenveur Smith Sydney Lassick Kamala Lopez Julio Oscar Mechoso Glynn Turman James T. Morris Sandra Gould Charles Martin Smith Lira Angel Bruce Paul Barbour Bilal Bashir Anna Berger Donald Bishop Ed Cambridge Jaime Cardriche Alisa Christensen Cory Curtis James Encinas Joseph Ferro Def Jef Harry Frazier Neil Goldberg Show All…
Harry Cohen Lewis Goldstein Tony Smyles Vince Nicastro Gregg Barbanell Ann Scibelli Ken Teaney Cathie Speakman Ken S. Polk Richard Corwin Tim Gedemer Peter J. Lehman Terry O'Bright Brad Blake Brian Geer
Mélytengeri szörnyeteg, Skoteinos antipalos
ostensibly on its surface a stylish blaxploitation gangster movie about an undercover cop infiltrating the drug game in LA that instead of simply applying the usual men-on-opposite-sides-of-the-law moral contradictions morphs into a mean, existential neo-noir about the war on drugs itself as a self-perpetuating machine of blood and money and corrupt politics where black and brown misery is just another tool in maintaining wealth and power, and maybe overthrowing a latin american government or two. this deserves to be held in the same esteem as the other 90s gangster masterpieces like King of New York (god bojan) and Carlito's Way; goldblum and fishburne give two of their finest performances and bill duke directs the hell out of it. all kinds…
"No, Mr. Guzman. I think you know that there's no such thing as an American anymore. No Hispanics, no Japanese, no blacks, no whites, no nothing. It's just rich people and poor people. The three of us are all rich, so we're on the same side."
The God Bill Duke turns in one of the best War on Drugs movies ever made. Think how many times over the course of this crusade that an idealistic, even noble, person joins the cause to stop the ravages of drugs and violence on American society, particularly in poor and black communities, and ends up working for the government to actively facilitate their import and distribution.
"The same people that taught us virtue are the very ones who've enslaved us, baby."
A terrific thriller firmly in blaxploitation territory. It'd be enough if this was just about a conflicted undercover cop as an analog for a community complicit in its destruction at the hands of a corrupt and racist establishment. But it's so much smarter than that. As the plot snowballs it picks up ideas about minorities excluded from economic opportunity and narcotraffic being a test pattern for today's globalized capital. Even the drug dealers complain that the CIA is trying to cut them out of the market. Power just moves up the chain, even suffocating governments, and eventually we all do it to ourselves.
“You are a drug dealer. Deal drugs”
In which undercover cop turned drug dealer Laurence Fishburne gets crucified for all the war on drugs sins. One of the finest mainstream political films of the 90s. A bloody text on the horrors of government policy towards the black and latin community and the drug trade from the 80s and the ones to come in the 90s. It is a shame Bill Duke’s directing career petered out after this (his debut A Rage in Harlem is pretty good as well), he does get a terrific script by Michael Tolkin and Henry Bean and a game cast doing career best or near best work (Fishburne, Jeff Goldblum, Gregory Sierra, Clarence Williams III, Charles…
Bold undercover cop neo noir crime jam from Bill Duke hits all my existential beats and visual hard ons… excellent edits, cuts, smokey neon, dire thought mechanics with our lead, and stylistic flair for days.
I went in only knowing that Deep Cover involved Bill Duke, Larry Fishburne, and its new criterion cover looks awesome… welp, I loved it. The way this thing unfolds with its perfect pacing and how it never gets overly convoluted like many a 90’s thriller were a chefs kiss for me—this is meat and potato’s drug infiltration served on a bed of blaxsploitation caviar. All the things you’d expect to see in this sort of movie are pulled off differently than you’d think with tons of internal emotions at…
"There's no such thing as an American anymore. No Hispanics, no Japanese, no blacks, no whites. There's no nothing. There's only rich people and poor people."
So says Jeff Goldblum's superbly slimy lawyer/wannabe kingpin David Jason in Bill Duke's brute-poetic noir, a film about the War on Drugs that cuts to the chase and devotes its attentions to illustrating the nature of that war. We see the government colluding with the very suppliers they seek to topple, playing a game designed not to stop drugs but to further immiserate black and Latino communities with a two-pronged war of drugs and heightened police crackdowns. It does so with Fuller-esque verve and spit, balancing the pointed dialogue with more ruminative narration. Contains…
the most american gangster flick there will ever be. a nakedly political, brutal, horrifying look at the truest scum of humanity, the state department of the united states. murder, drugs, black people dying on the streets from crack or bullets, kingpins lording their wealth and influence over the poor, none of this matters, the only thing that matters is the quarterly report and how it can affect american political interests. there is no good, only evil and a man trying to be moral and just will only get him killed. there's a new contender for best performance of all time with laurence fishburne's turn here, a performance ingrained with trauma, visceral rage, quiet self loathing and the obvious veneer of…
“See you soon David!”
“Yeah, we’ll have shrimp!”
A satisfying thriller that’s also an amazing character study of a cop who gets seduced by his undercover assignment that’s also a trenchant indictment of the war on drugs. Plus Jeff Goldblum screaming “We’ll have shrimp!” as he tosses a guy out of a speeding car. Aces.
"This is the greatest night of my life. Terrible, terrible, but...great."
Bill Duke's Deep Cover is a stylish LA gangster flick that combines film noir and blaxploitation tropes into an explosive portrait of black identity and corrupt system. Laurence Fishburne and Jeff Goldblum are both magnificent in it. Bojan Bazelli shot the hell out of this. Criminally under-discussed movie.
Has to be one of the most potent and daring political films ever released by an American studio (a subsidiary of Warner Bros, no less). Takes the overused "thin line between cops and criminals" concept, which is often built on vague moral questions either conveniently left unanswered or much too easily solved by the film's end, and gives it a real world weight by clearly outlining the ways in which those in power on both sides of the law benefitted from and were complicit in the devastation that the crack epidemic and the war on drugs caused to black communities. Interesting how so many critics at the time focused on its genre status as a noir; it strikes me that…
Bill Duke’s rhythmic editing and use of montage reminded me of SISTER ACT 2: BACK IN THE HABIT and that’s because he directed both movies. “Then we’ll have barbecued jumbo shrimp, you motherfuckeeeeer!” belongs in the pantheon with “go home and get your fuckin’ shinebox.”
There are films on this platform that I simply stumble upon, and then there are films like this that seem to hound me wherever I go. In the end, I finally caved after resisting for a while.
Once again, this has turned out to be another occasion when all expectations have been met. Even though I've always enjoyed seeing Laurence Fishburne on screen, and he has appeared in many well-known and iconic films, I still feel like he is an underrated actor who is on par with other actors both in and outside his community. He captures the coolness and nuance of the character very well in this film, but there is also something about his presence that demands my…
