NYC in the Raw, Issue 2: CLOCKERS (1995)
As I was compiling films that I was going to cover this year for my Pure Uncut NYC series, I noticed a trend emerging and I wasn’t too happy. After I finished my initial list, I realized that all the directors of these films were white men. How can I possibly portray a sweeping look of how movies shot in NYC directly reflect the city as a whole? NYC is a melting pot of people who come from all walks of life, and focusing on films spearheaded and guided by only middle-aged white men is not going to tell the whole tale. My first inclusion to rectify this issue was to talk about a director who is literally synonymous with the gritty streets. I feel foolish for not including even one of his many NYC-set and shot films in my initial list. I can’t believe I didn’t include him initially. How could I not include the interminable Spike Lee? From his early breakout success hit Do the Right Thing through today, Lee movies have always been reflections of the black culture within the larger picture of New York (and, in some films, all over the world). The constant struggle to exist in a system that always seems to have it out for you, the nature of growing up on the tough and hard streets of NYC, and a great eye for the day-to-day living of the black community and how hard it can be to just to make it through a typical day. While Do the Right Thing is one of Lee’s most perfect films and a great NYC-shot slice of life, I wanted to look at one of his 90s outputs, a movie that I missed upon its initial release but have always wanted check out. That film is the 1995 film Clockers.
From the word go, Lee establishes he is not here tip toe around the serious issues that plague the black community. The opening credits are interspliced with real images of various victims of gun violence, and these glimpses into real world violence is not sugar coated in any way. While it may seem like it’s just there to be shock value, it has a deeper meaning to Lee’s overall themes and is the main crux of the central characters plight in Clockers. Our story centers around drug dealer Strike, played with ferocious intensity from then newcomer Mekhi Phifer, as he deals with the daily life of working under the iron hand of local kingpin Rodney (Delroy Lindo in a sneakily scary performance). Spike Lee films always live and die on how he represents the streets, focusing on a more documentary style approach to his filmmaking while layering in some creative camera work or intense presentations to convey feelings and plot developments outside of the normal filmmaking devices. A great example of a Lee flourish is the sequence where Keitel’s Det. Klein fabricates the story of how young, impressionable Tyrone (Peewee Love) ends up killing Rodney’s boss, Errol Barnes (Thomas Byrd in a truly sinister performance) after a tense interaction that Tyrone had earlier with Errol. The sweeping camera movements, the Keitel narration/3rd wall breaking, and the consistent cutting is truly engaging and intense. Even Martin Scorcese, someone who has made some of the grittiest NYC films (and was also a producer on this film – he was originally expected to direct but ended up passing on the project), has occasionally been unable to reach the feeling I get from watching Lee’s tough and aggressive filmmaking style. His streets just feel real and lived-in. Nothing fake, exaggerated or Hollywood about any of it.
Lee has shown he has a very volatile relationship with the NYPD throughout his filmography, none more displayed than the sequence where multiple detectives and street cops mock and crack jokes at the expense of the triggering event of the movie, the murder of the local manager Darryl Adams (Steve White) at his place of work, a local fast food fish joint called Ahab’s. They show no respect for the human life that has been distinguished in front of them, considering it just another black man dying from violence that permeates their community. It all feels very ad-libbed by all the actors present, but at the same time, feels like it perfectly encapsulates what Lee is trying to say about the state of the police and violence in high crime neighborhoods.
We are led to believe that Strike is the one who ultimately murdered Adams, a hit job laid on him by Rodney as bait to move on from being a “clocker” in front of his apartment complex and come into the big time. After conversing with his brother Victor (Isaiah Washington is a subtle and powerful performance) in the local watering hole across the street, we cut to the discussed aftermath of the cops examining Adams’ body on the floor as they joking around. Instead of Strike getting arrested for the murder, his brother Victor takes the blame for the murder and confesses to the two detectives working on the case (Harvey Keitel and John Turturro, always reliable and solid). We, the audience, don’t know what happened, and that unknown nature carries throughout the movie as we follow Strike, the cops and everyone who is affected, directly or indirectly, by open public murder of Darryl Adams.
Clockers is a raw look at how the streets treat the marginalized black community, and no one is better at portraying that than Spike Lee. Whether it be children, single mom’s, teenage boys, families, men who are trying to go straight, etc., it’s a look at how hard it really is to get away from the life that seems all to easy to fall into. Strike feels obligated to Rodney for what he has achieved in his life so far, as someone who will allow him to get beyond the small-time drug dealing in front of his apartment complex, the Nelson Mandela Houses (which was shot at the Gowanus Houses in the Boerum Hill’s section of Brooklyn). I appreciate how Lee gives his character’s an added extra layer of complexity, not satisfied in just giving them a single trait. I found it immensely interesting that Strike was an avid collector Lionel Trains, a very expensive hobby of large-scale metal trains, complete with elaborate setups and working tracks. When we finally see the massive train and track setup Strike has in his apartment, it’s a marvel to see. A hobby that is typically associated with older white men in suburbia who have too much time on their hands ALSO being shared by this regular black man from Brooklyn was a unique trait and, to me, a great simple way of saying “different people from different ways of life can be interested in the same thing”. Lee also has a marvelous ear for interesting musical choices during his movies, either original material or previously recorded, and that carries forward in Clockers. Lee constantly uses interesting and offbeat song choices over intense dialogue sequences (one between Keitel and Phifer at night in front of the Mandela houses springs to mind) and the few intense action sequences (specifically the scene where Tyrone shoots Errol – not the recreation but the actual incident itself).
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out a few interesting tidbits I picked up on during the movie. Strike consistently drinks this light brown drink throughout the movie called Chocolate Moo, and for the entire run time, Strike is also dealing with ulcers that have him spitting up blood at various points in the movie. While he only prefers to drink this as his stomach is too upset to deal with anything else – despite consistent objections from everyone he interacts with that the Chocolate Moo is the real reason his stomach is messed up -, one wonders what Lee’s true take is here. Clearly this drink is a stand-in for the very real Yoohoo!, which was a staple of my childhood and I instantly connect it to a “hanging out on the stoop” lifestyle. Based on Strike’s health, Spike Lee must have a rather strong hatred for the chocolate drink Yoohoo, but I could be reading this incorrectly as his health decline could just be from the stress of his day-to-day life. To each his own perhaps. I appreciated the strong presence of a childhood staple from the 90’s for me, the video game maker Sega. Whether it be the VR game that Strike gifts to Tyrone or the classic Virtua Fighter arcade machine setup in Rodney’s storefront, I was a big Sega kid growing up and got pulled back into my early teens when popped up on the screen. I also did the Leo DiCaprio finger pointing meme when we got a clean shot of the southwest entrance to Penn Station near the end of the film.
I won’t spoil how the movie ultimately wraps up, but suffice to say, just like the pain of living on the streets of NYC, it doesn’t end in a particularly uplifting way. Lives are ruined, people are dead and the miserable world marches on. Shooting victims continue to turn up, investigations begin, livelihoods are changed forever. The struggle for the black community has not been changed by any of the incidents and actions that occurred. Life continues to be a struggle, and even if you attempt to better yourself and try to make something of your life beyond what is expected, all that work can eventually break someone down in a way not expected. Clockers is a brilliant piece of filmmaking by Spike Lee and will push me to continue diving into his rich history of influence across four decades of celluloid. Spike Lee is NYC, and that can’t be questioned.
