A Vietnam vet adjusts to life after the war while trying to support his family, but the chance of a better life may involve crime and bloodshed. This action film, directed by the Hughes brothers, depicts a heist of old bills, retired from circulation and destined by the government to be "money to burn." However, more broadly, it addresses the issues of Black Americans' involvement in the Vietnam War and their subsequent disillusionment with progress in social issues and civil rights back home in the United States, during the 1960's. Dead Presidents is a gritty 1995 urban drama that tries to tell an epic story on a very intimate canvas, but only partially succeeds.<br/><br/>The film stars Larenz Tate as Anthony Curtis, an aimless youth who is working for a local numbers runner (Keith David), who upsets his family when, instead of going to college, decides to enter the military and gets sent to Vietnam. The meat of the film focuses on his return from Vietnam where he learns he has a daughter he knew nothing about, has no way to support her, and learns that his daughter and his Baby Mama (Rose Jackson) have been taken care of by a slimy pimp (Clifton Powell). When the nothing job he gets with a butcher turns out to be insufficient to support his daughter and the child that's on the way, he ends up turning to crime.<br/><br/>The Hughes Brothers, who were much more successful with Menace II Society, give us a long, rambling film that suffers primarily due to an overblown and preachy screenplay. The section of the film where Anthony is in Vietnam is way too long and ends just in time for us to continue caring what happens.<br/><br/>Tate's baby-faced sincerity goes a long way in making us care about Anthony and both David and Powell make the most of the meaty roles they've been given. Chris Tucker is also effective as Anthony's junkie friend who contracted Agent Orange in Vietnam and N'Bushe Wright as Jackson's sister, who is instrumental in Anthony's descent into a life of crime.<br/><br/>The movie is way too long, but Tate's solid on screen charisma does help to sustain interest for the most part. *** out of ****<br/><br/>The directors of MENACE 2 SOCIETY teamed up again for this 1995 hit, DEAD PRESIDENTS. It is the story of a young man who gets involved in too many complicated things and it all goes way over his head. It is a brutal, effective, and very intense film that I can recommend if you think you can handle it.<br/><br/>The story is basically this. During the 1960s a young adult named Anthony can't take anymore school, so he drops out and works petty crimes at the billiard hall with the owner who has no legs. When he finally gets tired of that lifestyle, he decides to enlist in the army. Since the Vietnam war going on, he goes in and becomes mentally unstable due to the atrocities. When he gets back home, his girlfriend has had his child and he tries to support her and his daughter. Unfortunately, the food place with the part time job that he had been contending to has gone bankrupt, leaving him with no job, no money, no food, and no choices. His desperate search descends into a downward spiral of war flashbacks and his overall loss on morality.<br/><br/>This has been billed as an action movie for some odd reason. I mean, sure, there are action scenes in it, but not the kind that action movie fans would enjoy. The action scenes in this are quite realistic and unpleasant. The violence is pretty ugly. The scenes that take place between Anthony and his girlfriend, Juanita, are extremely creepy and quite believable. When he yells at her when she nags him, the viewer feels like they really hate each other.<br/><br/>The most interesting aspect about this film is the character played by, believe it or not, Chris Tucker as the childhood friend whose life ends up being worse off then Anthony's. He becomes addicted to heroin, has flashbacks almost all the time, and is about ready to self destruct. Chris Tucker takes a surprisingly serious and very believable turn as this tortured character. It's quite neat to see a man who is known for normally being a funny and annoying actor take such an extreme role. He does a fine job.<br/><br/>The film's war sequences are super gruesome, but it makes sense for them to be considering the main character and his dilemma. The violence he sees in the war is not at all what he is used to and the viewer feels this too. When it occurs, it is usually surprisingly realistic and over the top. Since it feels appropriate for the story, it's unlikely that the film would surprise you with such gritty realism outside of the war, but you'd be wrong. Somehow, the filmmakers are able to have the scenes that take place out of the war to be just as harrowing as the war scenes. I don't know how they did it.<br/><br/>The underlying message of the film is that the Vietnam war veterans deserved way better than what they got when they returned home. The government did them no favors and granted them no opportunities. It's sad, especially since people like Anthony are poor and need government support to just be able to live. It doesn't matter if they dropped out of school or if they didn't join the army for the right reasons. They are still human beings, and no human being should live their lives regretting something they were involved in that left such a dark mark on the history of America.<br/><br/>Rated R for strong graphic violence, language, a sex scene and some drug use.
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