FRUITVALE STATION
US, 87 minutes, 2013, 87 minutes, Colour.
Michael B.Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Octavia Spencer, Kevin Durand, Chad Michael Murray.
Directed Ryan Googler.
This film is based on actual events. They took place in the early hours of New Year’s Day, 2009, the location, Fruitvale Station, on San Francisco/Oakland’s Bay Area Rail Transit, BART. The men involved were African-American?, the victims. The perpetrators, the Fruitvale Station BART Police. The events were captured by eye-witnesses on their phones, and the footage later used in evidence in the case against the police.
However, the film opens in darkness, just with voices talking about their hopes for the future. A sad irony as they were not to be fulfilled.
The main protagonist in these events was Oscar Julius Grant III, a young man of 22. The film opens on New Year’s Eve, 2008, a time when Oscar had decided that he needed to get his life in order. We see him at home, reconciling with his partner, Sophina, sorry for his infidelities. We see him with his four year old daughter, Tatiana, at breakfast, dropping her at school, picking up later in the day. Sophina goes to her work.
There are a number of episodes we see as the day goes by. Oscar phones his mother whose birthday it is and promises to get some food for a dinner. His sister phones him about the birthday, but also wanting to get money from him to pay her rent – but the calendar shows that Oscar’s rent is also due. He goes to the market where he used to work, talking to his brother, encountering a young white woman who is puzzled about the fish she should buy to fry. There is an irony when she is also on the train at Fruitvale and photographs the events. Oscar phones his grandmother and puts her on the line to the woman to give hints for the recipe. But Oscar also wants to get his job back, lost because of his arriving late at work, but the manager cannot give him his job because it would mean sacking someone more reliable.
Oscar phones a drug dealer and arranges to meet him by the Bay. This gives him time to reflect, to remember a year earlier, also his mother’s birthday, when she visited him in prison. While they talk, a fellow-prisoner taunts him and Oscar becomes very aggressive, his mother leaving. Clearly, he wants this year to be better than last. He breaks off contact with the dealer and gets rid of the marijuana he is carrying.
Despite the financial difficulties, things should have improved, especially with the dinner, and as he and Sophina and some of the family and friends go in to San Francisco for the celebrations. It is on the way home in the train that a scuffle breaks out when somebody recognises Oscar and begins a fight. When the train arrives at Fruitvale Station, the police are ready, summoning four young men, not involved with the fighting, to come off the train where they verbal them and treat them roughly. They also demand that Oscar come out of the train and they treat him in the same way, ready with guns and lasers, there is a shot and Oscar is wounded.
Michael B. Jordan is persuasive in his portrayal of Oscar. A man of limited background, with prison records, we still see an inherent goodness in him. Melonie Diaz is Sophina, his Hispanic partner. There is great strength in the performance of Academy Award-winner (The Help) Octavia Spencer as Oscar’s quite indomitable mother, powerful, especially in the hospital sequences where she gathers the family and urges them to prayer, as well as her last look at her son.
The credit sequences give information about what happened to the police – and there is a visual epilogue as people gather in memory at Fruitvale Station in January 2013.
A sad film, reminding audiences of racism in the United States and incidents like that of the confrontation with Rodney King in Los Angeles in the early 1990s. Fruitvale Station won the audience award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. It clearly touches the American conscience and an American nerve.
1. Based on a true story? The impact in the United States, beyond, the consequences?
2. The witnesses to the event, photographing the scene with their phones? Later used for evidence?
3. The acclaim for the film in the United States, touching the American conscience, and nerve?
4. The opening, Oscar and Sofina and speaking about their dreams? The irony because of the reality?
5. The visual device for the phone calls and the SSMs?
6. Oscar, aged 22, the film’s portrait of him as a young man, New Year’s Eve 2008, his re-assessing his life? Re-affirming his love for his wife? His infidelities? His love for his daughter, the domestic scenes in the kitchen, breakfast, taking her to school, his memories of prison, his aggression, his mother coming to visit him a year earlier, her birthday, their talking, the challenge, his being angry, her walking out? The issue of drugs, hiding the pot, then taking it with him? Going to the market, talking with his brother, the encounter with Laura and her problem about frying fish, his suggestions, calling his grandmother, putting her on the line, Laura grateful? The irony of her being on the train, seeing him and photographing the events? His asking for his job back, his being late, the boss refusing, not wanting to sack someone more reliable? His being upset? Phoning his mother, her birthday, getting the food for the party, ringing his sister, her wanting cash help? His seeing the calendar at home and the rent becoming due? Phoning the dealer during his haircut, the discussions, throwing away the pot? Sitting at the Bay, his hopes? Going for the celebration in the city, picking up Tatiana at school, her being left with friends? Going out, the group, to San Francisco, the enjoyment, with Sinfonia? His mother urging him to take the train? The aggression on the train, his being recognised, the fights, the disturbance? Coming into Fruitvale Station? The stop, Sinfonia getting off and leaving, the police taking the men from the carriage, the racism and brutality, demanding Oscar come off the train, Oscar’s replies, being treated brutally, the plea about his daughter, arguing with the police? The importance of knowing how to act in such a situation? The police, verbal attitudes, the lasers, guns, the officer shooting Oscar?
7. Oscar being shot, the blood, the ambulance, his final words, the treatment in hospital, the care of the doctors and nurses, his death? Sinfonia at the station, ringing, panicking, meeting Oscar’s mother at the hospital, the mother, being calm, gathering the group in prayer? Her grief, seeing her son’s body, wanting to hug him? The death being treated as murder?
8. Oscar and his brothers, his sister, the family bonds? The difficulties past, prison, yet the bond with his mother? Her birthday and the celebration?
9. Laura, the issue at the market, the fish, his being pleasant, the friendly touch, has seen him on the train?
10. The sketch of Grandma Bonnie, folksy, on the phone?
11. The market manager, his predicament about employment, refusing Oscar?
12. The picture of the police, New Year’s Eve and pressures, trouble on the train, responsibilities at the station, calling the men off the train, arbitrary, their violent treatment of them, abusive, physical, calling Oscar, the arguments, the treatment, the shooting?
13. The aftermath of the shooting, public opinion, the information about the charge of manslaughter for the officer thinking his gun was his laser? The scene from 2013 at Fruitvale Station and the crowd gathering?
