GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN’

US, 2005, 117 minutes, Colour.
Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson, Adewale Akinnuoye -Agbaje, Joy Bryant, Terrence Howard, Ashley Walters, Viola Davis, Bill Duke.
Directed by Jim Sheridan.

The title comes from the very successful hip hop album by rapper 50 Cents (aka Curtis Jackson). It has sold 12,000,000 copes. 50 Cents has had enormous subsequent success in the record world. For potential audiences who did not know these facts, it might be an indication that this film is not for them. It is for the fans, for those who know something about the world that Curtis Jackson emerged from, who know the black ghettoes, the drug-dealing and the guns, the violence and killings. It is also the world of gangsters who operate in the world of song and records (which came to the surface in the mid-1990s with the killing of singer-actor, Tupac Shakur). This has been documented in the arresting and alarming documentary which had worldwide release, Biggie and Tupac, which highlighted the hip-hop/rap rivalry between gangsters on the East coast and the west and the murder of Tupac and Biggie Smalls.

One might ask what Irish director Jim Sheridan is doing, making a film on this theme and with this style. After all, he directed My Left Foot, The Field, In the Name of the Father and In America. Sheridan claims that he is a fan of hip hop and is intrigued by this world. As a chronicler of groups on the margin, he is ready for this film and brings some flash and fire to it.

This is the world of Boyz ‘n the Hood only more so. This is the South Bronx from the 80s to the present. And it is the world that Curtis Jackson grew up in. He says that many of the incidents in the narrative are similar enough to what he experienced. (Screenwriter Tim Winter was hired to create the screenplay because he was, amongst other shows, a writer for The Sopranos.)

For many outsiders, this is an alien world. On the one hand, it can be a world of despair. Young African Americans absorb the ethos and are trapped. They have their moments of swagger. They can have a time of power and of easy money with drug deals. But, while they can live by gang codes, there are always power struggles and betrayals which lead to prison or death (or both). This is not a nice world – it would be comfortable to ignore it, even deny that it exists but it is a challenge to American society and to the African American neighbourhoods.

The film opens with a robbery, blacks trying to rip off Colombians, and Marcus (50 Cent’s character) being shot to death. His life passes before his and our eyes – back to his mother, the mystery of his father’s identity, his loving grandparents, his love for music, his love for Charlene, his mother’s brutal murder, his decision to be a dealer, the gang rivalry, vengeance killings, his imprisonment and befriending of Bama (Terrence Howard) who becomes his manager.

Interestingly the tagline is “Inside every man is the power to choose”. This means that the stance of the film is that, despite the harsh world, its brutality and exploitation, redemption is possible.

1.The American record industry and rap in the 1980s and 90s? The link with gangster life in the capital cities?

2.The tradition of films about the neighbourhoods, crime, African American families? New York, Los Angeles? This film within that tradition?

3.The Irish director, his perspective on rap, on gangsters? On New York?

4.The title, summing up the theme? Curtis Jackson and his own life and career, the screenplay based on incidents in his life?

5.The criticism of the film, accused of glorifying gangsters, the emphasis on drugs? The presentation of rap and the industry? The rivalries? The critique of the writing and acting?

6.Rap, the musical score? The emerging style of music, the lyrics, the ambitions of the artists? The achievers? The studios? Records? The gangs and their power to create or destroy careers?

7.The opening robbery, the Colombian drug dealers and their money? The taking of the money, the threatening of the staff, the mother with her son as hostage? The guns? Bama and his holding the gun to the boy’s head? Marcus and his difference of opinion? Bama and his speech about having no respect, being a killer? Marcus and his decisions, their leaving? The masked confrontation in the street? His being shot? The suspense for the audience knowing that he was shot and seemingly dead at the opening of the film?

8.Marcus and the voice-over, the explanation of his life, his bond with his mother, singing in the car, staying with his grandparents, their ordinary life, the crowded house, meals? His mother going out, onto the streets? In the car with her, her confrontation of the drug dealers? His not staying in the car and wanting to protect his mother? Her death, the funeral? His talk about searching for his father, watching the men at the funeral? With his grandparents, the cousins and kicking him out of bed, throwing the water on them? Having his own room and bed – but not satisfied and criticising his grandfather?

9.His age, going to school? Charlene and the friendship, her going away? His clear decision about drugs, being a gangster? Selling on the streets, intruding on other territories? The school and the discovery, the police, the five hundred dollars fine? Buying the gun? His grandfather discovering this? Buying the car and moving out?

10.The authorities within the drug world, the African American drugs? Levar as the boss, his style, rich, well dressed, dominant? At the funeral? His meeting with Marcus, Marcus admiring him? His ability to reconcile the blacks with the Colombians? Majestic as his assistant, the set-ups, Levar going to jail? The rivalries, the renewed fight with the Colombians? The collage of the shootings?

11.Charlene’s return, meeting Marcus, love, their being together, her pregnancy, giving birth? Majestic coming to the hospital and the threats to the baby? Warnings for Marcus?

12.Marcus and his ability to rap, as a boy, singing along with the music? Writing lyrics? Dangerous and his being a celebrity, the photos with him? The inter-gang rivalries? The gangsters ousting Majestic? Marcus and the threats? The studio recording – and the Colombians coming and shooting those in the studio?

13.Marcus, his going to jail, the brutality of the fight in the shower? Bama saving him? Their talking, becoming friends? Bama’s anger, getting out of the car, touchy, from the south? The arguments with Marcus? The threats to Bama, his being in the diner, using his wits and outwitting those who came to kill him?

14.The suggestion of the robbery? Re-seeing the robbery sequence, the money? Bama and wanting to shoot? Marcus shot, surviving?

15.The importance of turning points, Marcus and the possibilities for a different kind of life? Suggestions of possible redemption?