South Central

Stars: Glenn Plummer (Pastime), Carl Lumbly (Pacific Heights). Although "message" movies generally have to stand and fall on their own merits as a film rather than the message they deliver, South Central is an exception. While offering up a predictable story that only really comes alive during the second half, the film drives home such a powerful anti-gang (even anti-violence) message that you have to hope inner-city kids, in particular, will watch it. Based on L.A. high school teacher Donald Bakeer's critically acclaimed book Crips, the film stars Glenn Plummer as Bobby, an inner-city Black who kills a drug dealer he suspects is messing around with his girlfriend and thereby earns his rep with his gang (the "Deuces"). Bobby goes to prison for ten long years, leaving his girlfriend and baby son behind. In prison he comes under the tutelage of Ali, a Muslim inmate, who steers Bobby toward the writings of W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson, and others. By the time Bobby gets out of prison with his newfound pacifism, his 10-year-old son Jimmie (Christian Coleman) has already been recruited by the Deuces. In a stirring struggle between blood and loyalty, Bobby tries to save his son and "break the cycle of hate." Although it had a very brief and limited theatrical run (garnering less than half a million), South Central deserves a wider audience. Audience: Although the street slang and coarse language are liable to lose older viewers, the young adult crowd should see this.