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African-American Cinema DVDs

The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till

Sales Rank:7380
List Price: $7.99
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)

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Director(s):

Actor(s):

Simple yet riveting, The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till articulates the madness of racism in the South of the 1950s. Combining archival photos and footage with deeply felt interviews, this documentary tells the harrowing story of what happened when a mischievous 14 year old black boy from Chicago, visiting his relatives in Mississippi, whistled at a white woman in the street. The lynching that followed was so gruesome that a media circus surrounded the trial--and what stunned the nation was not only the crime, but the blithe unconcern the citizens of a small Mississippi town felt toward the brutal murder of a black teenager. The interviews suspensefully unveil the story, moving from the viewpoint of Till's mother to the perspective of his Southern cousins to actual film of Till's uncle, who had the astonishing courage to accuse the two killers in court. Till's mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, addressed the entire country in news footage, begging that something be done so that her son did not die in vain. The awkward, un-media-savvy quality of the 1950s interviews may seem to come from another world, but the harsh truth of what happened sprang all too clearly from America's still unresolved racial conflicts. A passionate, compelling documentary. --Bret Fetzer

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Roots - The Next Generations

Sales Rank:8253
List Price: $59.98
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Box set
Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
Subtitled
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Georg Stanford Brown
Dubin, Charles S.
Erman, John
Richards (II), Lloyd

Actor(s):

Georg Stanford Brown
Kathleen Doyle
Ja'net DuBois
Henry Fonda
Slim Gaillard

Roots rocked the cultural landscape in the late '70s, creating a new wave of awareness of black history. That wave opened the door for its sequel, Roots: The Next Generations, even more of a star-studded event than the original, with stars like Olivia de Havilland, Henry Fonda, Marlon Brando, and James Earl Jones eager to partake in the tale. The sequel follows the rest of the saga of the family of author Alex Haley, from where Roots ended at the Civil War, up to the 1970s when Haley was researching and writing his earth-shattering family story.

While nothing can rival the power of the original Roots' unflinching look at the slave trade and slave life in the early years of this country, the sequel is still full of rich African American history, from Reconstruction, to Jim Crow, to the civil rights movement and the early rumblings of black power. Fonda and de Havilland are respectable in their period-piece roles, but the real power of this sequel is in the more immediate concerns of Haley and his own experience of prejudice while building a stellar reputation as a writer and journalist in the '60s and '70s. One of the most unsettling scenes takes place then, when Haley interviews the head of the American Nazi Party, played with chilling diffidence by Brando. (Brando won an Emmy for this performance.) Haley is also challenged by his fractious interview with Malcolm X (a gripping Al Freeman Jr.). Jones launches his acting career playing Haley with nuance and heart, but with a humanizing set of his own demons.

The four-disc set includes all seven episodes plus a compelling documentary, Roots: The Next Generations--The Legacy Continues, with interviews with Jones, costar and episode director Georg Stanford Brown and a still starry-eyed David L. Wolper, who understands the cultural impact of the two miniseries he helped bring to the screen. --A.T. Hurley

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Drumline (Full Screen Edition)

Sales Rank:9307
List Price: $14.98
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Nick Cannon
Zoe Saldana
Orlando Jones
Leonard Roberts
GQ

Once you've seen Drumline, halftime shows will become works of art. This formulaic yet surprisingly captivating movie honors the military precision of college football marching bands, those battalions of eager, sternly disciplined brass sections, drummers, and fly girls who turn halftime shows into well-oiled Vegas variety acts on steroids. Devon (played by Will Smith protégé Nick Cannon) is a cocky Brooklyn kid with a snare-drumming scholarship to (fictional) Atlanta A&T University. He can't read music (he lied on his application) and his attitude sucks, but he's the best natural drummer the college has ever had, so he quickly rises through the marching band ranks. The school year brings Devon the obligatory girlfriend (Zoë Saldana, smart and charming); clashes with his old-school band director (Orlando Jones); and well-earned redemption at the championship marching band showdown. No surprises here, but great chemistry all around, and a fantastic, positive role-model showcase for a musical form that has evolved far beyond the main street parades of Smalltown, U.S.A. --Jeff Shannon

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He Got Game

Sales Rank:9480
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
Letterboxed
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Denzel Washington
Ray Allen
Milla Jovovich
Rosario Dawson
Hill Harper

As a filmmaker and passionate fan of basketball, Spike Lee was the perfect director for this ambitious and heartfelt sports drama, which brought out the best in both Lee and his well-chosen cast. In his third film for Lee, Denzel Washington plays Jake Shuttlesworth, who is in prison for the manslaughter of his wife. His estranged son Jesus (well played by Milwaukee Bucks basketball player Ray Allen) is the nation's best high school basketball star, and Jake receives a compelling offer from the state's governor: If Jake can convince Jesus to sign a letter of intent to attend Big State University, the governor will reduce his sentence. Lee turns this back-room bargain into a fascinating examination of capitalism in college and professional sports, but the film also works as the moving story of a father's desperate attempt to regain his son's respect. Lee handles the basketball angle with an insider's awareness, and takes a few stylistic risks (including a memorable final image) that pay off with considerable emotional effect. He Got Game fully explores the visual poetry of basketball and the greed that fuels this particular vision of the American dream, but Lee never loses sight of the sport's inherent beauty, or the higher priorities of redemption and family that form the solid foundation of this exceptional film. --Jeff Shannon

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Paul Mooney: Know Your History - Jesus Was Black ... So Was Cleopatra

Sales Rank:15523
List Price: $14.98
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Paul Mooney
Sandra Bernhard
Gabriel Casseus
Joyce Coleman
Mark Curry

Few comedians can stir up controversy like the legendary Paul Mooney -- writer for Richard Pryor, creator of In Living Color's Homey the Clown and featured guest on Chappelle's Show. With his characteristic brutal honesty, Mooney passionately and hysterically charges into the electrified currents of racial tension. In this magnificent standup performance at Hollywood's Laugh Factory, Mooney earns a standing ovation with his relentless no-holds-barred observations on black history, stereotypes and prejudices, living in White America, celebrity divas and much, much more!

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Ali

Sales Rank:9446
List Price: $14.94
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
Dubbed
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Subtitled
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Director(s):

Actor(s):

Will Smith
Candy Ann Brown
LeVar Burton
David Cubitt
Victoria Dillard

Ali is a rush of charm, violence, and well-crafted mythmaking sure to enthrall. From the unforgettable surge of the opening--a 10-minute montage of sheer brilliance where formative scenes from the early life of Cassius Clay float along on the rapture of a live performance by Sam Cooke in a Harlem nightclub--through to Muhammad Ali's departure for Zaire to fight George Foreman, Michael Mann's homage is mostly crisp and fleet-footed. As Clay/Ali, Will Smith acquits himself marvelously due in large part to his uncanny re-creation of Ali's most famous weapon, his mesmerizing voice. Indeed, the best scenes throughout showcase Ali's verbal rather than pugilistic sparring; whether with his entourage (notably Jamie Foxx), Howard Cosell (Jon Voight), or Don King (Mykelti Williamson), Michael Mann's Ali has the same authoritative wit and ability to surprise that so disarmed the public. The news conferences and behind-the-scenes banter are exquisitely re-created; not so Ali's flaws. Mann's attempt to depict Ali's womanizing, his dubious affiliation with the Nation of Islam, and his insatiable need for the spotlight seems halfhearted and laborious in comparison to the film's enlivened adoration of its subject. As the sluggish second half of the film betrays, Ali is at its impressionistic best when it's in awe rather than when it explains. --Fionn Meade

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4 Little Girls

Sales Rank:14980
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Dianne Braddock
Carolyn Lee Brown
Gerald Colbert
Arthur Hanes Jr.
Freeman Hrabowski III

There are many remarkable things about the documentary 4 Little Girls. Spike Lee's striking, beautifully realized film is a cinematic lesson of what kind of material is better suited to the documentary format. In his first documentary, Lee shares an attribute of Ken Burns: the major event in his documentary is not seen on camera. Except for four quick glimpses of black-and-white autopsy photos, the picture stays clear from the bombing. Lee remains with the faces, the girls' friends, families, and the historic figures of the era. They've all grown up since the bombing but their memories haven't faded. The vital facts of the case are certainly here: the troubled history of Birmingham, the court proceedings, friends' last run-ins with the girls. What touches us deeper though are those witnesses telling us of living through the core era of segregation and bigotry: a father explaining to his child why she can't have a sandwich in a cafeteria and a woman offering up tears of past events. There's even an interview with George Wallace, the prince of segregation, that belongs in a David Lynch feature. Lee's film asserts the bombing energized the civil rights movement and when the voice of America, Walter Cronkite, echoes those sentiments, you believe he may have it right. --Doug Thomas

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A Gathering of Old Men

Sales Rank:17460
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

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Actor(s):

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A Low Down Dirty Shame

Sales Rank:11651
List Price: $9.99
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

Closed-captioned
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NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Keenen Ivory Wayans
Jada Pinkett
Charles S. Dutton
Salli Richardson
Andrew Divoff

Here's the action-packed hit that's armed with explosive entertainment and dangerously funny comedy! Writer, director, and star Keenen Ivory Wayans (TV's IN LIVING COLOR) is Shame, a down-on-his-luck ex-cop turned private investigator. He's hired by drug enforcement officials to track down his seductive former girlfriend -- and $20 million in stolen drug money! With his trusty sidekick Peaches (sexy Jada Pinkett Smith -- JASON'S LYRIC, MENACE II SOCIETY), Shame aims to make a buck and clear his name in what becomes his wildest and most dangerous assignment ever! Fast and fun, A LOW DOWN DIRTY SHAME is loaded with laughs and ready for action!

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Men of Honor

Sales Rank:7915
List Price: $14.98
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

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Closed-captioned
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Dolby
DVD-Video
Special Edition
Subtitled
Widescreen
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Director(s):

Actor(s):

Powers Boothe
David Conrad
Robert De Niro
Jr. Cuba Gooding
Hal Holbrook

Men of Honor presents a great role model for younger viewers, yet it's rated R due to abundant use of the F word. With appropriate discretion, parents should allow their preteen and teenaged children to see this rousing if altogether conventional biopic inspired by the life of Carl Brashear. Played with gravity and gumption by Cuba Gooding Jr., Brashear was the first African American to become a master diver in the U.S. Navy, despite the lingering effects of segregation, opposition from Navy brass, and the amputation of his left leg following a tragic on-duty accident. Robert De Niro adds marquee value and salty bluster as Billy Sunday, the drunken, redneck (and fictionalized) Master Chief who watches, with gradual admiration, as Brashear attains his ultimate goal through sheer force of will.

This is all quite uplifting on its surface, but in attempting to hit the requisite highlights of an inspiring biography, director George Tillman Jr. (Soul Food) reduces Brashear's achievement to a succession of clichés, forcing Gooding and De Niro to battle sentiment with their noteworthy performances. As Sunday's neglected wife, Charlize Theron is completely extraneous; Hal Holbrook's diving-school commander is a ranting caricature; and newcomer Aunjanue Ellis barely registers as Brashear's wife (in part because their obligatory romance is handled with an utter lack of finesse). There's no question that Brashear's efforts are heroic and worthy of recognition, so Men of Honor serves its basic purpose. Still, one can't help but wonder if Brashear's story would be even more impressive with a more authentic treatment. --Jeff Shannon

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African-American Cinema DVDs

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