dead presidents

Director: albert hughes,allen hughes

Actor: larenz tate,keith david,chris tucker,freddy rodríguez

Data Published: Fri Oct 06 1995

Genres: Action,Crime,Drama,Thriller,War

Key Words: vietnam war,1960s,black panthers,new york city,black militant

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112819/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Presidents

Description: Dead Presidents is a movie starring Larenz Tate, Keith David, and Chris Tucker. 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.

Plot: In the spring of 1969, Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate) is about to graduate from high school, and decides to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps rather than go to college. He is sent to Vietnam, leaving behind his middle-class family, his pregnant girlfriend Juanita (Rose Jackson), and small-time crook Kirby (Keith David), who is like a second father. Anthony's close friend, Skip (Chris Tucker), later joins Curtis' squad after flunking out of college, and his other friend, Jose (Freddy Rodriguez), is drafted into the Army. Once in the Marines, Curtis and his squad lose several fellow marines during combat, and commit several atrocities of their own, such as executing enemy prisoners and beheading corpses for war trophies. When Anthony returns to the Bronx in 1973, after four years of service, he finds returning to "normal" life is impossible. He finds Skip now an Agent Orange victim and heroin addict, Jose is a pyromaniac, and Cleon (Bokeem Woodbine), a religious yet deadly staff sergeant that was in his squad, is now a devoted minister. After being laid off from his job at a butcher shop, Anthony finds himself unable to support Juanita (who had an affair while he was on duty) or his daughter. After an argument with Juanita, Anthony meets his girlfriend's sister, Delilah (N'Bushe Wright), who is now a member of the "Nat Turner Cadre", a revolutionary militant group. Anthony, Kirby, Skip, Jose, Delilah, and Cleon devise a plan to rob an armored car making a stop at the Noble Street Federal Reserve Bank of the Bronx. The next day, the group strategically position themselves around the street, armed with weapons and disguised with face paint, ready to ambush the truck. The plan goes awry when Cleon is approached by a beat officer who interferes in the robbery, leading to Kirby getting shot in the arm and Skip killing the officer when Cleon freezes up (a role reversal to what happens to Skip and Cleon earlier). At the same time, Anthony and Jose are spotted by the driver, causing a large shootout with the security guards. Jose (a demolition expert in the army) plants an explosive device on the escaping truck to blow off the door, but instead, destroys the whole vehicle. Delilah saves Anthony's life by killing one of the guards. A second guard appears and gets into a shootout with Delilah, shooting her multiple times and killing her, devastating Anthony. As the group collects what cash they can from the burning wreckage, they flee and split up to escape the police; Jose gets cornered in an alley by an approaching police car. When Jose shoots the driver, he is hit by the car and killed as the police car crashes into a wall, crushing Jose. Not long after the heist, Kirby hears that Cleon has been giving out $100 bills and has bought himself a new Cadillac that he can barely afford. Anthony drives over to Cleon's church to speak to him, only to find him being led out the front door in handcuffs by two detectives; Cleon gives up the other robbers as part of a plea bargain. NYPD officers storm Skip's apartment only to find that he has died of a heroin overdose. As Kirby and Anthony prepare to flee to Mexico, police raid the bar. Kirby tries to distract the officers to allow Anthony to flee to no avail, as multiple officers corner Anthony and arrest him. Anthony is convicted and found guilty of the robbery and the deaths of the security guards and the officer that Skip killed. He is sentenced to 15 years to life in prison by the judge, himself a World War II veteran. Anthony, furious at his sentence in spite of his years of service for his country, throws a chair at the judge before being escorted away. The films ends with Anthony looking out the window of his prison bus and reflecting on what could've been.