ironhorse_iv Review of Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station (2013)

Hold on and brass yourself, we're now arriving at Fruitvale Station. A controversial movie.

[7/10 · 12 August 2013]

If you're not familiar with the real life event that the movie is based on. Here is a rundown, the film main purpose is to tell the true life events of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old man's last day before he was fatally shot by BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) Police on accident in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009. Being from the Bay Area, and being an eye witness of the real life event. I found the movie by first time director Ryan Coogler to be very well made, and good, but also saw it as a political statement movie that took a lot of creative dramatic license. I will have to say that this is a thinking man's film. Some people will see it as a call for stronger gun-control, while others see it as anti-police movie. Some people think it was just create to stir the race issue and promote the every so often Hollywood moral message 'racism is bad'. While other may think this movie is just made to capitalize on a tragedy event and make money off, Oscar Grant's untimely passing. I thought it was a bit shameful to make a movie so soon after the events. They should have waited a bit. The real life shooting happen in 2009, as of this writing, a few years ago. In many people's eyes, that is still pretty fresh. It's a bit disrespectful for the victim's family to have relive or be reminded time after time, the moments of Oscar Grant's life went cold over and over again on a Hollywood film who main goal to make money. It's even more appalling when you think about it, for this movie's marketing to have the nerves to be promoting the film on a billboard at the Fruitvale Station where he got shot. I go to that station every day, and it's disrespectful to me. It's like promoting Oliver Stone 1991's JFK movie on the grassy knoll. It get even weirder that the movie scenes were shot at and around Fruitvale Station platform where Grant was killed in real life. In my opinion, the movie shouldn't had been made because it took so much creative license that it's misleading the audience to believe what they see is facts rather than looking for the truth. It's telling you exactly what it wants you to feel. There is no subtlety whatsoever. Just because I agree with that the tragedy was senseless politically, doesn't mean I can overlook the blatant manipulation with its deviations from the truth. Some creative license is allowed, especially since no one knows every detail that happened that day, but there are numerous things in it that are demonstrably false/made-up. The whole awkward Pit bull dog run over scene seem like a really strong string to make Oscar Grant look like a good guy. I thought the film had too many blatant attempts to make you like the guy. Even when they portrayed his flaws, it was supposed to show that he's on a path of redemption and thus elicit more emotion at the end. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, it's just isn't how I would explore the character. Yes, it's showcasing who Oscar Grant is as a human people, giving a back story to the face and name. I just have a problem with films that use current or recent real life tragedies for entertaining reasons. I have to say the acting is great. Michael B Jordan as Oscar Grant is wonderful. I do think they use the word 'brah' way too much. It did get a bit annoying. Octavia Spencer as his mother was pretty strong character. I do like how the director use cell phone calls, and text them with fonts on the screen. Still, I wouldn't see some of those text fonts due to the dark or bright lighting of the film. I do felt the film forget to mention some things about the event like why the BART police were on edge before the shooting because two guns had been recovered in separate incidents along the rail line over the previous hour. Plus, before he arrived at Fruitvale, Officer Mehserle was involved in an incident at the West Oakland station where a teenage boy with a semi-automatic pistol had fled from police and jumped off the station platform. I'm one of those who think Mehserle did it on accident due to that. Mehserle had no reason to kill Oscar as it seems somewhat in police control. Was he in the right mind? Clearly not. Still, based on my research, I doubt he meant to kill him, but he did kill him. That is a fact. I dislike people that quickly to judge it as a hate crime and use the event as an excuse to create chaos riot or to loot items. Remind me so much of the 2011's Kenneth Harding Jr. case where people were so quickly to judge it as a race crime without understanding the case. People forget that cops are people, too and they do mistakes. I'm still glad, Oscar's family did filed a wrongful death claim against BART police and Officer Mehserle didn't get off scot free. He did serve his time, for the shooting. I do say research well before watching the film, to get an opinion on both sides of the coin. I think the real life event captured on multiple digital video and cell phone cameras is more powerful than this film. In my opinion, a free online documentary film about Oscar Grant would better suited the issue than this independent money hungry film. Still, this film is a powerful movie to watch.