Clockers (1995) User Reviews

Smart and entertaining with lots going on emotionally and subjectively.

[johnnyboyz · 7/10 · 20 April 2008]

I tend to enjoy films like Clockers; films that open up ideas about several things at once; films that make you think about the world in which they're set, the people in which inhabit them and the choices they must face – some of which are unfortunate through being mandatory. Spike Lee is no fool and a lot of his early work on recent viewings seem to revolve around someone stuck in a situation that is a mere result of their emotional drive and the world they are living in: She's Gotta Have it; Jungle Fever and Clockers are good examples of protagonists committing an action they really shouldn't have (and probably didn't want to but buckled under either temptation or peer pressure) and now must face the consequences. But these consequences will affect more than merely the hero.

Lee does not hang around in presenting or perhaps delivering his subject matter as a whole. The thing that amazes me with Lee is that he can write so many different types of characters: low grade African-Americans, educated and seemingly decent African-Americans; white cops; women of different ethnicity and a few others. In Clockers, the opening scene which integrates with the credits is of a somewhat crude and humiliating public autopsy during which a couple of white cops examine a dead black man in front of a watching black crowd. Two of these detectives are Rocco Klein (Keitel) and Larry Mazilli (Turturro) but the scene acts as one final act of humiliation to an already dead black man as they search his carcase for clues and bullet holes.

But the film has more than one current flowing throughout it. Strike (Phifer) plays a neighbourhood African-American who speaks and acts just like all his drug dealing friends, even hanging with them when they act out their drug selling routine to customers in a staged manner. But Strike is different and Lee wants us to create an alternate profile of the man by giving him milkshakes to drinks and trains to collect, set up in his apartment, maintain and run. The others laugh at this hobby but Strike maintains most of them too have hobbies: collecting welfare cheques. But this is the greatness of a character like Strike; we are led to believe he is a bad influence through the dialogue of a police man named Andre the Giant (David) but this is perhaps just another cop's point of view and opinion on another African American kid.

Andre believes Strike to be a bad influence on Tyrone (Love) but what Andre fails to notice is that there are higher, more criminal minds badly influencing Strike and that is more of a problem than Strike talking to Tyrone. The film is about a seemingly nice and somewhat moral 'gangstar' who is put in a situation where murder is the only way out, and we go through the narrative with the emphasis on this moral gangstar that he is actually a cold blooded killer in an excellent and very effective piece of atmosphere. But this is a slow burner and it slowly burns away at our opinion because there is a scene in Strike's apartment when he talks to Tyrone all about drugs and guns, apparently Tyrone should stay away from taking drugs but selling them will bring him a nice chunk of change; however guns are something that Tyrone should seriously consider getting into. To top this scene off, Tyrone is told that mathematics is also a very good thing. Already, Lee is trying to manipulate and force us to change out minds as to weather we like Strike. Is he a killer? Does he know drugs should be completely avoided? Why does he suggest Tyrone get a gun one day? Or is it just a misguided fool repeating what he once heard and saying what he thinks is right. Interesting how later on Tyrone repeats train information to another person after sort of adopting a 'Strike' figure.

But the film has some more strong points. Rodney Little (Lindo) thinks that just because he has had a shotgun in the mouth and was manipulated into murder, he can do it to others. Little himself asks Strike "How are you so smart and so stupid?" in a scene that actually has someone echo Strike's personality to his face. Little's background in presented in a nasty and somewhat disturbing fashion via flashback to the days when he was younger with Errol Barnes (Byrd), the resident 'hood psychopath-come-criminal who seems to have some distorted views to do with religion. With all this in the melting plot, it's no wonder the film does a good job in maintain interest and quality delivery. Lee does not fail to focus on his subject matter like he does in Summer of Sam when tackling the psychological development of a serial killer and a love triangle at the same time became messy. Instead, he does not get sidetracked with any unnecessary sub-plots and keeps the delivery sharp, realistic and intriguing when the final act comes to an end.

gritty, truthful crime drama that takes formula and makes it gripping and incendiary

[Quinoa1984 · 8/10 · 19 April 2007]

I was glad to see on the special edition DVD of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing to see how he answered the question asked at Cannes as to why there weren't drugs portrayed in the film; his answer, simply, was that there wasn't enough space dramatically, that it would be too much to fit drugs into a story already loaded with racism in a small neighborhood. But, as he followed, he could use what it means to have drugs in an urban environment, and what it does to the people, and have that as a stand-alone movie. He followed this up, in part, with the Samuel L. Jackson storyline in Jungle Fever, and thanks to Richard Price's novel and original script, he has here what might be his answer to that question. It's not a very great movie, perhaps, because by this time Spike Lee has so much invested in the style of his cinematic theatrics, of how the nature of the camera itself related to those of the characters, that it comes close to going over substance. But it's is a worthy attempt at putting into context, via the conventions of genre going back to the 40s, as to what makes or breaks the ties between drug dealers and their workers, and how the workers (or 'Clockers' as per the title of the movie) go about their business in the streets.

Clockers has a main plot that pushes along, as the murder by multiple gun-shots of a Darryl, black fast-food worker, who was also apart of the crew of Rodney (Delroy Lindo), call into question who might have done it. At first, it seems pretty open and shut, as Victor (Isaiah Washington) comes forth and admits he did it in self-defense. Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel) doesn't buy it, seems too easy, so he asks around, digs deeper, and sees that his brother, Strike (Mekhi Pfeifer) seems to be much more of the guilty party, by way of how he handles himself in the streets, his repore with Rodney, and as having more motive to kill Darryl. It's through this that Lee then branches it out to make it as much as character as about plot, where the ties between certain characters, like Strike and Tyrone, a pre-teen who looks up to Strike like a surrogate father, are mostly defined by how the neighborhood works out in the open. The clockers are bunch of would-be gang-bangers who talk a lot of talk, but haven't walked nearly as much as Earle, best friend of Rodney's and psychopathic murder, or Rodney himself, who has that veneer of being like the one you can trust the most- half surrogate father as well and half good cop/bad cop boss- until he gets crossed.

Although Price's material, which comes through with the energy and occasional wit, is noticeable throughout, it's really Spike Lee as director and many of the actors who make this a consistently watchable movie. Lee is never one to be too subtle with the camera, and he has variations with how he deals with the material to make it very observant but also subjective. Early on, for example, we see the clockers making their deals in the park in long-shot, shaky, as if Lee's filming it far away for a reality TV show. But then we also see the 360 degree camera moves as Klein questions Strike. There's many camera moves that are practically trademark Lee shots, especially with the lighting, as Klein questions Tyrone, or when we see a flashback to Victor having to deal with some clockers. It's all very flamboyant and meant to call attention to the material, and aside from a few unneeded music choices (it's the only time you'll hear Seal in a drug dealer crime movie), he's on top of things. Meanwhile, the performances are all top-notch, usually, as Keitel and particularly Lindo play their characters so well by pretty much being how we think the actors 'really' are, even though they're not. Pfeifer has a little trickier a time with his performance, because he usually is on a very similar note: I didn't do nothing, is his usual beat. His character also has the intriguing qualities that mark him as something of an outsider however in he might be: his stomach virus, which is never resolved but always looming over him, and his love of electric train-sets.

And all the while, Clockers succeeds in presenting a time and place where there should be little to no hope, and it makes the cops and criminals both pretty well-rounded when compared to other genre films. The cops are meant to be the good guys, but there's also a steady conflict between Klein and his partner: why should Klein care so much as to who did it or why (Strike also asks this question towards the end, in one of the best scenes in the film)? And Strike and Rodney are not cut-outs from black exploitation flicks, but with more of a push and pull tie that is always a threat, never a comfort. There are little details that help make Lee's film interesting when it veers into being like a television serial; the white yuppies who get entangled in the case; the over-protective but very smart cop (Keith David, always a pro) who also tries to play surrogate father to Tyrone, albeit without the same care, however negative, as Strike has; the brief shots of the drug addicts with their habits on display, as we only need to see it for less than a minute to get the nature of the bottom of the food chain, which is total despair. Lee's film, however, isn't really disparaging as it has moments of hope, yet a hope meant to be in understanding that there's no easy way out of all of this.

Outstanding dark poverty flick I wasn't expecting - in a good way!

[UniqueParticle · 8/10 · 16 May 2019]

Felt like a documentary without the interviews. Spike Lee is a masterful director/writer that adds gritty great subject matter! I've seen all of The Wire which felt similar to this which is cool & the drama in this was done so well; excellent intense 90's at it's finest.

Lee's most underrated film, without a doubt

[chikejeffers · 14 April 2001]

It angers me how overlooked this film is.

It is not an easy film. It is bleak and at times very off-putting. Actually, if you are a thinking, caring person, this is movie is overall heart-breaking.

But it is brilliant and, for the person who truly tries to understand it, a compelling, insightful look at the problems killing black America today. The only reason for the film's lack of recognition I can imagine is that its subject matter had been examined a number of times before. But the inescapable fact is that this one of the best examinations of the subject matter there has been on screen - on par with "Boyz N The Hood".

And it is FAR from uncreative. In fact, on one level, it is not a "hood" movie, but a whodunit. The mystery aspect of the plot is very interesting. But there are other, more important layers. It is the story of the confusion and crisis of a young man's life. Most importantly, it is a brutal look at drugs, guns, and life in the projects. It is a movie asking why so many young black men are dying in the streets.

The lead character Strike has a stomach problem. It might be an ulcer or something like that. I believe it is a metaphor. Just as heat represented racial tension in Lee's masterpiece "Do The Right Thing", Strike's sickness represents the illnesses plaguing the ghetto: drugs, guns, liquor.

Like DTRT, this film looks at community. The mothers, the cops, the young people, the kids, the men trying to make a living - there is eloquent commentary in "Clockers" on the situations of all. In Spike's movies, paying a little attention is rewarding. A good essay could be written on what I call the Spike Summarization technique. This is when Spike compresses a serious debate or concern in the black community into a few expressive moments of action or dialogue. There are better examples in other movies, but it manifests in "Clockers" a few times. A bunch of kids are sitting in front of Rodney's (Delroy Lindo) shop; one of the kids is rapping while the others pay attention. The two sides to the coin: we feel the artistry and skill of the moment, the continuation of a rich tradition of oral art; we're also struck by the cruelty and coldness in the kid's violent lyrics, and we think about where that comes from.

Stylistically, this movie is a huge success. The cinematography is amazing, and I wonder what must be wrong with my tastes when I'm floored by a film like this and find visually bland a more oft-praised classic. The projects become blinding panoramas, landscapes which add tons of meaning to the poignant ending (I won't reveal it here). The sound is great; many films of this nature use hip hop in the soundtrack to produce certain effects, but "Clockers" does it in a more methodical way which jars some people, but contributes to the film's meaning.

I could say more about the film, but I encourage you to just see it, along with the rest of Spike's oeuvre. He's not a perfect filmmaker, and some of his best films are marred by elements that don't work, but I feel his consistency in terms of delivering brilliance is not below most of the cinema's most celebrated auteurs.

Most of the time remains stuck between good and great.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 7/10 · 12 September 2012]

There is no denying it that this is a good and well made movie but at the same time I also still had loads of problems with it!

The way I see it, this is being a pretty good portrayal of live on the streets in the '90's. It picks a mostly realistic approach but still I just can't really 'feel' this movie. I never felt involved with any of the characters in it or to any of the dramatic events and developments. It doesn't make this movie bad but it does indeed make this movie a bit of a one dimensional experience.

And remember, this is an 1995 movie. So everything that was considered to be hip and 'thug life' might seem a bit ridicules and less cool in today's perspective. The whole attitude and way of talking and the way everyone dresses makes this movie really a product of its time. In that regard this movie also really reminded me of "Kids", which coincidentally or not, got made in the same year as this movie. It makes this movie less relevant to watch now days but really, it's nothing I was holding against the movie.

I would had most definitely preferred it if this movie was using a more straightforward style of storytelling. The movie as it is seems to be wanting to focus on far too many different characters and tries to do and tell too much. It also really has its own style to it, when it comes down to its storytelling, which was nice and helped to give this movie an unique feeling but at the same time it also made the movie unnecessary hard and not all that pleasant to follow at times.

Another thing I also disliked about this movie was its pick of music. The movie mad some bad music choices, in which the music often would swell and become melodramatic at moments that really were uncalled for. It absolutely distracted and most of the time didn't suit what was happening on the screen at the time.

But really, I though this movie still had some hints of a great movie in it as well. One thing was its already earlier mentioned unique and distinctive style. Spike Lee always has had an unique and distinctive style of his own and he manages to put a lot of that in this movie successfully. There are some interesting moments in this movie, from a more technical and movie-making perspective. There was some good camera-work for instance and also very little wrong with the movie its editing and pacing.

The movie its story in essence also really seemed to be a solid one but I do feel that they perhaps should had picked some different perspectives to keep- and make things a bit more interesting and effective. Wouldn't this movie for instance had been better and more interesting if it told things more from the Harvey Keitel's character perspective? Who knows and it's not like the movie bad or interesting as it is right now but while watching this movie it constantly gave me the feeling it had more potential and things could had been done better.

I don't know, perhaps the movie was also being a bit stuck between being a gangster movie and a more realistic one. It never felt like a true gangster flick and it never felt like a true realistic movie neither. Producer Martin Scorsese perhaps should had stepped in a bit more often, since he definitely is a kind of director who can more successfully blend realism with tough and tense gangster/crime movies.

Not trying to sound too negative. The movie is good enough as it is but it doesn't ever reaches its full potential.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

A Cracker from Spike Lee

[CharltonBoy · 7/10 · 11 June 2000]

Clockers is a really enlightening and entertaining film about the everyday life of the Clockers(drug Dealers) in New York. I am really becoming a Spike Lee fan , i know all his film generally are to a theme but never the less they are good. I would like to see him go mainstream. The Acting in the film is brilliant as is the direction. It is a bit violent ant times as the opening titles will show!( A succestion of shot drug dealers). The soundtrack is superb to , lots of music from Seal and and Chaka Khan, It is nice to watch a movie like this without having to listen to a constant stream of gangster rap!. Clock this film if you can. 7 out of 10

Read like a Marvel f*ckin' Spiderman comic book.

[lastliberal · 6/10 · 6 August 2007]

Rodney (Delroy Lindo): If God created anything better than crack cocaine he kept that sh*t for hisself.

A Martin Scorsese/Spike Lee film directed by Spike Lee that tells the story of life in the projects and the actions and attitudes of the police.

It was really interesting to hear the comments of the police as they investigated murders of young black men. It is painfully obvious that life has become so cheap that they really can't care anymore and joke about the bodies.

Harvey Keitel as Det. Rocco Klein gives what I consider to be his best performance as he tries to solve a murder, not knowing the man he has (Isiah Washington) is really the killer, but was put up to it by his brother, Ronald 'Strike' Dunham (Mekhi Phifer), a small time drug dealer who is into model trains.

Delroy Lindo (Ransom) is Rodney Little, the main drug supplier and one not to be messed with. Of course, Strike makes that mistake and has to leave town - on a train, of course.

Emmy-winner Keith David is André the Giant, a Housing Authority policeman who tries to keep the young ones away from the drug dealers; especially Regina Taylor's son. He really shines in his performance, especially at the end.

Great soundtrack featuring Seal and Chaka Khan, among others.

Of course, the film has to have some rappers; so we get Sticky Fingaz and Fredro Starr from Onyx. They don't rap, but there is plenty in the film.

Spike Lee gave us a great picture of life in the projects - the good, the bad, and certainly, the ugly.

spike lee "joint"? police procedural? Clockers brings the best of both worlds

[mikel weisser · 9/10 · 16 December 2001]

When Spike Lee applies his formidable talents to a genre piece like Richard Price's best selling drug noir novel, "Clockers," you might wonder what kind of hybrid you'll get. Lee is justly famous for his incendiary agitprop films of ideas which dissect race relations and urban living, sometimes at the expense of cohesive storytelling; but working with source material as thought provoking a novel as "Clockers," which is set in Lee's home base of "Crooklyn," er, i mean Brooklyn, Spike finds the right mix of action, angst, and intellectualism for his strengths to shine. "Clockers" are petty drug dealers who work around the clock pushing their wares. When one turns up dead and a stand up citizen steps up to take the fall, a homicide detective begins unraveling the complex dynamics of life and dealing in the 'hood. Lee gets his usual gritty street landscape to work with and Price gets a director with a cinematic eye (thanks to standard Lee lens-er, Malik Hassan Sayeed)and a playwright's heart. Central character brothers Isaiah Washington and Mekhi Phifer (in his star making role) turn in complex credible performances but are easily outshone by the astonishingly strong acting out of Harvey Keitel, Delroy Lindo, Regina Taylor (who won awards for her work here), Keith David, and Lee regulars John Turturro and Thomas Byrd. Lindo is particularly impressive. This film may have been too gritty for general audiences with its brutal depiction of urban violence and emotional brutality. And it may have been a bit too stylized for the Saturday night drive-in set wanting a brainless shoot 'em up; but for those interested in quality film making on a hugely important issue that also functions as an engaging who done it, Spike Lee does it up royal in this, perhaps Lee's most, accessible film.

Good but somewhat unreal

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 6 November 2014]

Strike (Mekhi Phifer) is a street pusher or clocker working for drug-lord Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo). He drinks chocolate Moo and suffers from an ulcer. Rodney tells him that fast food worker Darryl Adams is dealing from behind the counter and needs to be taken care of by him. He has trouble doing it and tries to get his brother Victor Dunham (Isaiah Washington) to do it by telling him that Darryl beats his girlfriend. Then Darryl turns up dead. Homicide detectives Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel) and Larry Mazilli (John Turturro) investigate. Victor confesses to killing in self defense. Rocco doesn't buy it but Larry would rather close the case.

The movie is pretty good with great actors doing good work. Spike Lee is doing a drug movie but he is doing it his way. There is an unrealism to it. His cameos only add to it. This is more of a crime murder mystery than a gritty drug movie. The Spike Lee style, the dialog, and even Strike constant need for chocolate milk seems design to make this somewhat surreal. It is the main reason that this is pretty good rather than really good. It's not really surrealistic but it's also not gritty enough to be the scary real drug movie.

Another great film from Spike Lee.

[camcmahon · 9/10 · 17 March 2005]

I've just finished this film and I thought it was excellent. I've never read the book, and based on other people's comments it sounds like it might be a hard book to adapt for the screen, what with it (apparently) dealing with a lot of abstract issues. However, looking at this film from the standpoint of having never read the book I thought the story was brilliant, it engrossed me to the end. Mekhi Phifer was great, he played the part well, personally I thought he conveyed a wide range of emotions and all of them very well. There was some great character development, especially on the part of Delroy Lindo (another great performance).

Lee did a good job in his portrayal of the drug culture in the projects, as well as taking a look into the police's side of the story. The story interested me from the beginning and I didn't feel my interest waver once, in fact is grew steadily throughout the film. The images of dead bodies shown at the beginning made a strong starting point, and served as an immediate reminder that the themes dealt with in the film are occurring all the time.

On a side note, I thought the resemblance of Shorty's game 'Gansta' to today's GTA: San Andreas was pretty funny.

Spike Lee Depresses Us Again

[view_and_review · 6/10 · 2 September 2020]

Hmm... I'm not impressed. I do appreciate the message of the movie from Spike Lee: Black people in the ghetto are killing themselves either by drugs or the gun and if they don't care enough to stop it, certainly no one else does.

The main character of this street slangin' soap opera was Strike (Mekhi Pfifer), a clocker for Rodney (Delroy Lindo). A clocker is a drug dealer that sells around the clock. Rodney tells Strike that if he wants to stop clocking on the project benches then he has to take out a thief named Daryl (Steve White). Daryl was taken out, but by whom was the question. Was it Strike, was it his brother, Victor (Isaiah Washington), or perhaps someone else entirely? Detective Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel) was determined to find out even if it meant the death of Strike.

Clockers was alright except all I saw was an amalgamation of several other similarly themed movies. I saw "Fresh," "Strapped," "Juice," and many other urban blight movies. This was a movie with no real protagonist.

Detective Rocco? He couldn't care less about a dead Black man, all he cared about was being right.

Strike? He was a drug dealer who was priming another young boy to be no-nothing drug dealer.

Victor? He was a murderer.

Officer Andre (Keith David)? He was the closest thing to a protagonist with the small role he was given.

I don't know what I was looking for in this movie; something positive for sure. I didn't have a positive feeling after watching it though, and I know that's life, but movies give us the ability to escape life every once in a while. "Clockers" wouldn't be that escape.

Oscar-worthy. Incredible film.

[tpaladino · 10/10 · 5 April 2012]

I have no idea why this film wasn't nominated for an Oscar, and I especially have no idea why it's been seventeen years since the film was released and I'm just now seeing it. I've always been vaguely aware of it's existence as one of the 'other' Spike Lee films, but not much more. I certainly wasn't expecting to see some of his all-time best work, which it is.

This film should be mandatory viewing for every single high school in America, that's how important it is. Spike Lee paints a devastatingly realistic picture of inner-city life and the mortal perils that it's inhabitants face on a daily basis. There are no heroes, no angels, and no caricatures. It's all laid bare for the viewer to draw their own conclusion. Lee treats the audience with a level of respect and maturity that is almost unheard of in films that deal in such explosive and controversial subject matter. He trusts that the audience will understand the big picture and take away the appropriate lesson without being evangelized, and without resorting to the kind of cheap gimmickry and pandering that can often plague films of this genre.

Everyone should see this film. Literally everyone.

Decent flick with poor use of music

[Dar Star · 7/10 · 22 November 2020]

This is a decent enough drama although the talents of an impressive set of actors is under used in my opinion. The story could've been tighter too. The denouement is a letdown. The worst part of the movie is the atrocious use of music that neither fits the scene and often takes away from the dialogue. Amateur hour for that.

Almost deep and soul searching

[gcd70 · 5/10 · 26 March 2008]

This Spike Lee 'joint' concerns the subject of drug related murder. Lee opens the film with a most sombre body count, setting the scene for a deep, soul searching film that never really eventuates.

One can imagine the original story, from Richard Price's novel, was an intriguing and thought provoking one about a family man with an impeccable employment record who steps forward to claim responsibility for a killing that detective Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel) is just not convinced he committed.

Lee doesn't focus on this strong narrative though, he rather concentrates on the culture of the 'clockers' (drug dealers) in Harlem and his rather pathetic central character, Ronald 'Strike' Dunham (Mekhi Phifer). So obsessed is our director with these two aspects of his film, that everything else suffers greatly and the movie is thus never able to take hold of its audience.

Class actors like Harvey Keitel and John Turturro have very little to do, with everybody being mere background to lead player Phifer. While the clever plot is all but ignored, Phifer is left to carry the show from beginning to end, which he isn't quite able to do (though he puts in a solid performance). Spike has missed the target here, even if cinematography is spot on.

Saturday, July 20, 1996 - Video

A good moral tale about drugs and NYC

[bob the moo · 19 November 2001]

Strike (Phifer) works as a drug runner (clocker) in a NY ghetto for dealer Rodney (Delroy Lindo). When someone kills one of Rodney's enemies Detective Klein (Keitel) investigates. Strike's brother Victor (Washington) confesses but suspicion points to Strike. Klein suspects that Victor is covering for his brother and begins to put the heat on Strike for more information.

The main plot is a form of crime thriller, with Keitel playing the cop trying to uncover the truth behind the murder. However the plot is not what this film is about - this is basically a film about the effects on drugs on the NY ghettos. Strike is the "average black man", while his protégé, Tyrone (Peewee Love) is "black youth". The film tries to show the forces placed on them by their situation, their role models and the few options they have in life. Rodney represents the draw of selling drugs, of quick money while policemen Andre (Keith David) and Klein represent his conscience trying to get him to do the right thing - Andre and Tyrone's mother (Regina Taylor) particularly doing right by your own community.

The message is at times forced, Keitel's sequence towards the end is very clever cinematically but feels a bit like a sermon, but at other times we're allowed to work it out ourselves. Strike is not judged but allowed to be pulled by the situation around him, his sickness representing the sickness of his situation. Through him we see the pressures that are on him to act like his peers and the bad role-models he has in his life. In Shorty we see the same things affect the next generation and, while his aping of Strike is clumsy, you again see how the lack of good role-models reduces the options for an otherwise intelligent kid. The best thing about the comparison of Lindo and Keitel is that neither is judged - both are allowed to show themselves as appealing, Lindo appears as a parent, almost seeking the best for all his workers and Keitel is allowed to be an honest cop with a good moral code. However both are also seen in a bad light, Lindo brings out the violence, pressure and treachery of his character - a man who is really out for himself while the way Keitel pressures Strike is seen as bad as Rodney's pressure and reveals a racist angry streak within himself. We are left wondering how anyone can survive between the two.

Phifer is good as Strike and manages to avoid just doing a ghetto-movie type of performance, he makes you believe that he is trapped in a no-win situation. Isaiah Washington gives another in a string of strong performances as the honest man trying to get by. Lindo is great as drug dealer Rodney, mixing paternal aspirations with moments of sudden viciousness. Keitel and John Turturro act below their station and aren't given much to work with, Keitel especially doesn't always manage to carry the moral core of the story without preaching. Two small roles of interest are Tom Byrd as Errol who has plays the fallen dealer with AIDS, however not enough is explained about his character, also Michael Imperioli (better known as Chris in The Sopranos) plays bent cop Jo-Jo. Peewee Love stands out as Shorty/Shorty, sucked into a world that lacks choice.

The film looks great, the whole thing has a bright colourful sheen on it that is very attractive to look at. Combined with Lee's stylish director it makes for a beautiful film - although some scenes are shot differently and on different stock, to make a point, although I'm not sure what that point is. The music is as good as most of Lee's movies, a mix of soul and hip hop, it is better than many ghetto films that just assume that the hip hop is all that's needed to help the mood.

This is a good example of the lack of options that exist in the ghetto and, besides some very obvious preaching, it makes it's point without shouting it at the audience. The only failing is that Lee bottles it near the end, delivering a sentimental ending of hope that is unfortunately not the truth in many cases.

Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese Combine Forces

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 13 February 2014]

Young drug pushers in the projects of Brooklyn live hard dangerous lives, trapped between their drug bosses and the detectives out to stop them.

When watching this film, knowing it first went through the hands of Martin Scorsese, one cannot help but wonder how Spike Lee does it different than Scorsese would. The obvious answer is that Lee is able to provide an authenticity that Scorsese may not have. While it is not true that only black men can tell the stories of other black men, but few handle the material like Lee does. Scorsese would likely have shifted the emphasis to Rocco Klein, the white cop.

And that would have worked, as well. Klein (played by Harvey Keitel) is the co-protagonist, as his search for the killer is an important plot point. Roger Ebert says, "He is a weary professional who acts as a witness to death. There is a tendency in his business not to linger too long over the death of one young drug dealer, but he cannot get stubborn questions out of his mind." Keitel does a fine job in this role, and it is nice to see him take his gritty gangster image and put a spin on it towards law enforcement.

Small movie about small people in the big city

[Pedro_H · 6/10 · 19 April 2003]

In the black urban jungle of NY young black men earn an easy living selling drugs around the clock (hence the title). However a turf dispute leads to murder and unwanted attention from the police.

I take my hat off to Spike Lee because he takes on difficult subjects and usually produces a film that is at least watchable out of them. Taking on the street drug scene in NY was hardly going to get him Oscar nominations or front covers - but the film is serious, modestly interesting and just occasionally insightful.

The film is born in to bondage because no one has much of a capacity for change and we know all the rules of roughhouse urban life (or get up to speed quickly here). Strangely I expected the world to be harsher and more squalid, the setting of Summer makes the place seem almost pleasant.

The central murder is almost a throwaway, like it tacked on to try and build suspense and introduce the white cops (the kind of role that Harvey Kietel can play in his sleep) to this black vicinity. Remember the "no drama without conflict" rule? Ok - just checking!

The lead Strike (Mekhi Phifer) is not someone to feel sorry for, despite his stomach ulcers and life of self-created danger. The local drug boss (played by Delroy Lindo) and store owner is no cliché and has some insights about his dangerous product. Some might even see him as an entrepreneur that is only playing by rules of the street - although I certainly don't!

This is really a small film and doesn't really measure up to earlier "life in the 'hood" movies which had some novelty value and somewhere to go. This movie rather sits and stews in its own juice, like a prison movie. Things get resolved and people are steered in the right direction, but you are left with a giant feeling that this a film about lives that are without hope or without satisfaction. The dye has long been set. Lee trys to pretend that, maybe, it is not by the closing scenes - but I am not buying it.

Check out the Brazilain movie Pixote to see where certain plot lines are borrowed from.

a teaching tool

[dreed444 · 6/10 · 3 September 2003]

I've watched this film twice. It's good, no doubt. But one thing that isn't mentioned here is that it seems to be a film by Spike Lee to teach the white man what it means to be a black man - especially in the projects of Brooklyn. I found myself saying "message coming in" at certain parts of this. And the trains.....come on. It's like Lee thinks, "what kind of "hobby" can a white person relate to?" so he picks trains...not ONLY that, but the main character doesn't like sports or b-ball or anything but trains, clocking and Mylanta. The first half hour is strong and then the "let's include the white man in on this conversation" comes in and it feel obvious. Lee needs to just tell a story and not be so concerned with the audience - whatEVER color it is. The cinematography is excellent - the characters are great...but Lee is too concerned with making sure the whole color spectrum can relate to his stuff.... which, for me, is just a little too self conscious. I dunno.....6 out of 10 for me.

Perfect movie

[garage5inc · 10/10 · 10 December 2002]

Clockers refers to drug dealers who work around the clock on an organized schedule. The movie takes place in no other city than New York, Spike Lee's trademark as a director. Strike (Phiefer) is a clocker who works with his friends in the park selling high potency drugs to neighborhood people, under the command of Rodney, the drug dealer of the area. Rodney tells Strike if he wants to get off the benches he should kill a man named Daryl who is selling ounces and making lots of cash, Strike considers it, but he isn't a killer. That night Strike's brother Victor comes into the bar and is mentally upset and talks to Strike. A little later Daryl is killed by four gunshots, one in the leg, one in the head, one in the chest, and one caught between his teeth. Spike Lee shows off the gritty urban street crime life here perfectly. Harvey Keitel and John Turturro play homicide detectives who take the case, and the clockers are the main suspects.

Clockers is a surreal look at the drug buisness, friendship, descision making, and death in the city. This movie has a flawless cast, the clockers, the detectives, and Rodney and Harold the dealers are perfect. The script is great too, as it has suprises, good dialogue, action, and setting. The direction is almost perfect, especially the last scene with the train, Spike Lee is one of the most underrated directors ever. This movie is made to please, action lovers will find it interesting, and film buffs should find it fascinating! Keep an open mind from beginning to end and analyze ever scene with its content. Great movie 10/10

Tribal Study.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 5 May 2012]

In this complicated tale of the pressures on Mekhi Phifer in the Brooklyn projects, director Spike Lee captures the values and the iconography of the African-American community well, as he usually does. You get a genuine sense of the simmering anger, the shifting allegiances, and the small reward system of the social world these pathetic people live in.

Pfifer is the central figure and he sweats a lot. No brighter or better than he should be, he's pressured from one side into dealing cocaine by local mogul Delroy Lindo. On the other side, he's pushed by the manipulative but well-intentioned detectives Harvey Keitel and Stanley Turturro. Pfifer's handsome and upright brother is under arrest for murder but Keitel believes that Pfifer is the culprit. Pfifer's brother is simply too good, too compliant, to have done the deed.

Nice ambiguity. Lee convincingly nails the diversity and solidarity of the community. It's like John Ford in the ghetto. Pfifer may be innocent of the crime of which Keitel is convinced he's guilty but he also deals dope. Keitel, for all his ploying the system, is determined to bring the guilty party to justice, though he may play a little dirty in getting the job done. And when he finds out that he's been wrong about who committed the murder, he does what such a person would do in real life. He hides his guilt behind a tirade of threats.

In a way, it's an improvement over Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing." It doesn't turn all the cops into heavies. And it doesn't end with an ominous quote from Malcolm X.

The weakness of the film lies in Lee's allowing conversations to go on for too long. Pfifer gets a lot of screen time and when he's not chewing out his young brother (who will save his life) he's whining about his innocence. The exchanges, sometimes rising to shouts, go on too long and become tiring.

It's a devalued life these people lead. They wear clothes and they groom themselves in ways that appeal only to those in their immediate and limited social worlds. I'm beginning to develop an idea. The more you resemble someone who is upper class and British, the more your social worth. The farther removed you are from this model, the lower your status. If you could take Pfifer, dress him in riding clothes and teach him to play polo, and have him say "eck-tually" instead of "aks," and have him grow some hair on his shaved and shiny skull, he might not be thought guilty of anything except being too polite.

A Review For Clockers (some spoilers)

[dee.reid · 10/10 · 24 October 2001]

Strike(Mekhi Phifer) is a "clocker" or 24-hour drug dealer. Strike, along with five other clockers: Scientific(Sticky Fingaz), Go(Fredro Starr), Horace(E.O. Nolasco), Stan(Lawrence B. Adisa), and Skills(Hassan Johnson) all work the benches inside the housing projects in New York City. They are constantly being harassed by the police who often come and search them for any drugs they may have in their possession. Strike who is getting tired and stressed out from working the benches, asks his boss Rodney(Delroy Lindo) to see if he can move up to a better position in the New York drug trade. Rodney tells Strike the only way to do it is if he kills another clocker named Darryl Adams(Steve White) who works as the night manager at Ahab's Burger, a local restaurant. So one night, Strike patiently waits for Darryl to come out from the Ahab's, but Strike decides to into a local bar. Sometime later, Darryl is found dead, the victim of an apparent street crime. This introduces us to NYPD Homicide Detectives Rocco Klein(Harvey Keitel) and Larry Mazilli(John Turturro). When they arrive at the crime scene, they find the officers joking around as they search Darryl's bloody corspe for any evidence. The police soon after gather enough evidence to pin the perpetrator of the crime on Strike. Before they can arrest him though, Strike's decent and hard-working brother, Victor(Isaiah Washington) turns himself into the police as the murderer. Rocco doesn't believe Victor's story since he doesn't believe Victor had any real reason to murder Darryl. But he does believe however, that since Strike went bad and did have a motive to kill Darryl and Victor remained a good person, that Strike is the real murderer, but can he prove it?

This is in fact Spike Lee's most underrated film, even more underrated than his epic Malcolm X. Clockers offers an inside look into the world of black on black crime. What's even more disturbing about Clockers is that it opens up playing Marc Dorsey's song "People In Search Of A Life" while showing us bloody crime scene photos. I heard that Spike Lee said he did this for "the maximum effect". I guess that means he wanted show us the true nature of street crime and the effect it has on the community where they happen.

Mekhi Phifer makes an impressive film debut as Strike, the lead clocker. He isn't necessarily a bad person nor is he a good person either. His influence on Tyrone Jeeter(Pee Wee Love) a young boy whom Strike takes under his wing, is frightening, as well as it is disturbing. Tyrone begins the same sort of transformation that Strike went through after Rodney got a hold of him. As Strike tells Tyrone about Errol Barnes, "Oh, don't think that just cuz your a kid and all, that he won't smoke you. Why just last year I heard he caught himself a 10-year old." A striking moment in the movie that shows street crime can happen to anyone, even kids.

Keith David gives a terrific, yet under-used performance as Andre The Giant, a local housing police officer who tries unsuccessfully to keep Tyrone from becoming like Strike.

I think one of the most over-looked performance here however is Thomas Jefferson Byrd who plays Errol Barnes, a middle-aged man who is dying of AIDS. He is Rodney's right-hand man and is also a known child murderer. ***SPOILERS AHEAD*** Spike Lee also creates a sort of ironic twist-of-fate for Errol towards the end of the movie.

Clockers is a very disturbing film that should have gotten more attention from critics as well as the movie public.

I loved this movie and I never get tired of watching it.

Clockers gets a 10/10

Takes about 1/2 of the novel "Clockers" and does a very good job with it!

[lemon_magic · 7/10 · 14 July 2005]

I am not a big fan of Spike Lee, and "Clockers" did not turn me into a fan. But I was a huge admirer of the original novel version of "Clockers", and I was pretty sure I could depend on a person with Lee's talents to do justice to the story. So I made sure to see this film within a couple of days of its initial release. Well, Lee took some shortcuts along the way, and I am not sure if the choices he made were the best, but the results are quite affecting.

When I say that Lee's version of "Clockers" takes only half of the novel, I mean that what we see in the movie version is essentially the "black" side of the story. The investigating detective, played by Harvey Keitel, is reduced to a cipher, a straight-arrow Joe Friday type who is only there to show the 'police procedural' part of the dynamics between the police and the drug dealers to control the neighborhood. In the book, the reader comes to know the cops - ALL the cops, not just Keitel's character - as well as Strike and the dealers and the denizens of the neighborhood. Lee chooses to omit this entire aspect of the story, which is a shame, because the most powerful part of "Clockers"-the-novel is the way it presents the whole picture of life in a ghetto/projects area.

But Lee chooses to stick with Strike and his world. I believe this was done to help Lee focus more on issues in the black community that he is most interested in, and which (in the days before the rise of 'gangsta' culture, hip-hop, and the rise of authors such as George Pelecanos and Don Goines) were (and maybe still are) severely underrepresented in mainstream cinema.

And the results are still very effective. The relationship and the exchanges between Strike and his mentor (played with ferocious effectiveness by Delroy Lindo) came across on film exactly the way I'd pictured it from the book, the interiors of the bars, the squalor and graffiti in the projects, the aimlessness of some of the 'lesser lights' in the neighborhood - people who you knew would never escape...all this came across perfectly. The young actor who played "Strike" has just the right blend of nervous energy, youthful charisma and doomed resignation, and I keep looking for him in other roles to see what else he can do.

One major complaint - at the end, Lee pulls a big cheat, by substituting a 'virtual reality' shooting game for the complex web of emotions, anger and conflict that drive a juvenile to ruin his life by shooting down a dealer. This runs counter to the whole message of the film with its lazy substitution of 'video games cheapen the value of life' versus the message of the entire rest of the film that 'racism, drugs, and poverty cheapen life'. I was very disappointed with this blatant cop out, and that knocks a star or two off the final rating.

And I am still not a Spike Lee fan. But this was a good adaptation of a very challenging story.

Spike Lee's early film is solid

[PersianPlaya408 · 8/10 · 22 September 2006]

Spike Lee's urban drama about a drugpusher who the police become suspicious towards after a man is found with 4 bullets in him in their neighborhood. This is a good early film from Spike Lee, he later built on this film's theme with much better films in He Got Game and The 25th Hour. But this one was also solid, with some very good performances and certain very good scenes. The screenplay was pretty good, based on Price's own book, and i liked Phifer, Turturro and Keitel a lot in this. Good cinematography from Malik Hassan Sayeed and editing from Smuael D. Pollard. Terence Blanchard's score is also not bad. overall a solid mid 90s film from Spike Lee.--- IMDb Rating: 6.8, my rating: 8/10

take a hit of this spike lee joint and you will get burnt out

[matt-szy · 7/10 · 11 May 2006]

This Spike Lee Joint like all Spike Lee joints cuts away at the layers of a society where things are not right. Its a detective and small time crooks story but its also got more. The story itself, based on a Richard Price novel, Clockers, is a raw portrayal of young drug dealers, aka clockers, caught in the cyclical grit of the New York streets with little hope of escaping this life. One of these young clockers is killed and a detective tries to get down to the facts. His two main suspects are brothers: one is a clocker, the other is trying to make it by being legit. Thats the basic story. And it works.

What else works is Spike's depiction of the desperation and workings of the cycle of drug dealing and how it is passed down from old to young - the mechanism of ghetto life is fueled and kept going by its inner workings. A kid is obsessed with a gangster video game, similar to GTA. Other kids are more interested in looking hip then making something of themselves - all typical things in ghetto life - to give the idea of prestige via bling bling, clothes and such. Characters in the film, Rodney, Spike, Shorty, all want or wanted to get involved in the street happenings to gain maybe notoriety or credit or a sense of importance and in the end they must pay for this.

My problems with the film are these: At times the film gets instructional. For instance there are a few monologues that preach the negative effects of crack as if the film is a public service announcement to all the crack users. Another monologue, the one in the barber shop about buying useless things could be more subtle instead of some blatant anti consumerist agenda speech. Its clear Spike feels strongly about these issues and in general the hopelessness of ghetto life. But too often I got the feeling he's trying to talk you out of it, rather than simply objectively show it. And this was my problem with this. Its got moral message that might as well have been preceded with 5 seconds of black frame with white letters saying, "this is the message of the film so listen carefully." In this case, all those writing and film teachers who told me many times over to show and not tell, I now noticed were hitting on something important, something Spike should have taken into account. Otherwise, why not he start making commercial service announcements about social issues and state propositions which so and so political figure is fighting to change for the better.

Or maybe the reason I give it a seven out of ten has something to do with the eyeball reflection shot where Detective (Kietel) is seen reflected, as if stuck in the eyeball of the suspected killer. Does this mean he is innocent? Or is it all subjective? You decide.

Trades in Objectivity for a Teacherish understanding of the Subject

[lylewins · 5/10 · 19 February 2011]

Let me say that I just finished the novel, and have only just watched the film.

I try not to be one of those people who reads a book, watches the movie, and then tears the latter apart, but there are some significant issues that come to mind when considering this adaptation.

1: There is just too much music and scoring.

Thus the whole thing feels artificial, or like an after-school special come to life with ghetto undertones. I'm not quite sure why Spike Lee would have chosen this presentation, though perhaps it was to create an expected emotional bond with his audience that he felt was lacking due to the large ensemble cast, or maybe he didn't trust the performances of his actors. Regardless, the overall effect cheapens the drama and removes all the real life consequence the story and characters naturally possess (as written).

2: The acting comes across as preachy.

Consequently, the whole film seems like it trying to prove a point (and nothing else). On the one hand, it's saying to the kids growing up in the projects that, "This is no way to live. Let me show you how." And on the other, it's reaching out to the dominantly white congress, senate, electorate & bureaucracy, and trying to show these people the human cost of their ignorance, bad public policy making & flawed humanitarian ideals and voting.

So the thing is, Richard Price's writing is excruciatingly realistic, and his novel, though not without its genre tropes, is equally exacting, and poignant.

This film, however, feels like a very well-hearted effort to render the former, but that gets lost in way too much ideology.