It was a good movie in my opinion, but I would stop short of calling it a classic. You can tell that the movie primarily comes from the perspective of Cube and Dre. That’s cool, but at times in the movie, it felt as if it was only about them two and not the whole group. It seems the primary focus of the movie was to educate the younger and ignorant folks on how these two came to be who they are. From that time in 1986 up until this day, it could be argued that no one has been more successful than Dr.Dre and Ice Cube in the entertainment business. I thought the movie did a good job of giving us the story of Eazy E; who was the leader of the group. The same could be said of the portrayal of Jerry Heller, the infamous manager who was accused of stealing money from them.
However there wasn’t much backdrop on Dj Yella and Mc Ren. We don’t where they come from or how they felt about certain matters in the movie. There was a nice portion of the movie that concentrated on Dallas emcee and affiliate D.O.C. It touched on his car accident that ended his career and showed how he was the first to link with Suge Knight. But it doesn’t tell us how Dre met the D.O.C, and it doesn’t really say anything about the music he recorded prior to his car accident. The movie really doesn’t deal with how’s and why’s, but more of where and what. It did a good job of describing the blatant police brutality and harassment that goes on in South Central California. It shows you how the tension of the gangs, police and violence of Compton translated into their music.
It was like Cube and Dre saying ‘this is where we from and this is what we did.’ Watching this journey unfold throughout the movie may be more exciting to watch for the younger folks than it would be for the older people who lived through it. For example, I remember that the song ‘Fuck the Police’ was so strong and powerful, that the police would pull you over if they heard you playing it. That’s how dangerous NWA was, you could go to jail for playing their music. From that perspective of establishing and reinforcing the group’s purpose and impact, the movie was great. From the angle of giving us more intimate details about the group, it fell short. It was pretty much what we know already, cut neat and presented in a box.
That doesn’t take away from the quality of the movie; it actually makes you want more. It would be cool, if someone follows this up with more independent look on the group career. Not one of the members, but someone who was in the know, and can give us the ‘real.’ Give us more personal details on the members of the group. For instance, in the movie we see Ice Cube wife just pop out the blue. We don’t how he met her, when he met her, none of that. They did show how Dre met his wife in the movie. But it doesn’t say anything about Michel’le; who has a baby by Dre, Suge and was an artist on Eazy’s label.
All in all I applaud those brothers for putting out this movie. Like I said earlier, the group was “The Most Dangerous”, not because of their actions but by their words. Their impact in Hip Hop, music and culture cannot be overstated. With that said I give the movie a B. It was a good movie. Not average (C) or Excellent (A), just real good and entertaining. If you haven’t seen it already, then I do suggest you go see “Straight Outta Compton.”
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