Dead Presidents
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	The Hughes Brothers
Screenplay by	Michael Henry Brown
Story by	Albert Hughes Allen Hughes Michael Henry Brown
Produced by	Albert Hughes Allen Hughes
Starring	Larenz Tate Keith David Chris Tucker N'Bushe Wright Freddy Rodriguez Bokeem Woodbine
Cinematography	Lisa Rinzler
Edited by	Dan Lebental
Music by	Danny Elfman
Production companies	Hollywood Pictures Caravan Pictures Underworld Entertainment
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Release date	October 4, 1995 (1995-10-04)
Running time	119 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$10 million
Box office	$24.1 million (domestic)[1]

Dead Presidents is a 1995 American crime film co-written, produced and directed by the Hughes Brothers. The film chronicles the life of Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate), focusing on his teenage years as a high school graduate and his experiences during the Vietnam War as a Recon Marine. As he returns to his hometown in The Bronx, Curtis finds himself struggling to support himself and his family, eventually turning to a life of crime.

Dead Presidents is based partly on the real-life experiences of Haywood T. Kirkland (aka Ari S. Merretazon), whose true story was detailed in the book Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans by Wallace Terry. Certain characters from the film are based on real acquaintances of Kirkland, who served time in prison after committing robbery in facepaint.^[2] The film also is loosely based on several incidents involving the Black Liberation Army, notably the Brink's armored truck robbery.

Plot

In 1969, Anthony Curtis, a soon-to-be high school graduate in The Bronx, chooses to enlist in the United States Marine Corps rather than go to college. He is sent to Vietnam, leaving behind his middle-class family, his girlfriend Juanita, and small-time crook Kirby, who is like a second father. Anthony's close friend, Skip, later joins Curtis' Recon squad after dropping out of Hunter College. His other friend, Jose, is drafted into the United States Army. Once in Vietnam, 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, he finds returning to "normal" life impossible. Skip is now an Agent Orange victim and heroin addict; Jose, forced to wear a prosthetic hand, is a pyromaniac who works as a postman at the James A. Farley Building, and Cleon, the squad's religious but homicidal staff sergeant, is now a devoted minister in Mount Vernon.

After being laid off from his job at a butcher shop, Anthony finds himself unable to support Juanita (who had an affair with a pimp while he was deployed) or his infant daughter. After an argument with Juanita, Anthony meets her sister, Delilah, who is now a member of the "Nat Turner Cadre", a militant communist 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.

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 black NYPD officer who unknowingly stumbles upon the robbery, leading to Kirby being shot in the arm and Skip killing the officer. At the same time, Anthony and Jose are spotted by the truck's 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 it destroys the entire vehicle. Delilah saves Anthony's life by killing one of the guards. A second guard appears and shoots Delilah multiple times, killing her. 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 he shoots the driver, he is hit by the car and killed as the police car crashes into a wall.

Not long after the heist, Kirby hears that Cleon has been giving out $100 bills and purchased 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 due to his remorse in the death of the earlier officer. 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, but it is to no avail, as multiple officers corner Anthony and arrest him.

Anthony is convicted by a judge. His lawyer asks the court to show mercy, as Anthony served his country faithfully in the Marines and earned a Silver Star. However the judge, a World War II veteran himself, proclaims that Anthony has forgotten the values that the Marines taught him and that he shouldn't use the Vietnam War as an excuse for his actions, sentencing him to fifteen years to life. Anthony, furious at his sentence in spite of his years of service, throws a chair at the judge before being escorted away by bailiffs. The final scene shows Anthony looking out the window of his prison bus.

Cast

Themes

The film depicts the struggle of returning war veterans of color who are neglected by the US government and the mistreatment of Vietnam veterans. Many Black and Latino veterans of the Vietnam War were denied benefits, compensation, and recognition for their efforts in serving their country.^[3]

Production

Principal photography commenced on October 31, 1994.^[4] The production filmed through the remainder of the year and into early February across a variety of locations, including location shoots Brooklyn and Mount Vernon, New York. Sound stages in Queens and Los Angeles served as interior locations. All Vietnam scenes were shot in Florida, with former celery farm Lee Ranch serving as the outdoor sets.^[5]

Reception

Dead Presidents received mixed reviews from critics. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 49% of critics gave the film a positive rating, based on 35 reviews with an average score of 5.8/10.^[6]

Todd McCarthy of Variety gave the film a positive review stating, "In all respects an extremely ambitious follow-up to their crackling debut, Menace II Society, the Hughes Brothers' mordant Dead Presidents may eventually box itself into a narrative dead end, but its muscular engagement of weighty themes and explosive situations makes it a powerful drama."^[7] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called the film "both expected and surprising, familiar and yet somehow different. Made with fluid skill and a passion for storytelling, its tale of how the Vietnam War and American society affect a black Marine remains accessible while confounding expectations."^[8]

Caryn James of The New York Times felt the film "takes on much more than it can handle." Comparing the film with the Hughes Brother's previous film James said, "The Hugheses obviously knew the world and generation of Menace II Society better than the past of Dead Presidents, but that is only part of the problem. In Menace they trusted the audience more, immersing them in a violent world the film explained without condoning."^[9]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a mixed 2.5 star review, and explained that the directing duo "have a sure sense of the camera, of actors, of the life within a scene. But they are not as sure when it comes to story and meaning, and here is a film that feels incomplete, as if its last step is into thin air. Scene by scene you feel its skill, but you leave the theater wondering about the meaning of it all."^[10] The early scenes were the best, according to Ebert, and the film "goes off the rails" in the final act.

Mark Kermode placed it at number two in his countdown of top five underrated films of all time.^[11]

Soundtracks

See also

• List of hood films

References

External links

• Dead Presidents at IMDb
• Dead Presidents at Rotten Tomatoes
• Dead Presidents at Box Office Mojo