Clockers

This film about streetcorner drug dealing is a precursor to The Wire that highlights the breakthrough of the “greatest tv series ever.” Writer Richard Price, director Spike Lee, and producer Martin Scorsese are all serious men as well as canny entertainers -- estimable artists all, plus particular favorites of mine. I still have my ARC (advance reading copy) of the novel, from my days as a bookseller. But on re-viewing the film, all I can say is, “It’s good, but nowhere near as good as The Wire.” Harvey Keitel is the tough, shady Brooklyn homocide detective trying to crack a case involving two brothers, straight arrow Isaiah Washington and corner dealer Mekhi Phifer, each driven mad by the requirements of economic success in their straightened circumstances, the one working two full-time jobs in hopes of allowing his family to escape the ghetto, and the other developing an ulcer while running a corner of “clockers” and finding relief only in his Lionel train set-up. Delroy Lindo is appropriately ominous as the candy store owner fronting the drug business. The film is gritty and truthful up to a point, but Spike Lee adds some of his showy style and an annoyingly insistent and inappropriate music track, which is a big minus to the reality of the story. (1995, dvd, r.) *7-*