In a Brooklyn housing project, a group of street-level drug dealers, known as clockers, works for a local drug lord. Ronald "Strike" Dunham, one of the most experienced among them, is ordered to kill a fellow dealer who has been stealing. When a man confesses to the crime, Homicide detectives Rocco Klein and Larry Mazilli start to doubt his version of events.

How it was made

The project began with Martin Scorsese attached to direct, having previously worked with Richard Price on The Color of Money. Scorsese left to focus on Casino, and Spike Lee took over as director and rewrote the script, adapted from Price's novel of the same name. Scorsese stayed on as a co-producer alongside Lee. Filming took place in Brooklyn, and the cast includes Harvey Keitel, John Turturro and Delroy Lindo, with Mekhi Phifer making his feature film debut.

Reception and legacy

Critics received it generally well, with 75% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert gave it three and a half stars out of four. Commercially, however, it was a failure, grossing around 13 million dollars against a 25 million dollar budget.

Stills

Trailer

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Trivia

A controversial poster

The poster, designed by Art Sims, was compared with Saul Bass's artwork for Anatomy of a Murder. Sims called it a homage, while Bass regarded it as a rip-off.

More films by Spike Lee

BlacKkKlansman2018

Malcolm X1992

Inside Man2006

Do the Right Thing1989

25th Hour2002

Jungle Fever1991

Original Cinematopedia text based on Wikipedia (es) and Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.