Colors

source: Colors

Trailer—Colors

Colors

Colors is a classic hood movie. This is the one that still stands the test of time. But what makes Colors so good is that it fouces on the cops and not teenagers as the main characters. Sean Peen is great in the lead as is Robert Duvall as his partner. If you haven't seen it check it out.

Gang violence in L.A., an experienced police officer paired with a rookie trying to keep the peace, young people being drawn into gangs, drive-by shootings with tragic consequences, and screaming relatives following the shootings. We've seen this so many times and this 1988 film is no different. There are 2 good performances mainly by Robert Duvall and Sean Penn as the 2 police officers caught up in all this mayhem. Of course, the ending is tragic, but what else would you expect. Violence is never about to take a vacation. The ending scene is where Penn is with a new rookie, a black officer, trying to break him in. He is hot on his tail. Reminds me of Anne Baxter at the end of "All About Eve."

Viewed this film a few years ago and enjoyed it the second time around. Sean Penn, (Officer Danny McGavin) was a rookie who started out knowing just how to handle the various gangs in Los Angeles and even got all hot and bothered about a nice looking gal who could Tease and Please without any problems. His old time partner was, Robert Duvall,(Bob Hodges), who was married and had a family and tried to take Danny McGavin under his wing and calm him down. Bob Hodges was about to retire and had handled the various gangs a different way that most of the other Police officers and it seemed to work out very well. Bob got all kinds of information he needed by just treating the gangs and their leaders with a certain kind of respect. The film had plenty of action, but was entirely too long for a story we have seen many times on the Big Screen. However, Duval and Penn gave outstanding performances and were great working together.

Until I checked this out on IMDB, I had no idea that Dennis Hopper was the director. Wow, that says a lot about his directing ability. In a void, this movie might not be great. Someone from the UK complained about it. I'm not from Compton but, this movie rates up there with the other true-to-lifers like Boyz in the Hood, and other gang related "classics" (as they deserve to be called). This is a great movie with great acting and a great plotline. It's a pretty realistic view (again, I'm not a gang banger, so maybe my view is skewed) of the gang life in L.A. And it was the first to really portray it... I'm still a big fan of Boyz in the Hood (not for excitement, but for a good story about a tough life). But this was the first (as I recall) and Hopper deserves a great deal of credit for that. Penn and Duvall are fantastic actors and both come through in a big way in this movie. My personal opinion: This movie has been, by far, underrated...

My generation remembers these times...This is before Rodney King and the riots, before the relentless moralizing of Spike Lee and John Singleton. Back then, urban gang warfare was comfortably distant. This is before cell phones, bling, rims, before the thug life became a marketable commodity. Colors is distinctive for Hopper's tight focus, his honest approach and complete lack of sentimentality. The world depicted here is horizontal, and filmed horizontally; it is ugly and unironic, and in a way egalitarian; there are NO courts or lawyers, every introduction of ethics is literally shot down. It's hard to imagine anything being made like this in today's multiculti/PC world, any such attempt would immediately provoke shrieking and clutching of skirts at the sight of 'racism'. This paradigm of movie-making didn't survive, it disappeared like Duvall's soul in that departing helicopter shot. Unfortunately, the trend went the way of "Boyz n the Hood".