Dead Presidents (1995)

Dead Presidents: Directed by Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes. With Larenz Tate, Keith David, Chris Tucker, Freddy Rodríguez. A Vietnam vet adjusts to life after the war while trying to support his family, but the chance of a better life may involve crime and bloodshed.

“The Hughes Brothers tried to play up the same angle with u0026quot;Dead Presidentsu0026quot; as Micheal Cimino and Louis Garfinkle did with u0026quot;The Deer Hunteru0026quot; by portraying the social effects that the Vietnam war had on its young veterans. And for a while, it seemed as though they were quite successful. But in the end, it became apparent why u0026quot;The Dead Presidentsu0026quot; fell short of the Academy recognition that u0026quot;The Deer Hunteru0026quot; won.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSet in the late 60s and early 70s, the plotline of u0026quot;Dead Presidentsu0026quot; follows a promising and popular inner-city high school graduate, Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate), who decides to forego college and enter the Vietnam War as a member of the Marine Corps. Anthony survives a graphic and arduous three-plus-year stint in the jungle, but upon his homecoming, he realizes that the u0026quot;real worldu0026quot; can be just as trying as war. His low-paying job provides little support for his new family and he becomes desperate to make ends meet. He enlists the help of some old friends and plans a daring armored car heist which, if successful, could serve to amend his past and brighten his future…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe first seventy-five minutes of this movie were really well done. Character traits and relationships were well-established and the mood was properly set as suspense built for the anticipated war scenes–a perfect u0026quot;epic-caliberu0026quot; introduction.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut instead of continuing with a detailed flow, the directing crew tried to cram about ninety minutes worth of material into the final forty-five minutes, and consequently did not leave themselves enough time to totally develop any strong climactic progression or aptly characterize any of the cast members into their sudden postwar u0026quot;criminal complex.u0026quot; Thus, the u0026quot;heist scene,u0026quot; which based on advertising was probably supposed to be one of the more memorable and authoritative parts of the film, seemed to be almost too u0026quot;spur-of-the-momentu0026quot; and lacked motivation and definition.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enAll in all, the filmu0026#39;s running time, which was approximately 119 minutes, was simply far too short for the storyline. The postwar segment of the film (the last forty-five minutes) was indeed key in separating a decent movie like u0026quot;Dead Presidentsu0026quot; from a epic masterpiece like u0026quot;The Deer Hunter.u0026quot;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enBesides the first seventy-five minutes, a couple of notably good performances given by Chris Tucker as Skip (Anthonyu0026#39;s best friend) and Rose Jackson as Juanita (Anthonyu0026#39;s girlfriend) do make u0026quot;Dead Presidentsu0026quot; a movie worth seeing at least once. That said, I would warn not to create a preconception based on the title, tagline or any publicity images that you might have seen, because they apply only to a small portion of the action.”