Menace 2 Society is a film about life in south central, LA.
It revolves around its leading character Caine of whom is named by his drug
dealer father and drug fiend mother in the 1970’s. His beginnings foreshadow to be the film the
tragedy in which it becomes.
We enter the film seeing Caine’s father murder his friend
simply because of an unpaid debt. Caine witnesses the murder – his narration
tells us how it was the first and certainly not the last. This allows the
audience to understand the complex nature of life within South Central for a
young black male – the reasons behind the crime in the 1980s and 90’s.
We then fast-track to Caine’s adolescence. He sports nice
clothes, jewellery, and a pager, finishing a season of high school along with
his classmates, embarking on his daily entails under the beaming California
sun.
He is shown to have a good heart and kind nature as he helps
Jackie and her son financially in honour of his long-time friend who is
currently in prison.
A bright start to the film to say the least. We notice a
contrast between the good and bad times in life.
Caine and O-Dog, his heedless, violent friend, enter a Korean grocery
store to buy a couple of beers. The grocer and his wife, who don't want
trouble, ask them to make their purchase and leave. Caine and O-Dog engage in a
little meaningless verbal intimidation, aware that because they are young and
black they can score some points through the couple's fear. "I feel bad for
your mother," the grocer says as they are about to leave. That is all
O-Dog needs to hear, and he murders the grocer and then forces his wife to hand
over the store's security videotape before killing her, too.
Caine is
shocked by this sudden violent development. He sees it in terms of his own
misfortune: He went out to get a beer, and now he's an accessory to murder.
During the course of the movie, O-Dog will use the videotape for entertainment
at parties, freeze-framing the moment of the grocer's death. Eventually dozens
of people will know who killed the grocer, but nobody will be charged with the
crime, because such violence is so common and the laws are such that many
murders simply slip through the fingers of the police.
There are people in Caine's life who care for him. A friend who has an
athletic scholarship. A teacher at school. His God-fearing grandparents, who
eventually throw him out of the house. His mentor's girlfriend, who wants him
to move to Atlanta with her and start over.
But Caine's
world is narrow. He has the values of his immediate circle, and the lack of
imagination: He cannot envision a world for himself outside of the limited
existence of guns, cars, drugs and swagger.
We see his
role models are represented by his cousin Harold who is killed in a carjacking
after a party. Caine is in the car with him and is shot several times. For now,
he survives. Harold’s death is clearly a foreshadowing to the eventual fate of
Caine and his lifestyle.
After he
leaves hospital, his friend O-Dogg tells Caine the whereabouts of the gangsters
who killed his cousin. That same night him and his friends murder those who
killed Caine’s cousin. Caine shows remorse in saying ‘ I’m not killing no kids
or shooting any crowds’ but his friends conquer his dispute by re-instilling
the idea of being ruthless to his enemies.
That same
night he lays in is bed thinking of his vengeance.‘ I didn’t feel anything, I
just knew I could do it again’. The thoughts of a child numbed by his
environment.
As the film
endures Caine is arrested for car theft. His short time in jail is deemed
almost irrelevant. However, there is a scene where he is interviewed and
intimidated by a police officer in question on the murder in the grocery store.
The lighting is intense and Caine is scared. This amplifies how Caine is still
a meer child, when faced with accessory to murder he is unsure of himself and
worried by the power of the law.
This
doesn’t seem to phase him. When he leaves jail his intentions are to make more
money through the distribution of crack – cocaine. Another product of society,
another statistic, another menace.
He was
taught to make crack-cocaine as a child by his deceased father.
Continuously,
Caine buys a car, he is flossed with gold and he only needs one more thing –
gold rims. This leads him to rob a boy at gunpoint in his car at drive thru.
The victim says ‘we’re supposed to be brothers’ in which Caine dismisses as an
only child alone in a world of drama and vices.
Caine is
then seen to have everything he wants as he cruises through the city to a local
barbeque.
He meets a
lady of whom he eventually impregnates, but doesn’t claim responsibility for.
Jackie, his
girlfriend attempts to convince Caine to move with her and her son to Atlanta,
away from the endless gruels of South Central, LA. He is resistant at first but
agrees to the idea in the end as he sees nothing else for him in LA.
Unknowingly
to Caine, the world is turning against him. His associates grow jealous of him
and envy his life. He is confronted by the cousin of the lady he impregnated.
Caine assaults him and the cousin feels violated. He returns later with his
gang in the form of a drive-by, the death of Caine. Sadly, just as he and
Jackie were moving to Atlanta - to escape.
In my
opinion Menace 2 Society represents the tragedy of many vulnerable young black
boys in impoverished areas all over the world. There is not a lesson to be learned
only the harsh truth of many.
