HOODLUM

In HOODLUM Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson (Laurence Fishburne) seeks dignity for black gangsters by going to war with white racist Dutch Schultz over the numbers racket in Harlem in the mid 1930’s. Bumpy’s fight begins when he is released from Sing Sing prison in 1934 and comes home to Harlem to see his impoverished neighbors being abused by Dutch Schultz’s henchmen. He decides to take control of what he believes is the biggest industry in Harlem: gambling. Schultz is trying to take over Madame Queen’s (Cicely Tyson’s) business. Madame Queen is the last black independent gambling promoter in Harlem

So Bumpy becomes Madame Queen’s bodyguard. She asks him to run her gambling business when she is thrown into jail by a corrupt judge on Schultz’s payroll. A violent street war between Bumpy and Schultz ensues. Bumpy makes an alliance with gangster Lucky Luciano to eliminate Schultz.

After the torture death of his friend, Illinois (played well by newcomer Chi McBride), Bumpy negotiates a deal with Lucky Luciano (Andy Garcia) to eliminate Schultz and to put the profits from crime in Harlem back into the hands of black people. Finally, on a rainy day in Harlem, at his friend’s funeral, Bumpy looks up at the cross. The scene implies that he becomes reconciled with God. It is too bad the rest of the film wasn’t as good as the ending.

In fact, the best thing about this bloodfest is its ending. HOODLUM ends with Bumpy’s implied Christian conversion in the last five minutes of the film. However, in order to get to those good five minutes, the viewer must sit through two hours of numbing, unrelenting violence, and foul language.

Although one might expect violence in a gangster film, the director would have made a much better film had he restrained the violence and the foul language. As it is, Tim Roth’s character, Dutch Schultz, is a human foul language machine. Half of the words he speaks in this film are crude obscenities. Moreover, depicting an African American being crucified and castrated male genitals being thrown on tables in front of women are totally unnecessary.

Furthermore, HOODLUM excuses Bumpy’s crime spree under the pretext that crime is the only activity the white man has left for the black man in the 1930’s. Gangster Bumpy is depicted as a fighter for black pride and dignity, but what about all the other thousands of anonymous black family men, who toiled in unrecognized, arduous labor to support their families who did not resort to crime? Are they not more commendable than one who turned to crime for his livelihood?

Bumpy’s girlfriend, Frances (former Miss America Vanessa Williams) tries to convince him that he and other blacks have skills to become professional people, or artists, but Bumpy rejects her arguments and convinces her to accompany him as he engages in his crime spree. Although she professes Christian beliefs, Frances chooses to fornicate, and to live with Bumpy outside of marriage. She tries to persuade Bumpy to go to church, but Bumpy crudely rejects God, but the Bible is called a good book in the film.