Panther - DaaVeeDee

Panther (DVD) (*)

Out of Stock

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
Australia ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
119 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1995 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Mario Van Peebles

Written By:
Melvin Van Peebles

Actors:
Kadeem Hardison ..... Judge
Bokeem Woodbine ..... Tyrone
Joe Don Baker ..... Brimmer
Courtney B. Vance ..... Bobby Seale
Tyrin Turner ..... Cy
Marcus Chong ..... Huey Newton
Anthony Griffith ..... Eldridge Cleaver
Bobby Brown ..... Rose
Angela Bassett ..... Dr. Betty Shabazz
Nefertiti ..... Alma
James Russo ..... Rodgers
Jenifer Lewis ..... Rita
Chris Rock ..... Yuck Mouth
Roger Guenveur Smith ..... Pruitt
Michael Wincott ..... Tynan

Synopsis:

Melvin Van Peebles stunned the world for the first time, with his debut feature, 'The Story of a Three Day Pass.' Filmed in France and selected as the French entry in the San Francisco Film Festival, Melvin's film was awarded the top prize. Saying it was controversial would be an understatement. In 1968 for a black man to walk up to the podium and accept the top festival award for a film he had to go abroad to make--now that's how you make your mark. After his comedy, 'Watermelon Man,' Melvin was determined to push the Hollywood boundaries with the groundbreaking, and even more controversial, 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.' Turned down by every major studio including Columbia, where he had a three-picture deal, Melvin was forced to basically self-finance. Risking everything he had Melvin delivered to the world the first Black Ghetto hero on the big screen--whether they were ready or not! More than 30 years later, history is being fashioned again in the telling of this very tale. Mario Van Peebles, Melvin's son, directs an honest and revealing portrait of his pioneering father. Mario now tells the story of the making of Melvin Van Peebles' landmark 1971 film, 'Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song,' including Melvin's struggles to raise money to fund the film under the guise of creating a black porno film. Melvin had ducked creditors, the unions and had to bail out his camera crew after they were arrested because a white cop decided 'a bunch of Negroes and hippies couldn't have come by that camera equipment honestly.' Despite death threats and temporarily losing sight in one eye, Melvin somehow managed to whip into shape a rag-tag, multi-racial crew and finish the film that would give birth to birth of a new era which was about to explode: Independent Black Cinema.

This controversial political drama semi-fictionalizes the history of the radical Black Panther Party, an African-American organization that polarized America from 1966-70. Huey Newton (Marcus Chong) and Bobby Seale (Courtney B. Vance) are a pair of Oakland, California, men who form a new political party dedicated to protecting Blacks from bigoted cops through violent means. Their 'Black Panther Party for Self-Protection' serves free lunch to kids, educates the community in African-American awareness, gets drug dealers off the streets, and has gun battles with the Oakland police. Two members of the Panther Party are Tyrone (Bokeem Woodbine) and Judge (Kadeem Hardison). When FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (Richard Dysart) suspects that the Black Panthers' leftist leanings are an indication of communist involvement, Judge, an affable Vietnam vet, agrees to become a double agent, reporting to both the Feds and the Panthers. After the Panthers storm the State Assembly in Sacramento, political paranoia grows, and Hoover conspires with the mafia to flood urban streets with cheap heroin, thus destroying the party. Director Mario Van Peebles, who also appears in the role of Stokely Carmichael, worked from a script written by his father, Melvin Van Peebles, based on his book about his real-life experiences with the Black Panthers.

Set in the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960s, after the Black Panther movement for Self Defense had been formed in response to the harassment and violence being suffered by the black community at the hands of the police. Judge, a Viet Nam veteran, returns home to Oakland where the Black Panthers, led by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, have begun policing the police and monitering their activities. Judge's good friend Cy introduces him to Huey and the Black Panther credo which forever changes Judge's life. Taken into Huey's confidence, and pressured by the police to act as their informant, Judge raises the suspicions and animosity of fellow Panther Tyrone. The ensuing internal struggle is further exacerbated by the sudden overabundance of heroin available in the ghettos of Oakland, a solution tailored by the FBI in association with organized crime, to 'neutralize' the black community and its leaders.

This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 26 March, 2009.

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