Clockers Information

Clockers is a 1995 thriller film directed by Spike Lee. The screenplay, written by Richard Price and Lee, is based on Price's novel of the same name. The film stars Mekhi Phifer in his first feature film role.

Plot summary

In a Brooklyn housing project, a group of "clockers" - street-level drug dealers - sell drugs for Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo), a local drug lord. Rodney tells Ronald "Strike" Dunham (Mekhi Phifer), one of his lead clockers, that another dealer, Darryl Adams (Steve White), is stealing from him and "got to be got", implying that he wants Strike to kill Darryl. Strike then meets with his brother, Victor Dunham (Isaiah Washington) and tries to persuade Victor to kill Darryl Adams.

Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel) and Larry Mazilli (John Turturro), homicide detectives, ride to the scene of Darryl Adams' murder. Larry and Rocco receive a phone call from another detective who says a man has confessed at a local church that he killed Darryl. The police meet Strike's older brother Victor at the church and take him in for questioning. In the interrogation room, Victor tells Rocco that he shot Darryl Adams in self-defense. Rocco finds holes in this story and starts looking into Victor's background which includes two jobs, a wife, two children, no criminal record, and aspirations to move out of the projects; Rocco comes to the conclusion that Victor is covering for his younger brother.

Rocco pressures Strike but Victor sticks to his story, so Rocco convinces Rodney that Strike has confessed and informed on Rodney's drug ring. Rocco arrests Rodney and then humiliates Strike in front of his crew. Strike gets together some money and decides to leave town, but a younger boy who admired Strike shoots Errol, Rodney's enforcer, with Strike's gun. Rocco lets Strike leave town.

Cast

• Harvey Keitel "? Det. Rocco Klein
• John Turturro "? Det. Larry Mazilli
• Delroy Lindo "? Rodney Little
• Mekhi Phifer "? Ronald 'Strike' Dunham
• Isaiah Washington "? Victor Dunham
• Keith David "? André the Giant
• Pee Wee Love "? Tyrone 'Shorty' Jeeter
• Sticky Fingaz "? Scientific
• Regina Taylor "? Iris Jeeter
• Fredro "? Go
• Elvis Nolasco "? Horace
• Tom Byrd "? Errol Barnes
• Lawrence B. Adisa "? Stan
• Hassan Johnson "? Skills
• Frances Foster "? Gloria
• Michael Imperioli "? Detective Jo-Jo
• Mike Starr "? Thumper
• Lisa Arrindell Anderson "? Sharon Dunham
• Paul Calderon "? Jesus
• Brendan Kelly "? Big Chief
• Graham Brown "? Herman Brown
• Steve White - Darryl Adams
• Spike Lee "? Chucky
• Harry Lennix "? Bill Walker
• Michael Badalucco "? Cop #1
• Ricky Aiello "? Cop #2

Reception

The film received generally positive reviews. Roger Ebert gave the movie a three-and-a-half stars, and the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes records that 67% of reviewers viewed it positively.

Film poster

Critics and film buffs were quick to notice that the poster, designed by Art Sims, was similar to Saul Bass' art for Otto Preminger's 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder. Sims claimed that it was a homage, but Bass regarded it as a rip-off.

Box office

The movie had a poor opening at the box office.

Soundtrack

Title	Composer	Performer
"People in Search of a Life"	Raymond Jones	Marc Dorsey
"Children of the Ghetto"	Chris Amoo & Eddie Amoo	Philip Bailey
"Reality Check"	Branford Marsalis and Ricky Dacosta	Buckshot Lefonque
"Silent Hero"	Des'ree and Prince Sampson	Des'ree
"Changes"	Gordon Chambers & Ike Lee III	Marc Dorsey
"Reality"	Duron Edwards & Shawn McFadden	Brooklynytes
"Sex Soldier"	George Kahni & Mekael Henningham	Rebelz of Authority
"Love Me Still"	Chaka Khan and Bruce Hornsby
"Crazy"	Seal
"Bird of Freedom"	Seal
"Blast of the Iron"	Rebelz of Authority and Salaam Remi	Rebelz of Authority
"Newborn Friend"	Seal
"Outta Here"	Lawrence Parker and DJ Premier	KRS-One
"Survival of the Fittest/Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers"	Chubb Rock, Jeru The Damaja and DJ Premier	Crooklyn Dodgers
"Illa Killa"	Rasheed Brown	Strictly Difficult
"Bad Boy No Go a Jail"	Monk Higgins and Garth Williams	Mega Banton
"Posidrive"	John Fiddy	John Fiddy and Sammy Burdson