Creating controversy is one of the methods to bring public attention to certain works of art that would otherwise be brushed aside. But this technique is not always successful, especially when such potentially controversial films have misfortune to be launched roughly at the same time with movies with less controversy and more hype. This thing happened to Drop Squad, 1994 drama directed by David C. Johnson. This film had potential to be remembered as one of the most controversial films of last decade. Unfortunately, PC considerations and brouhaha created over Natural Born Killers drowned any interest for this film, creating controversy only among very few people that actually bothered to see it.
The plot deals with "Drop Squad", small but efficient group of black militants that started in 1960s and specialised in "deprogramming" of those blacks who, in their view, forgot their roots and took their own selfish interests over the interests of their community. They kidnap their victims - corrupt clergymen, politicians or drug dealers - and subject them to the weeks of systematic physical and psychological torture until they see the error of their ways. Their latest target is Bruford (played by Eriq La Salle), advertising executive who agreed to take part in humiliating campaign designated to sell harmful "ethnic" products to black inner-city communities. However, once kidnapped, Bruford proves to be a tough nut to crack, prompting "Drop Squad" leaders to start discussion about their methods. While Rocky Seavers (played by Vondie Curtis Hall) starts doubting in violence as a way to promote the message, Garvey (played by Ving Rhames) argues that this is the only viable method in such circumstances.
Drop Squad is a film burdened with incoherent plot and director who often uses wrong camera techniques. On the other hand, this film is rescued by excellent acting by La Salle, Curtis-Hall and Rhames and three of them manage to convey the film's message. And this message is potentially the most problematic part of the film - in the view of the authors black Americans are allowed to exist in American society only as the members of their race and not as individuals. Whenever those people stray from the path and start putting their own interests first at the expense of the race (even when they don't harm anything other than collective "pride"), they make such a heinous crime that any action in order to "correct" them becomes justifiable. For the American people, who spent all their lives in democracy, ideas promoted in this movie might look harmless satire. On the other hand, author of this review had misfortune to live in the part of world which took ideas similar to those of Drop Squad very seriously and where many evil deeds were justified with words like "pride" and "us vs. them". "Political Correctness" might blind American audience enough to forget that this film might be remade with white characters and later be branded as racist. Drop Squad, despite its very questionable views, is good enough to provoke some thinking among the audience and thus serve some purpose.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on August 5th 2002)
==
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/ Cent profile https://beta.cent.co/@drax Minds profile https://www.minds.com/drax_rp_nc
Brave browser: https://brave.com/dra011
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/109461-drop-squad?language=en-US
Critic: AA
