Supremacy
Film Reviewed by Kam Williams

SupremacySupremacy

In Theaters: Jan 30, 2015 Limited
On DVD: Apr 21, 2015

Rating: Unrated
Genre: Drama
Directed By: Deon Taylor
Runtime: 1 hr. 46 min.
Distributor: Well Go Entertainment
DVD Extras: Behind-the-Scenes featurette; and the theatrical trailer.

DVD Review by Kam Williams
Fair (★½☆☆)

Garrett Tully (Joe Anderson) is about to be paroled after spending the last 15 years behind bars. Although he might have paid his debt to society, he has little hope of making a smooth adjustment back to civilian life, given his fervent hope that America is on the brink of a race war.

You see, Garrett has a lot invested in that belief, being a white supremacist with tattoos of swastikas, a Confederate flag, an Iron Cross and the word “HATE” adorning his face, arms, fingers and chest. This means his prospects of turning a new leaf aren’t very brilliant, especially since Doreen (Dawn Olivieri), the Aryan Brotherhood groupie picking him up from prison, is packing heat just in case they cross paths with a black person on the way home.

And wouldn’t you know it, they’re pulled over by an African-American police officer en route and, before Doreen has a chance to produce her license and registration, Tully calls the cop the “N-word” and blows him away with the gun hidden under the seat. Next, rather than hightailing it to a neo-Nazi sanctuary, the unrepentant race baiters decide to break into a house in a black neighborhood where they proceed to use more racial slurs like “porch monkey” and “niglet” while holding everybody hostage.

scene for supremacy

Fortunately, the Walker family patriarch (Danny Glover) makes sure cooler heads prevail, until help arrives. Too bad the police negotiator (Derek Luke) turns out to be African-American, too.

Directed by Deon Taylor (Chain Letter), Supremacy is a hostage thriller ostensibly inspired by actual events which transpired in Sonoma County, California on the night of March 29, 1995. At 11:30 that evening, Sheriff’s Deputy Frank Trejo was assassinated by a recently-paroled member of the Aryan Brotherhood and his gun moll, just before they forced their way into a nearby house and held the owners captive.

The resolution of this Hollywood version of the standoff relies on an empathetic Mr. Walker’s rising to the occasion. His philosophizing (“Prison does something to a man.”) miraculously manages to induce a couple of the most menacing and despicable screen characters in recent memory to have an 11th hour conversion.

A pretty preposterous turn of events, but who am I to argue with a tale supposedly based on a true story?

Black Power Line


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