Taglines: In this daring heist, the only color that counts is green.
Dead Presidents movie storyline. In the spring of 1969, Anthony Curtis (Larenz Tate) is about to graduate from high school, and decides to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps rather than go to college. He is sent to Vietnam, leaving behind his middle-class family, his pregnant girlfriend Juanita (Rose Jackson), and small-time crook Kirby (Keith David), who is like a second father.
Anthony’s close friend, Skip (Chris Tucker), later joins Curtis’ squad after flunking out of college, and his other friend, Jose (Freddy Rodriguez), is drafted into the Army. Once in the Marines, Curtis and his squad lose several fellow marines during combat, and commit several atrocities of their own, such as executing enemy prisoners and beheading corpses for war trophies.
When Anthony returns to the Bronx in 1973, after four years of service, he finds returning to “normal” life is impossible. He finds Skip is now a heroin addict, Jose is a pyromaniac, and Cleon (Bokeem Woodbine), a religious yet deadly staff sergeant that was in his squad, is now a devoted minister. After being laid off from his job at a butcher shop, Anthony finds himself unable to support Juanita (who had an affair while he was on duty) or his daughter.
After an argument with Juanita, Anthony meets his girlfriend’s sister, Delilah (N’Bushe Wright), who is now a member of the “Nat Turner Cadre”, a revolutionary militant group. Anthony, Kirby, Skip, Jose, Delilah, and Cleon devise a plan to rob an armored car making a stop at the Noble Street Federal Reserve Bank of the Bronx.
The next day, the group strategically position themselves around the street, armed with weapons and disguised with face paint, ready to ambush the truck. The plan goes awry after Anthony and Jose are spotted by the driver, causing a large shootout with the security guards. Jose (a demolition expert in the army) plants an explosive device on the escaping truck to blow off the door, but instead, destroys the whole vehicle.
Delilah saves Anthony’s life as he is about to be shot by a guard, and gets killed instead, devastating Anthony. As the group collects what cash they can from the burning wreckage, they split up to escape the police, and Jose gets crushed against a wall by a squad car after he shoots the driver.
Dead Presidents is a 1995 American crime thriller film co-written by Michael Henry Brown and the Hughes brothers, Albert and Allen, who also produced and directed. It stars Larenz Tate, Keith David, Chris Tucker, Freddy Rodriguez, N’Bushe Wright, and Bokeem Woodbine. The film chronicles the life of Anthony Curtis, focusing on his teenage years as a high school graduate and his experiences during the Vietnam War. As he returns to his hometown in The Bronx, Curtis finds himself struggling to support himself and his family, eventually turning to a life of crime.
Dead Presidents is based partly on the real-life experiences of Haywood T. Kirkland (aka Ari S. Merretazon), whose true story was detailed in the book Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans by Wallace Terry. Certain characters from the film are based on real acquaintances of Kirkland, who served time in prison after committing robbery in facepaint.
Dead Presidents (1995)
Directed by: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes
Starring: Larenz Tate, Keith David, Chris Tucker, N’Bushe Wright, Freddy Rodriguez, Bokeem Woodbine, Rose Jackson, Jennifer Lewis, Alvaleta Guess, Elizabeth Rodriguez
Screenplay by: Michael Henry Brown
Production Design by: David Brisbin
Cinematography by: Lisa Rinzler
Film Editing by: Dan Lebental
Costume Design by: Paul A. Simmons Jr.
Set Decoration by: Karin Wiesel
Art Direction by: Kenneth Hardy
Music by: Danny Elfman
MPAA Rating: R for strong graphic violence, language, a sex scene and some drug use.
Distributed by: Buena Vista Pictures
Release Date: October 6, 1995
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