was the deadliest place on Earth, when guns started going off everywhere. Turns out, that was nothing compared to the war zone that was, and still is, Chicago. The situation is so bad, the government is considering sending in the National Guard.Despite all this, "The Interrupters" is actually pretty peaceful. Instead of the good guys shooting and beating on any gangbangers, they talk to them. Just talk. And that actually makes all the difference.
Director Steve James, the same guy you sports fans remember as the director of "Hoop Dreams", tackles yet another story of inner-city life and hardships. He follows three Interrupters, who work for the organization Ceasefire to prevent conflicts: Ameena Matthews, Cobe Williams, and Eddie Bocanegra. All three have tons of street cred and smarts, due to the fact that they all have been former violence causers themselves. Both Ameena and Cobe had influential criminal fathers (Ameena's father, Jeff Fort, was actually one of the most powerful gang leaders of his day), and they followed those dangerous paths in their youth. Also, Eddie is scarred forever by a retaliatory killing he did as a 17-year-old. Now, all three are reformed, and they strive hard to clean their neighborhoods of the disease of violence that has swept the city.
Steve James never shows us much explicit stuff, but he does use the less explicit to it's full potential. We see all these roadside graves, shoddy yet meaningful, covered with the names of those the deceased left behind. We see a funeral for a teenage boy that gets intense, as Ameena takes the oppurtunity to talk with the youth present. The movie doesn't use violence as it's sucker-punch, but it instead hits us with the consequences of this violence. We see people bawling constantly, but we also see the intense emotions of the Interrupters themselves. All three are still finding redemption for themselves, and it's not an easy road. Not for a moment.
The film is very long, but it doesn't feel like it; the pace feels very natural, exactly like real life feels, and the material is involving and provocative enough to carry us well past two hours. We get to see Ameena work a troubled teen through the post-gang stage of her life, Eddie inspire a bunch of elementary-school kids to overcome their surroundings through artwork, and Cobe help out both a regretful teen fresh out of jail as well as a gangster with borderline-schizoprenic emotions called Flamo. There were even more stories just as important as these filmed by James' crew, but they couldn't be included due to time restraints. With so much footage, Steve never runs out of ways to make us seriously think about the violence so close to our homes, in supposedly safe, comfortable North America. As the doctor who began CeaseFire says, violence is no different from every virile disease: those who are hardest hit by the infection must be cured for it to truly be stopped. And if what is shown in the movie continues to happen around America, that hope of a cure might come true.
"The Interrupters" is sad, sometimes strangely funny, down-to-earth, and necessary viewing for everyone who thinks the rash of urban violence cannot be stopped: it can, and, for the sake of the next generation, it must.
As I said, there isn't that much violence in "The Interrupters", but there is plenty of heroism.
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