“Streets of Compton” is a well-produced, well-researched and wonderfully edited documentary about how the crime-infested streets of Compton became that way and despite decades of violence and economic hardship, there is always hope as many talents and athletes raised in the streets of Compton aspired to make something of themselves and make a difference. Recommended!
© 2016 Lions Gate Entertainment. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: Streets of Compton
TV SERIES (YEAR): 20165
DURATION: 135 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: 1:78:1 Widescreen, English 2.0 Dolby Digital Audio, Subtitles: English SDH
COMPANY: Lionsgate
RATED: Not Rated
AVAILABLE ON: December 13, 2016
Directed by Mark Ford
Produced by Wesley Jones
Executive Produced by Brad Abramson, Mark Ford, Kevin Lopez
Associate Producer: Leah Harari
Supervising Producer: Aaron Simard, Todd L. Williams
Story Producer: Jose Toscano
Cinematography by Mark Petersen
Edited by Timothy Kelley, Parris Patton, Jennifer Tiexiera
Starring:
The Game
Anthony Anderson
Paul Rodriguez
Lil’ Eazy-E
DJ Yella
Eazy-E
Niecy Nash
Dr. Dre
M.C. Ren
Lonzo Williams
Robert Lee Johnson
G.A. Taylor
Kendrick Lamar
Venus Williams
Serena Williams
In the same vein as STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, this series follows the rise of West Coast hip-hop and the making of music legends such as NWA and Dr. Dre. Featuring The Game and Lil Eazy-E.
With the success of the film “Straight Outta Compton”, filmmaker/producer Mark Ford (“Laguna Beach”, “Uprising: Hip Hop & the LA Riots”, “Behind the Music”) delved into the history of Compton, California and how it would become a city overrun by gangs and violence but also how talent would be born in the city.
A 135-minute special which aired on A&E, the first part of the series would show how Compton was one of the first Cauasian cities to be open to Latinos and then later, middle-class African Americans in 1948. And how the city was divided in 1960’s, as Caucasians would live in the East and non-Whites would be on West, as many realtors tried to make sure no homes were sold to people of color on the East Side of Compton. And the first gangs in Compton were Caucasian that would prevent Blacks from crossing over to the East Side.
And this would lead to a tipping point with African Americans fighting back against the inequality.
But when the Watts Riots happened in Los Angeles, many of the Caucasians left Compton and took their businesses with them.
This would leave to many African Americans to have no jobs or recreation and gangs would be organized. And as the Crips from South LA would move to East Compton in the ’70s, this would lead to the founding of the West Side Piru, a gang who were against outsiders coming into Compton. And would lead to violence between the gangs, especially as the Crips would control Compton High (blue) and the Pirus would control Centennial High (red) and violence would escalate back and forth between gangs from the two neighborhoods.
And while the violence would escalate between the Crips and the Bloods (Pirus), there would be talent born during the violent decade as Paul Rodriguez, Dr. Dre, DJ Yella, The Game, tennis players Venus and Serena Williams and more. But with police vs. gang battles escalating, the tensions between locals from Compton and the police would be featured in the music of rap group, N.W.A.
Featuring many interviews from talents, politicians, police and gang members, “Streets of Compton” is a documentary that would go into the history and the present of Compton, California.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Streets of Compton” is presented in 1:78:1 Widescreen and English 2.0 Dolby Digital. Picture quality is good, as one can expect from a documentary, you are going to have different sources of footage with differing quality. But for the most part, the documentary looks great during the modern interviews and the older source footage is not bad at all.
Subtitles are in English SDH
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Streets of Compton” features no special features.
EXTRAS:
“Streets of Compton” comes with a slipcover.
For those who grew up listening to N.W.A., Eazy-E, The Game, Kendrick Lamar, watching comedian Paul Rodriguez or actor Anthony Anderson or watching tennis athletes Venus and Serena Williams, may or may not be familiar that these big names are from Compton, California.
Unfortunately, Compton is a city that scares people because of its endless media reports of people dying in the city due to gang violence.
The violence in Compton has been going on since the 1960’s, but for those wondering how Compton became overrun by gang violence and how this violence would change the lives of many people from Compton who would go on to be big names in the music, sports or TV/film industry.
But Compton was not always a violent place, unfortunately, the cities roots of racism and White on Black crime would eventually lead to African Americans fighting back for equality but instead of getting equality, the Caucasian locals would leave Compton and bring their businesses with them, leaving the city with hardly any place for employment and violence.
And with the White business and home owners moving out of the East Side, this would leave the city open to outsiders to move in and the gang battle between the Crips and Bloods (Piru) would become commonplace in media.
And would make people fear Compton, while others who grew up in the city, would strive to make something out of themselves despite the troubles of the environment they have grown up in.
For the most part, Director Mark Ford and crew have done a wonderful job of discovering and putting together video footage and photos of Compton and its locals since the 1940’s and also getting interviews needed to substantiate the climate of Compton in the 1960’s to the present time but also the dangers and how they were able to survive in the city and showing that despite the troubles, the tragedies and other negatives connected to the city, there is hope and many entertainment and sport talents have emerged from Compton, stronger than ever and made the best from their situation.
As for the DVD, documentary is great but because it’s a documentary featuring so much sourced footage from several decades, as one can expect, picture quality will vary, but dialogue and music are crystal clear. Unfortunately, there are no special features included.
Overall, “Streets of Compton” is a well-produced, well-researched and wonderfully edited documentary about how the crime-infested streets of Compton became that way and despite decades of violence and economic hardship, there is always hope as many talents and athletes raised in the streets of Compton aspired to make something of themselves and make a difference. Recommended!
