Get Rich or Die Tryin' (film)

Infobox Film
name = Get Rich or Die Tryin'

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director = Jim Sheridan
writer = Terence Winter
starring = Curtis Jackson
Terrence Howard
Joy Bryant
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Bill Duke
Ashley Walters
music = Gavin Friday
Quincy Jones
Maurice Seezer
cinematography = Declan Quinn
editing = Roger Barton
Conrad Buff
producer = Jimmy Iovine
Chris Lighty
Paul Rosenberg
Jim Sheridan
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released = November 9, 2005
runtime = 134 minutes
language = English
budget = $40,000,000
gross = "Domestic"
$30,985,352
"Foreign"
$15,457,176
"Worldwide"
$46,442,528
imdb_id = 0430308

"Get Rich or Die Tryin"' is a 2005 crime drama film starring Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. It was released on November 9, 2005. Similar to the Eminem film "8 Mile", the story is a semi-autobiographical film account of 50 Cent's own life. It was directed by six-time Oscar nominee Jim Sheridancite web | title=RogerEbert.com | work=Coach Carter (PG-13) | url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050113/REVIEWS/41228004/1001 | accessdate=August 20 | accessyear=2006] . 50 Cent extended his acting career by acting in the war movie "Home Of The Brave" and "Righteous Kill", where he was named Marcus once again.

Plot

The film begins with the protagonist Marcus (Jackson), his manager Bama (Terrence Howard), and two associates together robbing a store that is a front for a money laundering operation. After they leave, Marcus is shot various times by a man with a black bandana covering his face.

As the audience begins to hear Marcus's thoughts, a flashback begins showing Marcus as a child driving with his mother down the street. His thoughts reveal that he was constantly looking for his father, whom he did not know. This scene also shows that Marcus knew his mother sold drugs, but he felt that it was only for his benefit. After an altercation with a man who resembled Rick James, it is shown that Marcus's mother was murdered and her body burned along with the rest of the house.

Marcus goes off to live with his grandparents in a crowded house, and is taunted by the other children for having old and worn out shoes. After a fight with his cousin, Marcus's grandfather moves a mattress down to the laundry room to give him his own room, away from the other kids.

Not long after, Marcus begins to sell drugs on a corner like his mother in order to have money for new shoes. During a fight with two other dealers who say that he is selling on their turf, he is taken away by Majestic, a well known drug kingpin who worked with Marcus's mother and will now work with Marcus.

He buys a .357 gun from a man in an alleyway later, saying he didn't know what he wanted a gun for, but he got one anyway. While holding the gun to a mirror, Marcus is portrayed going from his childhood, to his young teenage years.

He begins pushing drugs more often, and his gun is eventually found by his grandfather resulting in Marcus leaving the home. However, the police find packets of cocaine hidden in Marcus's socks and arrest him. This leads to a fight between Marcus and his grandfather, after which Marcus leaves his grandparents' home.

Marcus buys an apartment after running away from home, and after giving up on his rapping dream in three hours, begins to sell drugs again. Majestic then holds a meeting between the local drug pushers in the gang Marcus's mother was in, which is run by a man named Levar, where Majestic makes cocaine in crack form, and lays down a few rules:

*"Rule Number One: "Never leave the product in your house."
*"Rule Number Two: "Get your own crew."
*"Rule Number Three: "Have discipline in your crew, trust."
*"Rule Number Four: "Don't praise a nigga too much or he will think you're soft."
*"Rule Number Five: "Show no love. Love will get you killed." These drug dealers, all of them African American, are in a turf war with the Colombians. Many are slain on both sides, leading Levar to shake hands with the Colombian head after all the escalation led to a Korean liquor store owner shooting two innocent young African-American teens.

Shortly after, Marcus forms a 'crew' with a childhood friend named Antwan, a man named Justice he helped in a drug turf fight with the Colombians, and another man named Keryl. At this time too, he rekindles his romance with his childhood friend Charlene, her having been sent somewhere else when her parents find a mix-tape from Marcus, where he dubs himself Young Caesar (his rapping alias for the time, and in the future) which strongly suggests they have some kind of sexual relationship, despite Marcus commenting he didn't know what the things he said meant when Charlene and Marcus had been together.

One night while at a club, Marcus is shot at by the Colombians and Antwan is hit, leaving him a paraplegic. In retaliation, Marcus shoots the Colombian who crippled Antwan, and is about to execute him, but ends up shooting him in the leg after the man cries out for his father, which incidentally reminded Marcus of his own search for his father (which may be misunderstood as 'mommy' when he says 'Pappy' in an accent), forcing him to feel slight sympathy for the Colombian.

Due to the hit Marcus made, Levar is forced to pay a "political dept" to the police, and thus is leaving for some time to "let some heat off the business", leaving a political associate in charge. However, the plot eventually leads to Marcus being arrested for the shooting, with cocaine being found in his apartment. (This is odd because Majestic's rule number 1 was not to leave the product at home.)

Marcus is sent to a penitentiary, where he meets his future manager and friend, Bama, who saves him from a knifing in the shower which was organized by the Colombian Marcus almost killed earlier in the movie. Charlene visits him during this time and reveals she is pregnant with Marcus's child.

During this time Levar is sent to prison due to a betrayal of Magestic, who intentionally sent to shoot a police officer, breaking the deal Levar had with the police force. Part of Magestic's plan was to frame the new leader Levar had left in charge blaming him of the betrayal move done to Levar. This leads to the killing of the right hand of Levar that was in charge, thus letting Magestic become the gang leader.

After leaving jail with Bama, Marcus informs Majestic he wants out of the game, to pursue his rap career because he is going to be a father and needs to be responsible. Bama and Justice don't get along owing to Bama's relationship with Marcus. At a recording studio, Marcus records a song to insult Dangerous, a rapper that Majestic supports. Also, after Marcus's child is born, Majestic visits Charlene in the maternity ward, picking up the recently born Antwan, and tells her it is in everyone's best interest that Marcus should not continue with his career and apologize. Marcus becomes enraged when he learns about this, and starts giving 24 hour protection to Charlene and Antwan. Back in the studio, Marcus swears to kill Majestic by humiliating him in a song called Click Clack Pow (Officer Down). Justice reports this to Majestic, who orders him and Junebug to end Marcus and get rid of Bama. Since Majestic could not get to him, he made sure Marcus could not get a record deal.

After Marcus is unable to get a record deal, his crew (at this time Marcus, Bama, Justice, and Keryl) ends up robbing a store run by the Colombian head, and the story leads back to the beginning of the movie. Right before he's about to be shot, the shooter takes off his mask, revealing himself to be Justice, who had followed Marcus alone after Bama and Keryl left in a separate car. As Marcus is shot, his grandmother screams out his name, the final bullet meant for his head shattering his jaw instead. Justice arrives at Majestic's hideout only to find out Marcus was still alive even after shooting him nine times. Majestic in rage stabs him vigorously with his sword in an executionary style.

After a long and painful recovery by Marcus, he begins his rapping dream again. He becomes successful, once again, and this time begins independent rapping instead of working for a record deal. After a while, he becomes even more famous, and plans to do a live concert at Pelham Hall.

Before the concert Marcus goes to Levar, who was still imprisoned by the betrayal move of Magestic, to ask about his mother's death. Levar confessed that he and Katrina were in a relationship and Majestic had grown very jealous of him since then.

During this time, we see Marcus being a loving father to his son. Before his concert, he drops off little Antwan and Charlene at his mother's house, leaving big Antwan with an Uzi. His grandmother, remembering his near fatal shooting, warns Marcus that if he goes out there tonight, he endangers not only himself, but his child and Charlene. Marcus tells her he has to go out there for that very reason.

On the night of the concert, people are outside in the streets protesting the crack cocaine pandemic at this time. Marcus and Majestic also meet face to face at this time. Majestic offers Marcus to not go through with the concert, because it will humillate him, and to show respect to him, and after Marcus declines, Majestic tells Marcus that he raped his mother then murdered her. The the two begin to fight on the floor, he tries to strangle Marcus, but Marcus throws him to the floor and begins beating him almost mercillessly.

At the end, Marcus leaves to start the show, after nearly throttling Majestic, leaving him on the ground. Majestic rises from the floor and pulls out a sword, and is shot in the arm by Bama, falling to the ground and begging Marcus to be the one to kill him. But, as Marcus walks away and down the hall, Bama shoots Majestic three more times, in the head, killing him.

Marcus approaches a mirror, and has a revelation on his life, saying "All my life, I had been looking for my father. I realized, I had been looking for myself." And then continuing to say "It felt like I was walking away from the old me, and the new me was being born.", representing his change from cold-blooded murderer, robber and gangster, to a responsible father, adult, and now rapper, his rivalry and former drug situations resolved with the death of Majestic, and revolt by the population of the area to crack cocaine, among other drugs. He ends up going out to perform the concert, performing the song Hustler's Ambition, which summarizes most of his life, talking about his time in jail, the fighting between drug runners in the city, his drug pushing, and other things from the movie, the story ending with him finishing off the song Hustler's Ambition. At the start of the concert he takes off his bulletproof vest as a symbol to show he's bulletproof.

Reception

The plot received many criticisms, being described as 'flawed' and 'ambiguous'. However, notable film critic Roger Ebert defended the film, giving it 3 out of 4 stars, and quoting it, "a film with a rich and convincing texture, a drama with power and anger"cite web | title=RogerEbert.com | work=Get Rich or Die Tryin' (R) | url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051110/REVIEWS/51107001/1023 | accessdate=August 20 | accessyear=2006] .

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Controversies

On October 27, 2005, movie posters for the film featuring 50 Cent with a handgun in one hand and a mic in the other were removed from billboards in Los Angeles school areas after complaints that they promote gun violence and gang activity.Fact|date=March 2007 50 Cent later responded that the controversy only further increased the publicity for his film. The two objects in the controversial poster were intended as symbols to represent the transition of the main character from drug dealer to rapper.Fact|date=March 2007

Controversy was further created when a 30-year-old man, Sheldon Flowers, was shot three times and killed in a cinema near Pittsburgh on November 9, 2005, after watching the film. [cite news|title=Man dies after 50 Cent screening |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4431048.stm |date=2005-11-12 |accessdate=2007-09-12 |publisher=BBC] The cinema stopped showing the film as a result. Also, a cinema chain in Toledo, Ohio, stopped after-midnight screenings of the film because of fears the violence depicted may prompt further civil unrest as seen during the 2005 Toledo Riot.Fact|date=March 2007 Another problem occurred in Champaign, Illinois. A group of thugs shot at the screen while the show was filmed, causing the show to stop being shown there.

Samuel L. Jackson publicly turned down an offer to co-star in the film, citing that he did not want to lend credence to what he believed was an inexperienced and unproven actor.cite web | title=FemaleFirst | work=PROUD JACKSON TURNS DOWN 50 CENT FILM ROLE | url=http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/entertainment/21672004.htm | accessdate=August 20 | accessyear=2006] Film critic Roger Ebert wrote of Jackson's decision: "Like Bill Cosby, Jackson is arguing against the anti-intellectual message that success for young black males is better sought in the worlds of rap and sports than in the classroom".cite web | title=RogerEbert.com | work=Coach Carter (PG-13) | url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050113/REVIEWS/41228004/1001 | accessdate=August 20 | accessyear=2006] Jackson reportedly still thinks that rappers should not be in films, but has spoken with 50 Cent several times about it and has made amends with him.cite web | title=SoundSlam.com | work=50 Cent Challenges Samuel L. Jackson's Stance On Acting | url=http://soundslam.com/articles/news/news.php?news=061128_50cent | accessdate=November 30 | accessyear=2006] The two later co-starred in the 2006 film "Home of the Brave".

Parody

The Boondocks parodies this movie in ...Or Die Trying, in which Fifty Cent plays Air Marshall Fifty Cent. He lacks any ability to act, and he never effectively says "Or Die Trying," though his antagonist says it before he's supposed to say it.

Box Office Takings

Worldwide Total: $46,442,528

References

External links

* [http://www.getrichordietryinmovie.com/home.html Official website]
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