Liberty Heights

Infobox_Film
name =Liberty Heights

---

caption = Theatrical release poster
director =Barry Levinson
producer =Barry Levinson
Paula Weinstein
writer =Barry Levinson
starring =Adrien Brody
Ben Foster
Orlando Jones
Joe Mantegna
Justin Chambers
Anthony Anderson
music =Andrea Morricone
cinematography =Christopher Doyle
editing =Stu Linder
distributor =Warner Bros.
released =November 17, 1999 (USA)
runtime =127 min.
language =English
genre = comedy/drama
imdb_id =0165859
|

"Liberty Heights" is a 1999 comedy-drama film by writer-director Barry Levinson. It is a semi-autobiographical account of his childhood growing up in Baltimore in the 1950s.

Plot

In the fall of 1954, the Kurtzmans, a Jewish family, live in Forest Park, a suburban neighborhood in the northwest section of Baltimore. At the beginning of the film, Nate, the father, runs a burlesque theatre, and engages in a community numbers racket. His wife Ada stays home and takes care of the household. Van, the older son, attends the University of Baltimore, while Ben is finishing his final year in high school.

Ben meets Sylvia, an African-American girl, who begins attending his school after the district has been integrated. Ben immediately start to develop feelings towards Sylvia, and introduces himself. The two become close based on a mutual love for Little Richard, James Brown, jazz musicians, and black comedians. Sylvia's father, an affluent doctor, disapproves of their relationship and forbids them to see one another.

On Halloween, Ben dresses up as Adolf Hitler. This offends his parents greatly. Van and his friends head over to a party in a predominantly bourgeois, gentile section of Baltimore. Van is attracted to a mysterious blonde woman. A fight between one of Van's buddies and a gentile erupts and Trey, one of the party-goers drunkenly crashes his car into the house. Van must leave the mystery woman.

Trey goes to court for the car crash. Van and his friends are there as witnesses. After the court sessions expires, Van asks several of the other party attendants about the blonde woman he met. Trey discovers that the girl Van has fallen in love with is Dubbie, his own girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Nate's burlesque theatre has problems. Little Melvin, a local drug dealer, defies expectations and wins the numbers racket. Nate is then forced to cut Melvin a "slice of the pie". When Nate offers Melvin the numbers business instead, Melvin claims that Nate is trying to "Jew" him out of his money and a fight breaks out between their bodyguards.

Sylvia gives Ben two tickets to see James Brown in concert. At the concert Ben and his friend are the only white patrons in the audience. Van and his friends head out to a gathering, where he again runs into Dubbie where learns of her relationship with Trey.

Little Melvin then spots Nate's car off of Pennsylvania Avenue in the African American neighborhood where James Brown is in concert and after seeing Ben and his friend inside, he deduces that one of them must be Nate's son. After the concert, Melvin abducts Ben, Sylvia and their friends from the concert in a payback to Nate's racket.

Van has word that Trey is in surgery after a car accident. He and Dubbie go see him in Virginia.

Nate and his associates at the nightclub are charged and booked with prostitution and racketeering. Before leaving for prison, he manages to attend Ben and Sylvia's high school graduation. She is attending a historically black college in the South, and he is staying to attend the University of Maryland.

At the end of the film, Ben looks back at his childhood with memories of Sylvia, his father, and his bittersweet coming-of-age in 1950's Baltimore.

Cast

Notes

*Orlando Jones's character Little Melvin bears similarities to former Baltimore drug kingpin Melvin Williams. He bears the same nickname and, like the real Melvin Williams, was involved in the numbers business before moving into the heroin business during the 1950s. Melvin Williams's drug business provided inspiration for Baltimore shows "The Wire" on HBO and "" which Barry Levinson helped produce. A biography of Melvin Williams can be seen on BET's "American Gangster" where similar events surrounding Little Melvin as displayed in the movie occur.

*There are some historical anachronisms in several scenes, including the appearance of the Francis Scott Key Bridge (which was not built until 1972-77) in the background of one scene.

External links

* [http://www.liberty-heights.com Official site]
* [http://www.levinson.com/bl/liberty Barry Levinson official site]
* [http://imdb.com/title/tt0165859 IMDB listing]
* [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19991210/REVIEWS/912100303/1023 Roger Ebert's review]