Amidst the fiery chaos of the Rodney King riots, a foster mother of twelve (Academy Award winner Halle Berry) desperate to keep her family safe seeks help from her eccentric neighbor (Daniel Craig).
CAST:
Halle Berry (Monster's Ball, X- Men)
Daniel Craig (Skyfall, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo)
Lamar Johnson (X-Men: Dark Phoenix)
Kaalan “KR” Walker (Superfly)
Rachel Hilson (“Rise”)
Being in southern California in 1992 was scary. We lived about 30 minutes south of Los Angeles. Watching the news and the riots in L.A. made us think that the world had gone crazy. For sure, life as we knew it would be changed, forever.
My Review:
Great movie about how children learn to survive with little, to no money. Some steal. Some wash windshields for money and use that money to buy food. This woman, Millie, fosters children and she makes some money selling cakes, and I don't know what else. There's hardly any food in the house. But the kids are happy and have fun anyways. The oldest child she's taking care of, might be hers? I'm not sure. He helps out a homeless teenager with a place to live, and she turns around and invites some guys to move in there with her. The girl and teenagers climb in and out of a window so that they have a place to crash.
The tension between black and white people and also between black people themselves was really high back then. Even the Asians were afraid of people of color. This story is told while the Rodney King hearing is going on. It didn't matter what time of day you turned the TV on, it was all about the Rodney King case. Then the verdict came. Not guilty for all four of the cops involved. There was even video of what happened, and you could clearly see that they were guilty. I don't understand why there was a No Guilty verdict at all.
But then, the world went mad. People in Los Angeles got really angry with white people and with the cops. Black people, mostly older teens and young people, went outside their homes and started beating on white people and anyone else they could find. Then they started rioting and robbing stores. The cops wouldn't even go into parts of L.A. because there were just too many people to try to control them. Ambulances wouldn't even go into the areas without a police escort. Buildings were on fire, and the firetrucks wouldn't even go to put them out. People were shooting out street lights and each other. It looked like a war zone.
This is a good movie. It can help people of all color and race to see some of what happened during the Rodney King trial, and after, and what L.A. was like after the trial ended. To me, there wasn't any real story line, or a purpose to it. This movie isn't for children. I'd recommend it for people ages 16 and up.
KINGS might be a good teaching tool for teachers and parents to help explain what happened to everyone after the Rodney King verdict came down. I really had to take some time and think about this movie for a little while after I was done seeing it. It really brought back some feelings that I have buried about being afraid and my memories of feeling and thinking that the world was ending, because that's what it felt like at the time. This happened only about 30 minutes from my home, from where I grew up. We were afraid to go outside for a few days because we were white, and people were so angry. It wasn't our fault, but because most of the jury was made up of white people and they found the 4 cops not guilty... I'm glad that we have moved past this. I am glad that Los Angeles has moved past this. But Wow! What memories.
KINGS will be available to own on July 17
and on demand July 31.
Disclosure: I received a private screener of the movie "Kings" in exchange for my post. No other compensation was exchanged or received.
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