In the New York City neighborhood of Harlem in 1986, Nino Brown and his gang, the Cash Money Brothers (CMB), become the dominant drug ring in the City once crack cocaine is introduced to the streets. His gang consists of Gerald "Gee Money" Wells, his best friend since childhood; enforcer and personal bodyguard Duh Duh Duh Man; gun moll Keisha; Nino's girlfriend, Selina Thomas; and her tech-savvy cousin, ex-bank teller Kareem Akbar.
Nino converts the Carter apartment complex into a crack house. Gee Money and Keisha kill rival Fat Smitty, the CMB throws out the tenants, and Nino forces the landlord out onto the streets naked. Meanwhile, undercover detective Scotty Appleton attempts to make a deal with stick-up kid Pookie, who absconds with the money. Appleton chases Pookie and shoots him in the leg, but the police release him. Nino's gang successfully run the streets of Harlem over the next three years.
When Detective Stone, the leader of the CMB police operation, comes under pressure from NYPD Commissioner Fred R. Price, Appleton, currently on suspension for shooting Pookie, volunteers to infiltrate Nino's gang and is partnered with loose-cannon Nick Peretti. Elsewhere, mobster Frankie Needles attempts to collect taxes from Nino, who refuses to pay. While Appleton and Peretti observe Nino and his gang handing out Thanksgiving turkeys to the poor, Appleton spots Pookie, now a crack addict, and soon gets him into rehab. Later, Pookie offers to help bring down Nino. Against his better judgment and the disapproval of Stone and Peretti, Appleton recruits Pookie as an informant.
When Pookie relapses, Gee Money realizes that he is wired and orders the Carter destroyed. The cops find Pookie's bloody and booby-trapped corpse; Peretti defuses the explosives seconds before it explodes. Nino angrily warns Gee Money against repeating such a costly mistake.
After Pookie's funeral, Appleton and Peretti, no longer needed by Stone, go undercover as drug dealers. After bribing Frankie, Appleton infiltrates the CMB, partly due to Gee Money's increasing ambition and drug use. Though Nino distrusts them, he agrees to do business. After relating an anecdote about his own violent initiation into a gang in 1974, Nino warns that he will kill both Appleton and Gee Money if any problems occur.
Appleton gains Nino's trust when he reveals information about Gee Money's side deal and saves Nino from the gun-toting Old Man who had earlier appealed to police for help against Nino. While Nino, Appleton, and the CMB attend a wedding, Peretti sneaks into Nino's mansion to collect evidence.
Don Armeteo, Frankie's boss, sends hitmen to kill Nino, and a massive shootout erupts between the CMB and his hitmen. When Nino uses a child as a shield, Appleton attempts to shoot Nino behind his back. Keisha is killed as she shoots the hitmen's van as they escape. Later, Nino throws Selina out when she condemns his nature, before killing Don Armeteo and his crew in retribution for the wedding shootout.
Stone, Appleton and Peretti arrange a sting operation to nab Nino. Kareem, aware of Appleton and Pookie's connection, exposes Appleton, and a shootout ensues. Peretti saves Appleton by killing the Duh Duh Duh Man, and Nino escapes. That night, Nino confronts Gee Money, who accuses Nino of egotism, and Nino regretfully kills him. After the gang's collapse, Nino holes up in an apartment and continues his criminal empire solo. Appleton and Peretti assault the complex, and Appleton brutally beats Nino, revealing that it was his mother whom Nino killed in his gang initiation. Peretti dissuades Appleton from killing Nino, who is taken into custody amid threats of retaliation.
At his trial, Nino pleads guilty to a lesser charge, claims to have been forced to help the gang due to threats, and identifies Kareem as the leader. When Nino is sentenced to only a year in jail, Appleton is outraged. As Nino speaks with reporters outside the courtroom, the Old Man again confronts Nino and fatally shoots him in the chest. Appleton and Peretti are both satisfied as Nino falls over the balcony to his death. As onlookers look down at Nino's corpse, an epilogue states to the viewers that decisive action must be taken to stop real-life Nino Brown analogues.
Cast
Wesley Snipes as Nino Brown, an arrogant, smart drug kingpin who murdered Scotty Appleton's mother in a gang initiation in 1974.
Ice-T as Scotty Appleton, a New York City police detective who vows to avenge his mother's death at Nino's hands.
Allen Payne as Gerald "Gee Money" Wells, Nino's childhood friend and the second-in-command of the Cash Money Brothers (CMB).
Chris Rock as Benny "Pookie" Robinson, a former stick-up kid who becomes homeless and poor after Appleton shoots him in the ankle and later becomes a crack addict and eventually a police informant.
Judd Nelson as Nick Peretti, Appleton's partner in the CMB investigation.
Tracy Camilla Johns as Uniqua, Gee Money's ex-girlfriend who falls for Nino.
Anthony DeSando as Frankie Needles, a mobster who has connections with the CMB from his boss, Don Armeteo. Nick and Scotty force him to persuade Gee Money to admit Appleton to the gang.
Thalmus Rasulala as NYPD Commissioner Fred R. Price; the film was his last released during his lifetime, as he died on October 9, 1991, seven months after the film's release.
The film is based upon an original story and screenplay written by Thomas Lee Wright, who had worked as a story editor at The Walt Disney Company and Columbia Pictures before moving to creative executive at Paramount Pictures. [3] According to Carl Hart, who corresponded with Wright following Hart's criticism of New Jack City, the screenplay was originally written as The Godfather: Part III, and featured a protagonist who sold heroin rather than cocaine.[4] Wright wrote a treatment for Paramount on the idea, which they liked enough to have him try to do a first draft. Wright based his script to interviews he had with people from Little Italy in New York along with the story of the black kingpin that had modeled his criminal organization in Harlem after the Mafia in Nicky Barnes. Wright later wrote, directed and produced Eight Tray Gangster: The Making of a Crip, a documentary of gang life in South Central Los Angeles.[5][citation needed]
The screenplay was co-written by Barry Michael Cooper, a former investigative reporter with the Village Voice who would later write the screenplays for the 1994 dramatic films Above the Rim and Sugar Hill, the latter of which also starred Snipes. Cooper's rewrite was adapted from his December 1987 Village Voice cover story entitled "Kids Killing Kids: New Jack City Eats Its Young," about the drug war in Detroit.[6] The account referred to the 20th anniversary of the 1967 riots in Detroit, and in its wake, the rise of crack cocaine gangs in the late 1980s, such as Young Boys Inc., and the Chambers Brothers. The original story received notice from Quincy Jones, who sought a meeting with Cooper. He was then tasked with re-writes on a screenplay that had been done about the life of Nicky Barnes.[7]
Filming occurred in New York City between April 16 and June 6, 1990.
Reception
Harlem's real life Graham Court, known in the film as the "Carter".
New Jack City was favorably received by film critics for its cast, storyline, and soundtrack.[8]Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half stars out of four, writing:
Truffaut once said it was impossible to make an anti-war movie, because the war sequences would inevitably be exciting and get the audience involved on one side or the other. It is almost as difficult to make an anti-drug movie, since the lifestyle and money of the drug dealers looks like fun, at least until they're killed. This movie pulls off that tricky achievement. Nino, who looks at the dead body of Scarface and laughs, does not get the last laugh.[9]
The film initially premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 17, 1991, before being released nationally on March 8, 1991. The film, produced with an estimated $8,000,000 budget, grossed $7,039,622 during its opening weekend. It became the highest-grossing independent film of 1991, grossing a total of $47,624,253 domestically. The film holds an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 35 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Stylishly directed by Mario Van Peebles, New Jack City offsets its melodramatic streak with electrifying action and a cavalcade of effective performances."[11]
The film was released on DVD in Region 1 in the United States on August 25, 1998 and Region 2 in the United Kingdom on July 26, 1999, distributed by Warner Home Video. The film was re-released on DVD as a Two-Disc Special Edition in Region 1 in the United States on August 23, 2005 and Region 2 in the United Kingdom on January 23, 2006.
Special Edition DVD features:
Commentary by: director and co-star Mario Van Peebles
New Jack City: A Hip-Hop Classic
Harlem World: A Walk Inside
The Road to New Jack City
Original music videos: "New Jack Hustler" (Nino's Theme) by Ice-T, "I'm Dreamin'" by Christopher Williams, and "I Wanna Sex You Up" by Color Me Badd
Original theatrical trailer
The film was released on Blu-ray in the United States by Warner Home Video on August 14, 2012.[15]
In 2019, Deadline announced that Warner Bros are rebooting the film with Malcolm Mays writing.[21]
Stage play adaptation
In September of 2022, film producer Je'Caryous Johnson announced the launching of the stage production adaptation of New Jack City: Live on Stage after his successful adaptation of another film, Set It Off: Live on Stage. The stage play stars Allen Payne, who reprises his role as "Gee Money", Treach as Nino Brown, Flex Alexander as "Pookie", Big Daddy Kane as Stone and Gary Dourdan as Scotty. The stage production's first preview ran October 29-30, 2022 at the Gas South Theater in Atlanta, Georgia and then had a nationwide tour from November 2022 into May 2023.[22]
^Hart, Carl (2021). Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear. Penguin Press. ISBN9781101981641.
^The film explored the Rodney King riots from a gang member's perspective. The Hollywood Reporter described this Discovery Channel production as "more frightening and sympathetic than any existing dramatic films on the subject".
