Product Description

SLAM (DVD MOVIE)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29457 in DVD
• Brand: SLAM (DVD MOVIE)
• Released on: 1999-03-09
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 5.00 pounds
• Running time: 103 minutes

Amazon.com
A darling of the 1998 festival circuit, Marc Levin's Slam won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance as well as the Camera d'Or (best first film) at Cannes. Despite its shortcomings, the film merits these awards--Slam offers a strong cast and compelling subject matter, a perfect setting with a killer soundtrack, and over-the-top rap poetry.

The film opens with an exterior shot of the protagonist, Raymond Joshua (played by real-life poet Saul Williams), walking away from the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The image of a young black man turning his back on this symbol of government scant minutes before he's popped on a chump-change drug charge is poignant and disturbing--not easily forgotten by anyone aware of the immense contradictions inherent in the demographics of the nation's capital.

Slam depicts Raymond's fall from relative innocence, and his apparent redemption. As a small-time dope dealer and street poet, his arrest thrusts him into an unfamiliar world--the violence of life in the slammer is palpable and altogether frightening. Incarceration, however, awakens the slumbering power of Raymond's poetry; eventually, its strength keeps him alive. In a prison yard scene when he's about to get whomped, Raymond gives free rein to his words, choosing poetry in motion over violence. Hearing Raymond's impassioned words, the hardened cons let him walk. One of them even covers his bail, and Raymond hits the streets, eager to check out Lauren (Sonja Sohn), the creative-writing teacher he met behind bars.

Although the third act dilutes the credibility established by Levin's in-your-face vérité style, Slam is relentlessly passionate, unswerving in its conviction that there's an alternative to the violence that decimates North America's inner cities. Indeed, for all the film's preachiness, we cheer Raymond on, fueling his poetry, hoping, somehow, that it can transform those around him. Peace is the word. --Stephan Magcosta

From The New Yorker
The acclaim for Marc Levin's prison-and-poetry drama (it won prizes at both Sundance and Cannes) is mystifying: it has some nice handheld camerawork and an affecting performance by newcomer Saul Williams, but the story, about a young poet's rise to self-awareness, lacks the tough center that a good script can provide. The seemingly improvised dialogue and the cinéma-vérité presentation are meandering and unconvincing-like a mixture of a public-television prison documentary and a student film of an open-mike night. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

One of the most vital films of the 90s
Working in a video store, I've seen "Slam" repeatedly dismissed by white folks as "a black film", or "a movie about rappers". Please, don't let race distinctions turn you away from this film. "Slam" is one of the most noble uses of film I've seen in a long time. It challenges and provokes and creates intense thought. It is a ferociously intellectual movie, though not in a highbrow way. It has the unique ability to present complex and daunting ideas in a way that makes them unusually comprehensible. At the same time, it places a value on the process of writing and personal expression that has been woefully lost in the age of stuff-goes-boom movies. The performances - especially by Saul Williams, Sonja Sohn, and Bonz Malone - are impeccable, and I'm not refering to just their dynamic slam poetry sessions, which are electrifying in a way that few passages of film are. If you see one movie this year, let it be "Slam".

Very raw, leaves its' mark
This was a pretty intense experience. I recently became a fan of Saul Williams, and I had to have this movie. It's a dark, yet learning experience for a man(Raymond Joshua) who gets sent to jail for possession, is hunted for on the inside, gets bailed out but realizes he's going right back. It seems like there are a lot of movies about prison and black folk, but this one was a little different.
I thought Saul did quite a job for this being his first movie role. I think it's based in large part on his real-life self. Some of the acting was an eyesore, like the Chinese guy at the beginning, good God! A few of the other small parts were iffy, but I think the main characters, who are all pretty much unheard of, did fine. The best scenes to me were when Ray was about to get his ass kicked in the prison yard and he busted out with an exhilirating rap, and when Ray and the prisoner in the next cell were rhyming. The latter shows a contrast between two distinct rapping styles. The other guy was swearing up a storm kicking violent gangsta rhymes, while Ray's was intense, but loving, etheral, mystical, and mind-bending. The other guy's style represents what gets played the most on the radio and is popular, while Ray's embodies an 'underground' attitude and the style that Hiphop was created with. I am a huge Hiphop guru, and I prefer Ray's style, obviously.
Otherwise, the movie leaves an impression, and gets you thinking about the ways of the inner-city lifestyle, as well as that in the prison. The poetry was what set this movie apart. Ray and the main female(forgot her name) perform at a poetry slam at the end of the movie. I wouldn't give this a five-star, but it's still good and worthwhile. I think it could have covered Ray's life more before he went to prison, and the ending kind-of left us hanging, or did it? I still don't understand what he was doing at the end. Like I said, "Slam" is a gritty, raw, uncut slice of the projects and the prison life. Cuss words are aplenty! It definitely hits it's points, and works well with the predominantly no-name cast. I liked the directing too. If you pass by this at the store and see it for a good price, go ahead, pick it up! It may not be one to watch with the kids though.

INTENSE
After seeing this powerfully delivered masterpiece of raw street savvy and mental intellect, I was moved. Saul Williams, as well as Sohn and Malone, in Slam inspired me, rather this (I don't want to call it a movie) this interpretation of life forced me to release a pent-up energy that was kept down for far too long. The completeness of this fantastic journey through urban, USA is exhilarating and painfully forgiving. A must see for all, the performances in this work of art are as moving as almost any book that I've read; it does not take away from the viewers mental imagery, it only adds to it (not too often that a movie can claim this). 5-stars are not enough -- see for yourself.