Clockers

Clockers is a 1995 American crime drama film directed by Spike Lee. It is an adaptation of the 1992 novel of the same name by Richard Price, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Lee. The film stars Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, Delroy Lindo, and Mekhi Phifer in his debut film role. Set in New York City, Clockers tells the story of Strike (Phifer), a street-level drug dealer who becomes entangled in a murder investigation. The film originally entered production with Martin Scorsese attached to direct; he had previously collaborated with Price on his 1986 film The Color of Money. Scorsese eventually dropped out of production to focus on his passion project Casino, at which point Lee stepped in to direct and rewrite the script, Scorsese remained a co-producer alongside Lee. Clockers received generally positive reviews from film critics, but was a box office failure, grossing only around $13 million on a $25 million budget. Plot In a Brooklyn housing project, a group of clockers — street-level drug dealers — sells drugs for Rodney Little, a local drug lord. Rodney tells Ronald "Strike" Dunham, one of his lead clockers, that another dealer, Darryl Adams, is stealing from him and that he wants Strike to kill him. Strike then meets with his brother, Victor, and asks if he knows someone who could kill Darryl. Homicide detectives Rocco Klein and Larry Mazilli, riding to the scene of Adams' murder, receive a phone call from another detective who says a man has confessed at a local church to killing Adams. The police meet Strike's older brother Victor at the church and take him in for questioning. In the interrogation room, Victor tells Rocco that he shot Adams in self-defense. Rocco finds holes in this story and starts looking into Victor's background, which includes two jobs, a wife, two children, no criminal record, and aspirations to move out of the projects, and concludes that Victor is covering for his younger brother.