PROTECTOR
Bonita L. Davis | Decatur, GA | 02/10/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Meet Socrates Fortlow. He is a murderer who has done his time and now is trying to reintegrate into society. The question is will society let him? Laurence Fishburne gives an outstanding performance of a man ready to make amends for the wrongs he has done but won't allow the system to make his less than a man or brute as they would like him. Socrates is older, wiser and still full of fury against those who would attempt to break his spirit.
Throughout the movie we can feel Socrates' anger but we see his compassion for his dying friend (Bill Cobbs), a young woman whose husband won't stay home and finally for a young boy who needs a father and help from a gang determined to kill him. This is a film of where a man comes to terms with his past, does the best he can to protect those in the present and is trying to build a new future. The brilliant cast of Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned shows redemption in the Black community. It is not a religious redemption but one where you put the pieces of your lives back together and endure. Socrates attempts to be not only the protector in his ghetto community but also as a man who lends hope to its members.
"