Poetic Justice

Poetic Justice is a 1993 American film drama directed by John Singleton, about a young American woman from the South Central District of Los Angeles whose boyfriend is shot in revenge by members of a rival gang in front of her, and her efforts to come to terms with what she has experienced.

Storyline

Justice is grieving the loss of her boyfriend and decides to stop going to college and work in a hair salon. To combat her depression, she writes poetry. Her friend Lesha convinces her to take a bus trip with her, Chicago and Lucky from the South Central District of Los Angeles to Oakland to escape the gang-infested environment of her ghetto for a while.

Justice doesn’t get along with Lucky’s ways at all at first. Justice is afraid of getting hurt and Lucky is always trying to maintain his macho image. As they move further away from their old surroundings, new worlds and horizons open up for both of them. Justice realizes that she is not as alone as she previously believed.

Background

• Janet Jackson makes her big screen acting debut in this 1993 film.
• The poems recited in Justice’s film are by poet Maya Angelou.
• The role of Lucky, played by Tupac Shakur, was originally intended for rapper Ice Cube.

Synchronization

The German dubbing was done by Interopa Film in Berlin, from a dialogue book and under the dialogue direction of Theodor Dopheide.^[1]

Criticism

Encyclopedia of International Film: “The black director, who was already convincing with his debut film “Boyz’N The Hood”, also critically describes the milieu of black people here. With drastic dialogues and a straightforward narrative, he conveys his human message in a forceful way.”^[2]

Awards

• In 1993, James Harris III, Janet Jackson and Terry Lewis were nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Music, Original Song category for the song Again. The three were also nominated for a Golden Globe.
• Janet Jackson won two awards at the 1994 MTV Movie Awards. In the same year she “won” a Golden Raspberry as Worst New Star, in the category Worst Actress she received a nomination.

Web links

• Poetic Justice in the Internet Movie Database (english)
• Poetic Justice at Rotten Tomatoes (english)

Individual references

1. ↑ Poetic Justice in the German dubbing index
2. ↑ Poetic Justice. In: encyclopedia ofinternational film. Filmdienst, retrieved 7 February 2017. template:LdiF/maintenance/accessused