First off, let me say that I am of the opinion that Oscar Grant was needlessly killed back in 2008. I am not on the side of the people who claimed that he deserved what he got.
With that said, I disliked sitting through Fruitvale Station. The whole point of that fictional recreation of Grant's last 24 hours was to show him ascending into sainthood before his life was brutally cut short. I got to see him help out customers in a store he just got fired from. I got to see him comfort a dying dog before calling it quits on his life of drug dealing, which involves pouring a kilo of marijuana into the Pacific Ocean. I got to see him become honest with his girlfriend for the first time in his life. Basically, he completely sheds his sinner's skin (that may not be the proper metaphor to use in a film that centers on an act of racially-motivated violence, but I assume people will know what I meant by that) by doing one saintly deed after another until his hands are virtually washed free of all the blood that was on them - and only after that does he die a death at the hands of the police.
I somehow doubt that was how the last day of his life went down. I may be on Oscar Grant's side, but making a film like this one is extremely irresponsible. It was offensive to my intelligence.
05 Aug 2013, 7:26 pm
