Life,
directed by Ted Demme, presents a different Mississippi—where
black men are imprisoned whether guilty or otherwise. Different
except in one fascinating respect—Ned Beatty is again cast
as an unprejudiced white prison superintendent. The film focuses
on two inmates of a prison farm, played by Eddie Murphy and
Martin Lawrence, New Yorkers in Mississippi to pick up moonshine
during Prohibition, both of whom are framed for murder by
a white sheriff trying to cover up the fact that he is the
murderer, and they are sentenced to hard labor for life at
a prison farm somewhere near Greenville. Nevertheless, they
prove to be an "odd couple," bantering and bitching for some
fifty years. While they miss events of the century that liberate
blacks outside the prison farm, they find enjoyment by being
themselves. The film shows a more contemplative Eddie Murphy,
who is neither "Coming to America" nor "The
Distinguished Gentleman" but instead has turned into
a Bill Cosby or a Spike Lee, telling us that there is something
more important than accommodating or fighting racial injustice,
for the film’s tagline is "Share it with someone you love."
MH
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