Fruitvale Station

On October 1st 2007, a man named Simon Glick witnessed an arrest being made in Boston, Massachusetts and started recording the interaction upon becoming concerned about the use of excessive force by the police officers that were involved. Despite doing so without interfering, Glick was arrested for violating wiretapping related laws, and was also charged with the disturbing the peace and aiding in the escape of a prisoner. All of the incited charges were dismissed, and a civil rights lawsuit was filed that alleged Glick’s arrest as a violation of his 1st and 4th Amendment rights. Argued in 2011, it was found by unanimous decision that these constitutional rights were in fact violated, and some have come to identify 𝑮𝒍𝒊𝒌 𝒗. 𝑪𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆 as the first case in which a United States Circuit Court of Appeals declared citizens have the same rights as journalists to record public officials in public spaces.Two years after Glick’s initial arrest, a 22 year old African American named Oscar Grant was shot and killed by a police officer named Johannes Mehserle In Oakland on January 1st, 2009. Far from being the first black man to be killed by law enforcement, his death has since been acknowledged as one of the first to be recorded via bystander’s cell-phones. Subsequent recordings featuring similar material have since necessitated public outcry for justice in the context of stories like Grant’s, and have resulted in the establishment of the #BlacklivesMatter movement in 2013.𝑰'𝒎 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅, 𝑰'𝒎 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅, 𝑰'𝒎 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒃𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅.Fruitvale Station is a 2013 American biographical drama film written and directed by Ryan Coogler. It is based on the events leading to the death of Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale district station of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system.Marinating in the infallible judgment of individuals that have passed away often lends to a denial of humanity in telling their individual stories, and perhaps even more so when their deaths are sensationalized or complicated by public biases. Determined to avoid villainizing or pedestalizing Grant, Coogler and ‘𝑭𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏’s leading cast took on the task of meeting with as many people as they could - friends, families, acquaintances, Etc - to honor all the dynamics and stressors that affected Grant on a day-to-day basis.Perhaps not a surprise, but all the perspectives reported were different - but no less honest - and this required scenes that demonstrated emotional range while reflecting due diligence in telling Oscar’s whole story in the cinematic equivalent of 24 hours; with 𝑭𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 is a transposed variance that appropriately portrays contradictory factors as indicative of mechanisms Oscar likely adapted to make the best out of environments that were less than ideal as opposed to some thrawl of moralistic undoing.Those primed to believe people working in law enforcement should always be given the benefit of the doubt are likely to look on 𝑭𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 with scornful disdain: as if it should be taken personally or that is it is designed to be emotionally manipulative. One such instance of creative licensing involves a scene seemingly shoehorned that involves a dog (a dog that dies, for those of you that need to know) that Oscar befriends with no proof that such an incident actually occurred on the last day of his life. Constrained by the fact that a large portion of the day between buying items to help celebrate his mom's birthday (which did happened) and visiting her have gone unaccounted for, Cooley included this particular scene (amongst others, as this dog incident happened to his own brother before) to reflect the experiences of his own peers and make Oscar Grant a poignantly relatable character.On 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 note, there are some that take their speculation of 𝑭𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏’s claims to authenticity further in feeling entitled to treating Oscar’s criminal history as a “gotcha” element that somehow justifies his cause of death. If you do this I will will be led to assume you also have a nice pair of clown shoes In your possession, as even the reason Grant was in jail a year prior to his death (as depicted in 𝑭𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, but not elaborated on in terms of why Grant was there) - this being a firearm charge - in addition to other stints of his prison have little to do with the treatment he was subjected to on January the 1st of 2009. This is 𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 ironic, and in many ways generous, given how much more depraved Cooley could have portrayed the police officers Grant was mistreated by.For one, as implied, the officers that responded to a fight that broke out on the BART station (namely, Anthony Pirone and Johannes Mehserle) did next to nothing to follow up on eyewitness accounts to this reported fight (And, for the record, Grant's death afterwards) and instead picked Grant out as suspicious at random so as to assert control over a high-energy situation. On top of this, officers then falsified records and attempted to make themselves less accountable with one such example being the fact that Pirone lied about confirming with the designated BART train operator that the people detained were involved in the altercation they were initially called to peacefully investigate and neutralize. Secondary to this, Pirone (this being the same officer who forced Grant off of the BART train, initiated his arrest, and was seen physically assaulting him on camera) was then found to have a 𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 of using excessive force on the job without being previously reprimanded in any capacity for it. While I can't logically hold Pirone responsible for Mehserle’s actions what I can say is that no measures were taken to deescalate a then-heated scenario compassionately, and that's the bare minimum that could have been done when all of this is analyzed in retrospect(P.S. I'm really not interested in arguing over whether or not Mehserle “meant to grab his taser” as he has stated himself. Oscar shouldn't have been arrested or intimidated into a state of compliance to begin with. Just my #TwoCents)It can also be easy to overlook the larger cultural significance of Oscar Grant being killed following a New Year's celebration. Though not referenced to explicitly in 𝑭𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, Grant had plans of his own in the hopes of leaving behind his questionable (but relatively innocuous) past. In fact, after having dropped out of high school he earned his GED while he was incarcerated and acquired an interest in cutting hair. In one of the last conversations he had with his partner he expressed wanting to move to a different area and then aspired going to barber school as one of his personal resolutions. Meanwhile, if one takes the time to square all of this with the consequences of his death, the assertion that 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒅 is quite plainly and quintessentially laughable; having been faced with up to 14 years in prison, Mehserle was instead served the lowest possible prison term of 2 years and was released after only 11 months. His attorney, Michael Raines, has further commented on Mehserle’s behalf that he was “ready to move on with his life” within a week of being released and that he has an interest in working in sales or retail “because he's so good with people”.🙄🙄🙄 Must be nice to steal dreams and be given an extra opportunity to develop yours.Grant’s story shouldn't resonate on a grander scale as a simulation of sorts when it comes to the interactions with authority figures in law enforcement that People of color have come to anticipate regardless of their culpability, but it most unfortunately does. Consequently, it's not hard to understand why all of those involved in the development of 𝑭𝒓𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 might be intrinsically motivated to do so in the first place.Helpless skeptics and cynics alike may want to just sit this one out. Scrutinization delivered with partiality runs the risk of micromanaging how marginalized individuals are encouraged to tell their own stories, and discourse that is subdued by privilege has no place in creatively empowering spaces. At the end of the day, the world Oscar Grant was forced away from was condemnatory and unyieldingly cruel, and to call this inexcusable would be barely scratching the surface.Would it 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 hurt any of us to start actually acting like it?#BlackLivesMatter

After one of my classmates discussed this Film in one of our assignments, and being a fan of Michael B Jordan, I decided to purchase it and ended up loving it. This Film is based on actual events and is very eye-opening to the realities of racism in this world.

I was elated to watch "Fruitvale Station", to have purchased it from Prime Video. I had seen the last thirty minutes of "Fruitvale" in the hospital, not on my tablet, and I was completely enthralled by the movie. To see Oscar Grant, and his friends being rounded up at the Fruitvale station stop is an intoxicating bunch of images. It must be said, this is an iconic instance of portraiture. These are young black men, and their mannerisms, and even their class distinction, yes-and attitudes, are cloud forms of grey subtleties; the climactic sequence of "Fruitvale Station", already a tipsy climate, here, this volatile moment is elevated dynamically by the acting. I had now, with my purchase from Prime, to watch the beginning of "Fruitvale Station". Oscar Grant(Michael B. Jordan) was a victim of a police shooting, because of negligence. The idea that a film could resolve the manifold implications and evils of such a thing is ridiculous. "Fruitvale" is a triumphant exercise of film making because it relays the tragedy that the loss of Oscar Grant III was. Oscar, here portrayed by Michael B. Jordan, is a chanel. As we partake of his life, his background story, before he is killed-horribly, Oscar serves as the focal point for intense tensions. It's clear that Oscar had loved his girlfriend and mother of his daughter-but she did not trust him. Also, we see in Oscar the coolness and calculated lifestyle of a drug deal adventurer. There is no questioning his love though, his sincerity. To his daughter Tatianna(Ariana Neal), he gave her the necessities of living, and also, a second helping of fruit snacks as she went to her grandmother's house.This is a story thread-this is not a case for condemning unrest and hatred by comparison of one personality versus the actions of deviants. "Fruitvale Station" is a tale in the biographical portrait tradition. The troubles of Oscar's risque life, and the Oakland neighborhoods of richly sunlit, dusty, chainlink fences and concrete walls, are the catapult for an absorbing narrative on the actions of one man; it's a collage of grave consequences against delicious new realities. Michael B. Jordan is brilliant at relaying and embellishing attitudes consistent with the current conditions of an environment, of giving expression to infiltrating issues. Could we doubt, that Oscar was heavily oppressed with thoughts at his mother's house, with other friends who are sharing dinner? This performance, as well as that of Melonie Diaz's(Sophina, Oscar's wife) and his mother, played by Octavia Spencer, are vital to this particular film. These people are now made real incandescently, and as a result, the premise of the movie, that of the young history of Oscar Grant III is melded successfully to it's tragic conclusion-regardless of any implications, or the fact that racism is an illness of mankind. As we are interested in Oscar, the tenacious intensity of his actions causes one to know him in ways that we could not sitting in front of a pictogram and discerning images as we fell away, dreamily. It's clear that Oscar was a great supermarket clerk. Oscar helped a customer named Katie get the right fish for her 'fish fry' dinner. Also, there is obscene quietness, a pervasive 'oh no!' pause as we watch Oscar ask a man on the city street, Peter, about purchasing a wedding ring:"How'd you get a ring?". It is about racism, cause by virtue of a hate we become entailed to things. By the time of the errant, and terribly irresponsible shooting of Oscar, one understands that all of the little miracles that streamed onto this unassuming reservoir were annihilated.

Sad but great movie

This has a very good story line!

good watch keeps you on your toes

Great movie.

Excelente película

No complaints really, movie played just fine. Case was cracked a little, but isn't visible from the outside so I don't really mind.

Ayant vu les film creed 1 et 2 j’ai acheté ce film car Michael b Jordan jouait dedans le film est super mais ne possède pas le choix de la langue française

I bought the DVD because I loved the movie. A true story of a regular person with all the hurdles in life ultimately taking a plunge into the dire situation.

Saw this film years before buying a copy. It impacted me, the idea of police murdering citizens. This is not a Hollywood story, this is based on a true story. This happened. Continues to happen. If you cannot take truth and reality then this film is not for you. If you want to see another side to the USA, which started way BEFORE Trump started his ugly presidential campaigning, then watch this film. If you don't want truth then Hollywood has plenty for you. This is a must watch!

Good print and good movie.