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Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story

Redemption tells the story of Stan "Tookie" Williams, founder of the Crips L.A. street gang. Story follows his fall into gang-banging, his prison term, and his work writing children's novels encouraging peace and anti-violence resolutions which earned him multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations. After exhausting all forms of appeal, Tookie was executed by lethal injection.

Top Cast

  • Jamie Foxx

    Jamie Foxx

    Stan 'Tookie' Williams

  • Lynn Whitfield

    Lynn Whitfield

    Barbara Becnel

  • Lee Thompson Young

    Lee Thompson Young

    Charles Becnel

  • Brenden Jefferson

    Brenden Jefferson

    Young Stan Williams

  • Brenda Bazinet

    Brenda Bazinet

    Barbara's Agent

  • Wes Williams

    Wes Williams

    Tony Bogard

  • Greg Ellwand

    Greg Ellwand

    Prison Chief

  • CCH Pounder

    CCH Pounder

    Winnie Mandela

  • Barbara Barnes-Hopkins

    Barbara Barnes-Hopkins

    Mrs. Williams

Overview

Redemption tells the story of Stan "Tookie" Williams, founder of the Crips L.A. street gang. Story follows his fall into gang-banging, his prison term, and his work writing children's novels encouraging peace and anti-violence resolutions which earned him multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations. After exhausting all forms of appeal, Tookie was executed by lethal injection.

Rating

6.0 / 10
60 Reviews
1 Popular

1 Reviews

  • John Chard
    John Chard
    6 Apr 5, 2015

    Red Light - Green Light If solely judged on Tookie Williams during his prison years, Redemption is a cracker-jack piece of film. It drives from the heart a sincerity that here was a man, that basically unleashed gangland hell on America, who desperately craved redemption from his prison cell. He strives to do good, to help communities by way of education in book and oration form, but is the film heavily biased towards the redemptive angle? Is the monster side of Williams soft soaped? Sadly yes it is. We don't need to see continual violence thrust in our faces to know Williams was a very bad egg, but although we see staged flashbacks that break the heart and frighten us, director Vondie Curtis-Hall and writer J.T. Allen are fully committed to garnering empathy for the man. Of course on the flip-side of that, if they showed an abundance of violence perpetrated by Williams, then accusations of glorifying would surely have followed. Yet there has to be a balance, a balance that some film makers do find, but it isn't found here. Is it a story worth telling? Yes it is, of course, and with a superb and controlled performance by Jamie Foxx in the title role driving it forwards, it remains riveting throughout. However, when the dust settles and the end credits roll, what of the victims families blighted by Williams crimes? How must they have felt seeing Williams having a film made about him? A double edged sword movie for sure, artistically above average? Yes. Morally? Questionable. 6/10

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