Powerfully produced and directed, "American Violet" is a film based on the racially charged drug war scandal that rocked the town of Hearne,Texas,several years ago,which explores the devastating impact of America's "war on drugs". Directed by Tim Disney and written by Bill Haney,the film has a powerful story to tell,fueled by the powerful cast which includes Alfre Woodard,Will Patton,Tim Blake Nelson,rapper/actor Xzibit(in a electrifying performance),and Emmy Award winning actor Charles S. Dutton.
The film,as recounted here,the ACLU filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of 15 African-American residents of Hearne who were indicted in November 2000 on drug charges after being rounded up in a series of unlawful paramilitary drug "sweeps". These undercover drug busts,which led to the arrest of 15 percent of the African-American men between the ages of 18 to 34 in Hearne,were uniformly undertaken based on the uncorroborated word of a single unreliable confidental informant coerced by police to make cases. The film centers around Dee(played by newcomer Nicole Beharie)who works a shift at the local diner. The powerful local district attorney(Academy Award nominee Michael O'Keefe)leads an extensive drug bust,sweeping her Arlington Springs housing project with aggressive military tactics. Police drag Dee from work in handcuffs,dumping her in the squalor of the women's county prison. Indicated based on the uncorroborated word of a single and dubious police informant facing his own drug charges,Dee soon discovers that she has been charged as a drug dealer. Even though Dee has no prior drug record and no drugs were found on her in the raid or any subsequent searches,she is offered a hellish choice:plead guilty and go home as a convicted felon with an attendant loss of her federal and state rights,thus jeopardizing the custody of her children and risking a long prison sentence. Despite the urgings of her mother(Oscar nominee Alfre Woodard),and with her freedom and custody of her children at stake,she chooses to fight the district attorney and the unyielding criminal justice system he represents in the state of Texas. Joined in an unlikely alliance with an ACLU attorney(Tim Blake Nelson),and former local narcotics officer(Will Patton),Dee risks everything in a battle that forever changes her life and the Texas justice system. "American Violet" is a hard-hitting Hollywood blockbuster of a film that tells the story of Regina Kelly,one of the people rounded up in a Tulia style drug bust in Hearne,Texas back in 1999. The Hearne tragedy would have never have come to light without Tulia in which people took a stand against the wrongdoings down there in which the people fought for their rights. The cast here in downright superb including the electrifying performance of newcomer Nicole Beharie as Dee Roberts,who took on the State of Texas and won not only her case against her,but her freedom.
A gripping and suspenseful and emotional tale that became one of the official selected films for the Sundance Film Festival in 2008. And it is one of the year's best from 2008. The movie became the left-right combination of a scandal that changed the rules and regulations of the drug war in the State of Texas.
