Deep Cover (1992)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Deep Cover (1992) – B. Duke

Laurence Fishburne, in his first starring role, plays a rebellious cop who goes undercover, deep under cover, to infiltrate and destroy a drug syndicate operating in southern California.  His DEA superior (played smarmily by Charles Martin Smith) encourages him to violate the law as he insinuates himself higher and higher up the food chain.  His first break is winning the respect and then loyalty of a slimy lawyer (played with gusto by Jeff Goldblum) who hopes to make it big by selling designer drugs to the cartel.  As a team, they become extremely profitable selling crack cocaine but remain under the thumb of an evil middleman (Gregory Sierra). Things get increasingly out-of-control and violent.  Fishburne narrates the story in voiceover, giving a film noir flavour to the proceedings that could have starred Mitchum or Dick Powell in an earlier age.  Except this movie takes place squarely in a black community suffering from a drug epidemic, an epidemic funded by people from outside the community (Latin America) who are supported by high level American officials (George H. W. Bush is referenced!).  Fortunately, black heroes are on hand, not just Fishburne’s undercover agent (who struggles mightily with the moral ambiguity of his role) but an ordinary cop (Clarence Williams III) who prays for the dealers as well as the victims.  Director Bill Duke keeps things moving at a good clip to a rap/hip-hop soundtrack with some interesting experimental touches (jump cuts like a record being scratched).  It doesn’t all hang together perfectly but this is a far-better-than-average thriller.