This action film, directed by the Hughes brothers, depicts a heist of old bills, retired from circulation and destined by the government to be "money to burn." However, more broadly, it addresses the issues of Black Americans' involvement in the Vietnam War and their subsequent disillusionment with progress in social issues and civil rights back home in the United States, during the 1960's.
Oh where or where have the Hughes brothers gone? Their first two films, MENANCE II SOCIETY and DEAD PRESIDENTS were all great works, bringing to the forefront the struggles of being black either in L.A. during the early 1990s or a war veteran in the 1970s in New York. Then they switched gears and directed, IMO their most underrated film FROM HELL in 2001. Since then, I haven't heard much from them
As for the film, I wasn't expecting it to be a war and postwar film. Going into it I thought it was just a movie about a money heist. However, I did like the war element, particularly from a black characters point of view. I haven't seen many war films that deal exclusively with African-American soldiers/actors, so it was definitely a nice change to see the underrepresented minorities. Also, the hardships they faced when coming back home was even more dishearting because the characters had to turn to a life of crime to survive. On a final note, Clifton Powell as Cutty was probably my favorite character. He was only in two scenes but in his last scene he was absolutely dynamite (just so smooth and coy at times and then in an instant he's on top of you with a gun threating you).
