"The Bible insists that the best test of a nation's righteousness is how it treats the poorest and most vulnerable in its midst."
— Jim Wallis
The soulscape of the ghetto is inaccessible to most of us. We hear reports on the news about drug-related shootings and gang warfare but we can barely imagine what that means: it is just too far beyond us and our small circle of family and friends. As spiritual people, we need to change our isolation from the universe of the poor.
This world is made up of flesh-and-blood human beings who struggle, just like we do, to pay their bills and put food on the table. But these valiant men, women, and children also face the seemingly insurmountable challenges of hunger, homelessness, violence, unemployment, inadequate health care, inadequate wages, and overwhelming feelings of fear and self-hatred.
The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete plunges us into the unfamiliar world of guns and drugs in the Brooklyn projects where the primal path to survival is to trust no one and to look out for yourself. We watch with eyes wide open the formidable hurdles faced by two boys abandoned by their drug-addicted mothers and forced to make it on their own during the hot and humid days of one long summer. This remarkable film stands out as one of the most poignant depictions of what it is like to survive in the ghetto since Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing.
"Nothing in the universe is worse than poverty; it is the most terrible of sufferings. A person oppressed by poverty is like someone who carries on his shoulders the weight of the whole world's sufferings."
— Nilton Bonder
Thirteen-year-old Mister (Skylan Brooks) lives with his mother Gloria (Jennifer Hudson), a prostitute and heroin addict. In the opening scene of the film, he is weeping over the failing mark he has received at school which will require him to repeat the eighth grade. It takes Mister a while to recuperate from this setback.
But things get far worse. The police arrest Gloria and Mister is left alone with Pete (Ethan Dizon), a shy and well-spoken nine-year-old Korean-American whose mother is also a junkie. The two of them make an odd pair: Mister as the angry and combative adult and Pete as the sensitive kid with no one in the world who cares for him except his pet hamster.
The boys manage to scrounge around for food but face larger and more ominous threats from a local Pakistani merchant (Ken Maharaj) who sees Mister as a trouble-maker and bans him from the grocery store; a nasty youth, Dip Stick (Julito McCullum), who serves as a snitch for Protective Service officers who take children to Riverview, assumed to be a terrible shelter for orphans; a scary cop Sergeant Pike (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) who is on the look out for thieves and other law-breakers in the projects; and Kris (Anthony Mackie), his mother's pimp and drug lord who wields great power in the community.
With all these people to contend with and assess, Mister grows more and more weary of carrying the weight of his own and other people's suffering.
"There is something about poverty that smells like death. Dead dreams dropping off the heart (like leaves in a dry season and rotting at the feet)."
— Zora Neale Hurston
George Tillman Jr (Soul Food, Men of Honor) directs The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete from a screenplay by Michael Starrbury. This picaresque tale of survival immerses us in a harsh milieu where children are preyed upon, ignored, or taken for granted. On a more positive note, we witness the way in which Mister's heart softens as he gets closer to Pete as they face one setback after another. We also gain access to his romantic feelings when he makes contact with Alice (Jordin Sparks), a friend and former tenant in the Brooklyn projects who has found a new life for herself. Although she wants to help, he rebuffs her generosity.
Mister is reluctant to depend on anyone since he has his own plan to escape from the ghetto: an acting audition for a TV series that will prove him to be a star. He has memorized a scene from the movie Fargo. Even though poverty smells like death, there is perfume in the air when Mister thinks about his up-and-coming career as an actor.
Poverty is the defining moral issue of our time and this bold and fearless film speaks volumes about its many manifestations and meanings. After watching this DVD, we were moved to tears and were prompted to say a prayer of gratitude:
We thank the filmmakers for inviting us
to enter the world of poverty with Mister and Pete.
We are honored to have been given the chance
to share their powerlessness and pain,
their moments of sweet camaraderie and generosity.
We feel nothing but respect for these two survivors
and the grace under pressure they exhibit
during their various ordeals.
Thank you God for helping us to see you
in the faces of these abandoned boys.
May we never forget them and all the
others like them.
Special features on the DVD include an audio commentary with director George Tillman, Jr., and actors Skylan Brooks and Ethan Dizon; "Better You Better Me" music video by Alicia Keys; deleted scenes with optional audio commentary; "Rehearsal to scene" comparison; "Bootcamp" skateboard instruction video; and "Bootcamp" drug counselor character research.
