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Biggie & Tupac (2002)
Director:
Nick Broomfield
Starring:
The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur (archive footage)
Studio:
Film Four (UK)
Lions Gate Films (US)
For more information, check out the IMDB.
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Nick Broomfield has also done two documentaries on Aileen Wuornos, the serial killing prostitute portrayed by Charlize Theron in "Monster."
The most recent of the two films,
"Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer," detailing her last days on death row, will screen this month at the Siskel Center.
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Back by popular demand this upcoming week at the Siskel is "Biggie and Tupac," the Nick Broomfield documentary on the lives and deaths of rappers Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. He explores the war between East Coast and West Coast rappers, the conspiracy theory behind the rappers' deaths and the role of nefarious Death Row Records head Suge Knight.
Broomfield has perfected a particularly style of annoying, confrontational pseudo-journalism that reminds me a little bit of a conservative talk show host who shouts over his interviewees in order to be heard. It's not that Broomfield's voice is particularly loud, it's that he insists on filming interviewees from the second they open the door to him. He never tells them to expect the cameras to be on instantly, which usually results in the subject being surprised and a little unsettled. Broomfield is searching for a more honest response, but it often results in people being a little pissed off.
In the case of "Kurt and Courtney," another recent Broomfield documentary about Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain and his wife Courtney Love, it's fun to watch, mainly because you kind of want to see the equally grating Courtney Love put through a Broomfield's special kind of bulldogging. It's a little like those online Flash games that let you throw things at Britney Spears just for fun.
In "Biggie and Tupac," what makes his style at least interesting is that you occasionally sense it's putting him in real danger. As Broomfield circles around the exterior of the rappers' lives, he comes into contact with some characters that could easily rip him a new orifice if they so intended.
As far as shedding real light on the murders, the film does very little. Most of the sources Broomfield finds are either clearly biased or completely uncredible. B.I.G.'s mom comes off as a fundamentally decent human being, but her thoughts on the murders aren't particularly believable.
Ex-cop Russell Poole has some reasonable evidence on a possible link in the murder to off-duty police officers, but something about his story seems a little weak. Likewise, in extensive interviews with the far outer ring of Biggie and Tupac's circles, stories that emerge seem like fairly typical tales of life as members of the highly successful hip-hop artists' entourages.
Perhaps most troublesome about Broomfield's style is that in two consistent films about music, he hasn't been able to procure rights to the works of the artists whose lives he's documenting. A few hours sitting down with some Nirvana albums will ultimately tell you more than Broomfield could in "Kurt and Courtney." Likewise, picking up any of the multiple post-mortem Shakur releases proves more informative than Broomfield's surface-level proddings.
Broomfield does deserve kudos for managing to wrangle up a prison yard interview with rap bully extraordinaire Suge Knight, who manages to use the opportunity to make veiled statements about rapper Snoop Dogg getting out of jail by being a rat. In the terms Knight uses, you kind of wonder if it's like one of those Al-Jazeera aired message from Osama that fuel later terrorist acts. For the sake of the Snoop, let us hope not.
"Biggie and Tupac" is also available for rental through Facets.
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Written by Richard Sharp
Review Date: January 24, 2004
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