Deep Cover
Directed by Bill Duke • 1992 • United States
Starring Laurence Fishburne, Jeff Goldblum, Victoria Dillard
Film noir hits the mean streets of 1990s Los Angeles in this stylish and subversive underworld odyssey from veteran actor-director Bill Duke. Laurence Fishburne stars as Russell Stevens, a police officer who goes undercover as “John Hull,” the partner of a dangerously ambitious cocaine trafficker (Jeff Goldblum), in order to infiltrate and bring down a powerful Latin American drug ring operating in LA. But the further Stevens descends into this ruthless world of money, violence, and power, the more disillusioned he becomes—and the harder it is to make out the line between right and wrong, crime and justice. Steeped in shadowy, neon-soaked atmosphere and featuring Dr. Dre’s debut solo single, DEEP COVER is an unsung gem of the nineties’ Black cinema explosion that delivers a riveting character study and sleek action thrills alongside a furious moral indictment of America and the devastating failures of the war on drugs.
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Deep Cover
Directed by Bill Duke • 1992 • United States
Starring Laurence Fishburne, Jeff Goldblum, Victoria DillardFilm noir hits the mean streets of 1990s Los Angeles in this stylish and subversive underworld odyssey from veteran actor-director Bill Duke. Laurence Fishburne stars as Russell Stevens, a p...
Extras
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Bill Duke on DEEP COVER
In this conversation, recorded in 2021, actor and director Bill Duke discusses his wide-ranging career, paying special attention to the making of DEEP COVER.
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Laurence Fishburne and Bill Duke on DEEP COVER
The following discussion of DEEP COVER took place at the American Film Institute Conservatory in 2018, after a screening of the film. Film critic Elvis Mitchell moderated the conversation between director Bill Duke and actor Laurence Fishburne.
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Racquel J. Gates and Michael B. Gillespie on DEEP COVER
In this conversation, recorded in 2021, film scholars Racquel J. Gates (author of “Double Negative: The Black Image and Popular Culture”) and Michael B. Gillespie (author of “Film Blackness: American Cinema and the Idea of Black Film”) discuss genre, culture, and DEEP COVER in the context of Blac...
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Claudrena N. Harold and Oliver Wang on DEEP COVER
In this conversation, recorded in 2021, Claudrena N. Harold (author of “When Sunday Comes: Gospel Music in the Soul and Hip-Hop Eras”) and Oliver Wang (professor of sociology at California State University, Long Beach, DJ, and cohost of the “Heat Rocks” podcast) discuss the introduction and lasti...