Movie Review: Fruitvale Station

If you asked me what my biggest fear of dying was I would tell you drowning but in watching Fruitvale Station I remembered that I have an even bigger fear than drowning - dying in transition.

Fruitvale Station is the account of Oscar Grant's (Michael B. Jordan) last day on earth leading up to being shot and killed by BART police on New Year's Day 2009. The movie was pieced together by points of contact Oscar had on that fateful day via his cell phone. In between text messages and phone calls, Oscar was taking steps away from dealing marijuana toward living a life in which he could always be there for his daughter, Tatiana.

By knowing how the movie would end, it was tortuous watching the events of the day that put Oscar in BART custody at Fruitvale Station. Family events, positive events, new lease on life events. Oscar resolved, through actions, not to carry the mistakes of his previous years into 2009 only to be muted by the bang of a gunshot. It was a poetic injustice for Oscar to be killed during his transition while the world was in one of its own into a new year.

At the end of the movie I found myself thinking about things I didn't want to think about, too close to home things. Things like what's the value of a human life? Is it the same or does it vary? If it varies then how is a life appraised? How was Oscar's life appraised? With my collective nerve still raw from "the verdict", absorbing Fruitvale Station was emotional to me beyond words. Already numb, I watched the culmination of the movie, paralyzed, seeing how little life is valued anymore.

Bruh. (Word to Oscar Grant, III)

Steve

Disclaimer: I am an employee of Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner, however the views expressed in this post are of my own.