As a small boy he sees his father murder a man over a trivial matter.Parents need to know that Menace II Society is a bleak, violent, expletive-infused 1993 portrait of the dim prospects for young black men trying to escape the ghetto and to rise above the racism that put them there. He takes an older neighborhood man as his mentor, only to see him go to prison. By the time he is in high school, Caine wears a beeper on his belt and is a small-time drug dealer. The film's narration tells us he is society's nightmare: "He's young, he's black, and he doesn't give a -." We see that it is more complicated than that. The tragedy of Caine's life is that he cannot stand back a little and get a wider view, see what alternatives are available. He adopts the street values based on a corruption of the word "respect." He wants respect but has done nothing to deserve it. The movie opens as Caine and O-Dog, his heedless, violent friend, enter a Korean grocery store to buy a couple of beers.įor him, "respect" is the product of intimidation: If you back down because you fear him, you "respect" him. The grocer and his wife, who don't want trouble, ask them to make their purchase and leave. Caine and O-Dog engage in a little meaningless verbal intimidation, aware that because they are young and black they can score some points through the couple's fear. "I feel bad for your mother," the grocer says as they are about to leave.
That is all O-Dog needs to hear, and he murders the grocer and then forces his wife to hand over the store's security videotape before killing her, too.Ĭaine is shocked by this sudden violent development. He sees it in terms of his own misfortune: He went out to get a beer, and now he's an accessory to murder. During the course of the movie, O-Dog will use the videotape for entertainment at parties, freeze-framing the moment of the grocer's death.
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