With so many prisoner confessions concerning the murders of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. surfacing lately, it seemed a good time to check out Nick Broomfield's 2002 documentary on the crimes. The explosive documentary argues that Death Row Records head Suge Knight orchestrated the hits. Broomfield talks to the rap mogul in prison. Broomfield is a ballsy guy.
If you don't know Broomfield he's a British filmmaker who makes documentaries like an investigative journalist. His AILEEN WUORNOS: THE SELLING OF A SERIAL KILLER shows how the subject of the fictional film MONSTER was manipulated by money-grubbing lowlifes to make money off her crimes. His HEIDI FLEISS: HOLLYWOOD MADAM tells the tale not of a notorious sex worker, but a naïve woman manipulated by others. His KURT & COURTNEY made the sensational claims that Courtney Love had something to do with the death of her husband Kurt Cobain.
While I wouldn't say it about his thin KURT & COURTNEY argument, his other films, including this one, are solid investigations. He works gorilla style. It's him with a mic and his cameraman Joan Churchill. The man isn't afraid to ask the scary questions. He digs up compelling eyewitnesses and even someone claiming to have been involved. He often just shows up at places and says he has an interview with so and so. That's how he got to talk to Suge Knight.
The premise he argues is that Knight hired a killer to shoot Tupac because the artist was owed millions in royalties and was looking to leave Death Row. Knight then hired someone to kill Biggie to make it look like the killings were part of some manufactured East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry. The killers could have been former or off-duty LAPD. The music producer had around 40 of them on his payroll. Broomfield at least proves that the Los Angeles police had little interest in interviewing the most obvious suspects. One detective working on the Tupac case resigned when he was urged by higher-ups to not go where his investigation was leading.
Now back to the Suge Knight interview. The large man is an intimidating figure. He has a rep for violence, issuing death threats on his website and the tale of him hanging Vanilla Ice over a balcony by the rapper's feet. When Broomfield enters the prison, the warden seems subservient to the prisoner. Suge approaches Broomfield with two bodyguards in tow. Churchill was so scared of ambushing Knight that she refused to go on the shoot, so Broomfield had to hired a freelancer, who at one point was so scared he pointed the camera at the sky instead of Knight.
Broomfield has a knack for getting people to say things on camera that are shocking. Is it his disheveled appearance? Or his British accident? Or the naïve way he asks his questions? He gets people to say things that could conceivably in this case get them killed. That includes Broomfield.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
