Capitalism

A movie that I enjoyed watching is called Paid in Full.  Paid in Full is a movie that came out in the year 2002; but it reflects a time in Harlem in which the crack epidemic began to affect the community.  The main characters of this movie are named Mitch, Ace Boogie and Rico and they loosely revolve around the lives of 3 notorious Harlem “gangsters”; Rich Porter, Alpo and Azie.  According to a documentary found on youtube.com called “The Alpo Story”; Rich Porter, Alpo and Azie were three of main drug traffickers in New York City during the 1980’s.  In this movie, Ace Boogie (Azie) is a young adult who lives a regular life but once he sees what the drug life can bring and the fast money he can make he begins to revolve his life around it.  Mitch (Rich Porter) is his best friend, also former drug dealer and when Mitch comes out of incarceration he brings Rico (Alpo) along with him and basically they begin their drug empire that Ace Boogie started up.  As the movie goes along you can begin to notice the rising tension between the partners in terms of who had the most direct contact with the main drug lord and who was actually receiving the most profit.  Eventually Rico betrays Mitch by killing him because he felt as if Mitch wasn’t being honest and letting Rico earn as much money as he could.  Ace boogie finds himself on the bad side of a home invasion conducted by his sisters boyfriend because of jealousy.

The reason I choose this movie although it is not one of the most famous movies about New York City, it does represent what still goes on in New York City urban communities and the overall mindset of what New York City represents.  I observed how at that time people did not really understand nor care about what effects drugs would do to the community.  As long as profit was involved everything was a fair game.  That reflects the capitalist nation that we all live in and become accustom too.  The more money you have, the more power and respect you get from your peers.  Some young kids in the urban community do not have the good idols to look up to.  Instead they look up to drug dealers back then now our community look up to these rap stars and ultimately that is what they equate to success.

Work Cited

Stars, Street. "The Alpo Story (Full Documentary)." YouTube. YouTube, 10 Aug. 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.