Movie Review: Notorious
By Matthew Huntley
January 20, 2009
As you may already know, Biggie will forever be linked to Shakur, who started out as Biggie's friend but later became his greatest rival. Shakur accused Biggie and Puffy of setting him up for a robbery in the lobby of their shared Manhattan music studio, where Shakur was shot several times and lost thousands of dollars worth of jewelry. Biggie denied the accusations, and the movie recreates the incident from his point of view. It also explains how it ignited the infamous East Coast-West Coast hip hop feud, a subject that could easily make for an intriguing film all its own, which is probably where Biggie & Tupac comes in.
As for Notorious, it does become heavy-handed towards the end and the film overplays the impending doom of Biggie's death on March 8, 1997. By this time, the filmmakers desperately want us to realize Biggie has turned over a new leaf as far as his priorities are concerned. He tells his daughter, "No matter what, never let anyone call you a b*tch," and there's a blatant scene in which he gathers around the dinner table and says, simply, "Thank you." We get it - he's a changed man. He's got new values. The movie lays on the emotion too heavily, but for the sake of Biggie's family, we can understand why.
Because the real Sean Combs executive produced Notorious, I'm fairly confident most of the events in the movie are accurate, at least from Combs' point of view. But even so, I don't go to Hollywood movies for truth. I go first for mood, tone and drama, hoping each of these will help create a fair a representation of the truth. After seeing this movie, I now feel like I know the broad outlines of Biggie's life, which was quite a remarkable one. Fans of The Notorious B.I.G. will likely feel a bittersweet affection towards it and will recall just how much Biggie changed their lives. For the uninformed, like me, I appreciated how the movie, in a moving and entertaining way, made me aware of this larger-than-life artist. I now want to learn more. It's amazing how Biggie continues to influence people more than a decade after his death.
NOTE: After Notorious, it would be interesting if Hollywood made a Tupac Shakur movie, not so much because of the East Coast-West Coast feud, but because Tupac was just as influential on the hip hop scene, if not more. Like Biggie's, Tupac's story is worth telling and I'm sure die-hard fans, as well as the uninformed, are yearning for it.
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