I'm a big fan of Walter Mosely's detective Easy Rawlins . Easy led me to Fearless Jones who lead me to Socrates Fortlow. And I am very glad and grateful to make friends with Socrates . The Book Always outnumbered Always outgunned. Told the story of a Convict named Socrates Fortlow who is released from prison after serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of a girl and her boyfriend. The Book tells us that Socrates has sledgehammer hands rock breaking hands . He's a powerful man. And he's full of remorse for the evil act he did. Back in the late 60's Socrates murdered a man and a woman while drunk and now he's paid his whole life for that act. Always Outnumbered Always outgunned. Sums up the story rather well. The Book was broken down into a series of Short stories in which the movie took its script from and tells those stories as a whole movie. And it is a Marvel. The Story is simple. Socrates Fortlow is a Ex Con released from jail ten months ago. He looks for work but the only work available to him is gathering bottles and cans . Socrates becomes involved in the problem of a young boy who witnessed a terrible Crime committed by a street gang. While trying to help the boy grow up to be a man Socrates also becomes involved in the problems of his neighborhood . And while helping others he realizes a man can't run away from his problems he has to help. And By helping he might find redemption. Along the Way Socrates finds a Woman to love. And gets a job. But each story in itself contains a lesson. And that's the point of this wonderful under rated movie. You're always outnumbered Always outgunned but you can't stop. you can't let them win because you're scared. You can't let the world beat you down so that you don't care. You make a stand for something. And you have to have a Code of honor.Something that'll help you along the way. And maybe just maybe you might be more then you thought you were.Wonderful cast. Wonderful Storytelling at its best. highly recommended .

Great cast and great story. Characters are multi-faceted instead of one-dimensional. No clichés and not stereotypical. One of my favorites of Laurence Fishbourne's roles as Socrates Furtlow - a man who's had challenges but still remains strong. I'm surprised that I really like and believe Natalie Cole's performance - she's at her best (in acting department). Cicely Tyson and Bill Cobb are too real - you know a senior citizen just like them, don't you? A movie for my collection - worth seeing again and again and again. I'm a real fan of black movies that show the community - real but with it's positive attributes as well as its challenges - and how folks coming together - just being neighborly - can make a difference in the community. Should be a classic.

Laurence Fishburne is superb as Socrates Fortlow in the HBO movie of Walter Mosley's adaptation of his first book of Fortlow stories. Mosley wove his stories together fairly well in the screenplay. The quest for a job, the serious undertaking of mentoring Darryl, dealing with the dealer/mugger and with the car-jacker are cinematic. Daniel Williams' portrayal of Darryl as a vulnerable discarded child who has to act tough is very, very good. The friendship with Right Burke (Bill Cobbs) is plausible, but having "Right" narrate the film seems unnecessary to me. We can see in Fishburne's performance the kind of many Socrates is without Right telling us how heroic he is. The relationships with women are less convincing, or at least less compelling. I don't remember what Luvia (Cicely Tyson) has against Socrates. His relationship with Iula Brown (Natalie Cole) lacks chemistry (and screen time).

This can be a tough video to find, but when I finally did it turned out to be well worth the effort. This is a great film, it rates right up with "Citizen X" as one of the best made for HBO movies. Laurence Fishburne is terrific as Socrates Fortlow, an ex-con living in inner L.A. and attempting to carve a new life for himself while just barely getting by. Fishburne gives the character real grit, anger, and pride, but most of all he shows us a man who is committed to living life honorably after making some very serious mistakes. You can feel the frustration of a man who is trying to live right in a world that is seldom fair, but he won't give in to the temptation to make an easy buck or to compromise his principles. The film is presented as a series of intertwining stories about the people in Fortlow's life, and the other actors in the film are superb - there is never a moment that doesn't feel real. The stories all have meaning - love, prejudice, empathy, sorrow, friendship, honor and death. It's not often that a film says this much without seeming to, and it's not often you see a film this moving. If your video store doesn't have it, be like Socrates and just keep coming back and protesting loudly until they do.