If solely judged on Tookie Williams during his prison years, Redemption is a cracker-jack piece of film. It drives from the heart a sincerity that here was a man, that basically unleashed gangland hell on America, who desperately craved redemption from his prison cell. He strives to do good, to help communities by way of education in book and oration form, but is the film heavily biased towards the redemptive angle? Is the monster side of Williams soft soaped? Sadly yes it is.We don't need to see continual violence thrust in our faces to know Williams was a very bad egg, but although we see staged flashbacks that break the heart and frighten us, director Vondie Curtis-Hall and writer J.T. Allen are fully committed to garnering empathy for the man. Of course on the flip-side of that, if they showed an abundance of violence perpetrated by Williams, then accusations of glorifying would surely have followed. Yet there has to be a balance, a balance that some film makers do find, but it isn't found here.Is it a story worth telling? Yes it is, of course, and with a superb and controlled performance by Jamie Foxx in the title role driving it forwards, it remains riveting throughout. However, when the dust settles and the end credits roll, what of the victims families blighted by Williams crimes? How must they have felt seeing Williams having a film made about him? A double edged sword movie for sure, artistically above average? Yes. Morally? Questionable. 6/10

I was expecting more balanced story between who He was and who He became, but that doesn't happens here. Instead, 90 % of the movie is concentrated on who He became and it is done well with thoughtful dialogs.Unfortunately it depicts a little of His violent past, blurry presented, and far from enough so we can feel the change. It is a warm story nicely told, but also doesn't goes beyond that, doesn't surprises, but follows a firmly determined line, and in the end instead culminating, slowly fades.However a good job is done her, since this is a hard story to tell. In the end I must say, a great performance by Jamie Foxx, well transformation.

Stanley "Tookie" Williams was the co-founder of the Crips. Ray Washington was the founder. The movie Redemption incorrectly portrays "Tookie" Williams as the founder, but he was not! I would like to see this information corrected on the IMDb movies website. It is true the "Tookie" Williams took the gang to a new level after becoming a member of the gang, but he did not found the gang. This is so disheartening to learn that mistakes like this are not caught before it is made available to millions of computer users. Please help me to get the word out that "Tookie" Williams did not found the Crips gang, but he did become a member of the gang that Ray Wasghington founded and then the name was changed.

i am only 16 and always watch movies. My family gets dvds pretty much everyday so in my video shop i have literally seen nearly everyone. This one is different. It is a real & meaningful story leaving us thinking and learning more as the movie went by. For the people who live the life he grew up in, the meaning of the movie is something I'm sure they will think about. World Peace isn't going to happen overnight. We all know that. But to look at this mans awful life and know that if we keep on hating, we may lead the same life one day. if not us maybe our future children- thats scary. Stan Williams woke up his neighborhood to a life of crime and later did all he could to save them.. he is a hero and this movie touched my heart.