Drop Squad

This bewildering 1994 first feature by David Johnson, written by Johnson and Butch Robinson and inspired in part by Ellis Cose’s book Rage of a Privileged Class, is about a secret black organization known as the DROP Squad (DROP being an acronym for Deprogramming and Restoration of Pride), which kidnaps black people who’ve allegedly sold out their culture and community and deprograms them through brainwashing and other forms of torture. Part of what’s bewildering is that the movie seems mainly to endorse this form of de facto terrorism but never builds a coherent case for either its justice or its effectiveness. Produced and subsequently recut by Spike Lee, the movie may suffer from a collision of viewpoints and approaches; as it stands, the material is provocative but confusing. With Eriq LaSalle, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Ving Rhames, Vanessa Williams, and Kasi Lemmons. 86 min. (JR) Read more