Director Essentials: Ernest Dickerson

by Patrick Bromley

From one of the great cinematographers to one of the genre greats.

If Ernest Dickerson had only ever been a cinematographer working with the likes of Spike Lee, John Sayles, Robert Townsend, and Jonathan Demme, he would still be remembered as one of the giants of cinema for his incredible work behind the camera. That he transitioned into directing features himself in the early 1990s -- albeit not the kinds of features one might have expected given his prior pedigree -- cements him as one of the all-time greats, particularly if you like the kinds of movies I like.

1. Juice (1992)

Dickerson's first feature as director (he also co-wrote the screenplay) seems like it owes its existence to Boyz 'N the Hood, but Juice was shooting in early 1991 before the John Singleton movie was even in theaters. Besides, Dickerson's movie is grittier, pulpier, more interested in genre than realism. Omar Epps stars as one of four high school teenagers and childhood friends whose future is put in jeopardy when one of the group (Tupac Shakur in a stellar starring debut) starts killing people in a bid for more respect. While definitely part of the early '90s "young & urban" cycle, Juice distinguishes itself with flashier style and totally contemporary vibes despite being rooted in '70s blaxploitation. It's intended to be a crime thriller, not a look at life 1990s urban America. While Dickerson was already well known and respected for his work behind the camera as a cinematographer, this is the kind of directorial debut that announces a real filmmaker.

2. Surviving the Game (1994)

This is where Dickerson is at his best, when he's really leaning into B-movie elements that make up the best parts of his filmography. This loose remake of The Most Dangerous Game casts Ice-T as a homeless man being hunted for sport by the likes of Rutger Hauer, Gary Busey, F. Murray Abraham, Charles S. Dutton, John C. McGinley, and William McNamara. That roster! This is a down and dirty action movie that never pretends to be anything more, though the casting and some of the screenplay touches (by Eric Bernt) add commentary about race and class in America. While a bit less self-consciously stylish than Juice, Surviving the Game goes for maximum entertainment at every turn, delivering a lean and mean actioner that proves Dickerson's debut was no fluke. He's the real deal.

3. Tales from the Crypt Presents Demon Knight (1995)

I love that for their first foray into big screen horror, the producers behind HBO's Tales from the Crypt went with Ernest Dickerson, who was an untested commodity both in horror and with the Tales IP. For his part, Dickerson absolutely crushed the assignment, delivering what has become not just a beloved cult hit but arguably one of the most purely entertaining horror films of the 1990s. An amazing ensemble that includes William Sadler, Jada Pinkett Smith, a never-better Billy Zane, CCH Pounder, Thomas Haden Church, Dick Miller, and more combine with a really fun script and first-rate practical effects for a horror film that's colorful and energetic -- a pure blast from start to finish. Who knows? If Dickerson had been hired to direct Bordello of Blood,  maybe we'd still be getting a Tales from the Crypt movie every couple of years.

4. Bulletproof (1996)

Dickerson once again teamed with Universal for what was probably supposed to be the most commercial studio film of his career to date. Damon Wayans plays a cop who has to bring petty criminal (and his former partner) Adam Sandler in so he can turn state's witness against a slumming James Caan. This comes from an interesting period in Sandler's career, during which he was trying to figure out what kind of movie star he could be (and if he could even be one, believe it or not), as well as for Dickerson, who was trying to make something more broadly appealing and working with bigger names. I get what he was going for and what maybe drew him to the screenplay -- he wanted to make an action comedy, a kind of race-swapped 48 Hrs. -- but the material just isn't there. The two stars have little chemistry, neither is used to the best of their abilities, and the resulting film just falls flat. Dickerson himself has expressed disappointment with Bulletproof and had a terrible time making it, which kind of shows.

5. Bones (2001)

After working in television for the rest of the 1990s, Dickerson returned to theatrical features and the horror genre with the 1970s Blaxploitation-inspired Bones, starring Snoop Dogg as a murdered gangster who returns from the grave to avenge his death. I think there's more of the filmmaker in here than in Demon Knight even though Demon Knight is the better movie. Snoop is unusually well cast as Jimmy Bones and Dickerson is clearly enjoying conjuring up the throwback vibes, but the movie sometimes gets bogged down by too much mythology and plot (there's a dog that's the physical manifestation of Jimmy Bones' spirit, but then he's resurrected slowly as the dog claims victims, which feels like an unnecessary sequence of steps, but then he can also possess people, so why does he need a physical form at all) to ever really cook. I'm happy that it's found a cult following and gained a great deal of respect and admiration in the years since its release, though, as it puts another feather in Ernest Dickerson's cap and cements him as a "Master of Horror" (he directed The V Word for Mick Garris' Showtime anthology series), a label that may have helped him land the gig directing many of the best episodes of The Walking Dead. I'd love for Dickerson to come back to movies and make more horror.

6. Never Die Alone (2004)

Dickerson's final wide-release theatrical feature is over 20 years old at this point (he directed one more theatrical film, 2017's Double Play, that received next to no release in the U.S.), but he has since gone on to become one of the biggest and most successful television directors of the last two decades. This is the movie that brings his big screen career full circle and serves as a great bookend to his debut feature Juice, since it's basically a story of what would have happened had Tupac Shakur's character survived and become a bigshot gangster. DMX plays King David, a repugnant criminal and drug dealer who is killed and passes on all his possessions -- including tapes of his life story told by himself -- to a writer played by David Arquette. Though Dickerson had worked with several rappers-turned-actors in the past -- Tupac, Ice-T, Snoop Dogg -- he's not able to coax the same level of performance out of DMX, who does ok in action movies but has too much dialogue to convincingly pull off here. Not helping matters is the fact that his character is deeply misogynistic, which bleeds over into the movie a bit until it's difficult to distinguish between the two. I like that Dickerson is once again calling back to Blaxploitation -- Never Die Alone plays like a modern-day Superfly -- and DP Matthew Libatique's cinematography is stylish and impressive in a very 2004 kind of way, but the movie suffers a little from the lack of any lightness, a touch Dickerson brought to nearly every other project to one degree or another.