In New Jack City, there is a moment when Nino, who has made millions of dollars by selling cocaine to black people with drug issues who are homeless, stands in front of his huge movie screen while Scarface is playing claiming he would never make the mistakes he would make. This is symbolic for how drug empires come full circle. First you have everything you could ever want and dream of, then you take those things for granted and as a result, the empire falls.
This film looks like a typical hood gang film but the director Mario Van Peebles had a different idea. This film has a special impact because once the lights go on, you continue thinking about the drug epidemic that could be going on around you. During this time, directors used the drug epidemic to inform viewers on how bad it has gotten and we see that through Pookie, a recovering addict who relapses later on. This movie is different from what I have seen in similar hood films because you have an evil man living the seductive drug lord life but in the end, we see that even his wife will testify against him.
In the film, we see a clever Scotty (Ice-T) and Nick (Judd Nelson) working amongst each other, even though they are not fond of each other, trying to bust Nino. The movie makes their rivalry intense and personal. We see Scotty as a frankly interesting character, a cop who has been through the life of addiction. He is a recovering addict passionate about shutting down the strong (CMB) from praying on the weak (homeless poor people of New York City). While Nick is often crazy and irresponsible resulting of him being suspended from his force filled with a passion for stopping the drug epidemic around him.
Scotty rolls the dice on a young naive addict who we see fighting for his life on the streets. Pookie (Chris Rock) is the name. Now Pookie is so strung out on cheap cocaine that we often see him trying to manipulate his way through life. If you know anything about a drug addict in the family, this is all normal behavior. But it is dramatized to help get the point of how addictive drugs can change not only your morals but take over your whole life. Scotty drags him to the hospital where he goes through intense withdrawals leading to AA meetings. We see the changes over time and are over joyed by his recover.
There is no sense that throughout this film director Van Peebles wants to play it safe like many other drug films/hood films do. He shoots on location where actual drug use is going on around him, he uses street slang which in some cases was not appropriate, and he allows the cast to sound like their street characters and not like your typical tv series junkies/cops. It is hard to pull of an anti-drug film because the life that Nino lives looks lavish and appealing to all, but it is the way Van Peebles puts together Nino as a character. All we can think about when Nino is smack on the floor is when he looked at the dead body in Scarface and laughs, not knowing that will be him and ultimately many drug lords in the business.
The 'Hood' Era 