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Fruitvale Station
Fruitvale Station is a 2013 American biographical drama film written and directed by Ryan Coogler. It is Coogler's first feature-length film
and is based on the events leading to the death of Oscar Grant, a young man who was killed in 2009 by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle
at the Fruitvale district station of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in Oakland. The film stars Michael B. Jordan as Oscar Grant
with Kevin Durand and Chad Michael Murray playing the two BART police officers involved in Grant's death, although their names were changed
for the film. Melonie Diaz, Ahna O'Reilly and Octavia Spencer also star. Fruitvale Station debuted at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival,
where it won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section
at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival where it won the award for Best First Film. The film was released in theaters July 12, 2013.
Plot
The film depicts the story of Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old from Hayward, California, and his experiences on the last day of his life,
before he was fatally shot by BART Police in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009. The movie begins with the actual footage of Oscar Grant
and his friends being detained by the BART Police at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland on January 1, 2009, at 2:15 a.m.
right before the killing. The film shows Grant and his girlfriend Sophina arguing about Grant's recent infidelity.
It later shows Grant unsuccessfully attempting to get his job back at the grocery store. He briefly considers selling some marijuana,
but in the end, decides to dump the stash. Grant later attends a birthday party for his mother, Wanda, and agrees to take the BART train
to see fireworks and other New Year's festivities in San Francisco since she is worried about him driving. On the return train, Katie, a customer
at the grocery store where Grant used to work, recognizes Grant and calls out his name. This causes a former inmate during Grant's days in jail
to notice Grant and a fight breaks out. The BART police respond to the scene. Grant is among the passengers the BART police attempt to arrest
and while being restrained by officers Caruso and Ingram, he is shot in the back by Ingram. He is rushed to the hospital, where he dies in surgery.
Title cards show that Grant's death sparked a series of protests and riots across the city and that the incident was recorded by several witnesses,
either by cell phone or video camera. The BART Police officers who were involved were fired and Ingram was later tried
and found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, claiming he mistook his gun for his taser, and served an 11-month sentence.
There is also footage of a gathering of people celebrating Grant's life on New Year's Day 2013 with the real-life, older Tatiana standing among them.
Development
Ryan Coogler was a graduate student at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts when Grant was shot on January 1, 2009.
Following this event, Coogler expressed his desire to make a film about Grant's last day, "I wanted the audience to get to know this guy,
to get attached, so that when the situation that happens to him happens, it's not just like you read it in the paper,
you know what I mean? When you know somebody as a human being, you know that life means something." He was able to meet John Burris, the attorney
for the Grant family, through a mutual friend and worked closely with him to get information on the case. He also worked closely
with the Grant family, after gaining their trust. In January 2011, Forest Whitaker's production company was looking for new young filmmakers
to mentor. Coogler met Head of Production, Nina Yang Bongiovi, and showed her his projects. Shortly after, he had a meeting with Whitaker,
who decided to support Fruitvale. Coogler met with advisers of Sundance Screenwriters Lab. He developed the script
with the help of Creative Advisors Tyger Williams, Jessie Nelson and Zach Sklar. The film received funding from the Feature Film Program
and the San Francisco Film Society. Coogler had Michael B. Jordan in mind to play the role of Grant before writing the script. In April 2012,
Jordan and Octavia Spencer joined the cast. Spencer also received a co-executive producer credit as she directly participated in funding the film
and contacted investors when a deal was lost during the filming. Notable investors included Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help,
a bestselling novel adapted as a successful film, for which Spencer won an Oscar. In April 2012, Hannah Beachler signed on
to serve as the film's production designer.
Filming
Fruitvale Station was shot in Oakland, California, for 20 days in July 2012. Scenes were shot at and around the Bay Area Rapid Transit platform
where Grant was killed. BART agreed to let the crew film at the Fruitvale BART station for three four-hour nights.
Most of the platform scenes were shot over the course of two nights. San Quentin State Prison served as a filming location for a flashback scene
with prisoners featured as extras. The film was shot in Super 16 mm format using Arriflex 416 cameras and Zeiss Ultra 16 lenses.
The film includes actual amateur footage of the shooting. Coogler explained the decision:
"That was something that I was initially very firmly against. I didn't want any real footage in the film. But you sometimes have
to take a step back. Being from the Bay Area, I knew that footage like the back of my hand, but more people
from around the world had no idea about this story. It made sense for them to see that footage and see what happened to Oscar,
and I think it was a responsibility that we had to put that out there."
Soundtrack
The musical score to Fruitvale Station was composed by Ludwig Göransson. Also a USC graduate, Göransson said of the scoring process: "Ryan
and I talked a lot about how sound design was going to have a huge role in the movie
and very early on I got sent the actual sound recordings of the Bart [sic] Train. I manipulated the train sound
and made it almost feel like a dark ambient synth sound and I used it almost throughout the whole Bart platform scene.
The other element in the score is lots of layered and manipulated guitars sounding almost like haunting pads." Coogler added:
"One thing that we always wanted to be conscious of with the score, was to make sure that it always felt organic.
A lot of the film would play without score, so Ludwig made sure that whenever we brought score in came out of sounds in the environment."
A soundtrack album, Fruitvale Station: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, was released digitally on September 24, 2013 and on CD October 15,
2013 through Lakeshore Records.
Promotion
The Weinstein Company commissioned three murals to be painted in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco by well-known street artists Ron English,
Lydia Emily and LNY, in anticipation of the film. Some people questioned having a poster for the film in Fruitvale Station,
but a BART spokeswoman said about this decision: "there was no debate whether to allow Fruitvale Station [advertisements] on BART.
None whatsoever. We really support Ryan. He's just an amazing person. I think that Ryan had said it was his intention to show his love for Oakland
and the people of Oakland, and he really succeeded." Promotional material used on the film's Facebook page and website referred
to the controversial shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida, which was in the news at the same time as the film's release. This drew some criticism,
with publicist Angie Meyer stating, "It's absolutely inappropriate and morally wrong to use a high profile case to create publicity
and buzz around a movie release." As part of its film promotion, the Weinstein Co. set up the "I am __" campaign to encourage people
to share stories of overcoming acts of social injustice or mistreatment, and to upload photos or other artworks related to those experiences.
Release
Fruitvale Station premiered on January 19, 2013 during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival
where it was listed as Fruitvale before undergoing a title change. After premiering at Sundance, the film was
at the center of a distribution bidding war. Rights for the film were ultimately acquired by The Weinstein Company for approximately US$2 million.
In May 2013, Fruitvale Station appeared in the Un Certain Regard, an award section recognizing unique and innovative films,
at the 66th Cannes Film Festival and won the award for Best First Film. The Oakland premiere was held as a private screening
at Grand Lake Theater on June 20, 2013. The film opened in select theaters on July 12.
This opening took place about the same time as the Florida jury decided the verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman for shooting Trayvon Martin.
Critical reception
Fruitvale Station received critical acclaim. The film has a 94% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes
with an average rating of 8.1 out of 10, based on 189 reviews. The critical consensus states: "Passionate and powerfully acted,
Fruitvale Station serves as a celebration of life, a condemnation of death, and a triumph for star Michael B. Jordan." On Metacritic,
which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 85, based on 46 reviews,
indicating "universal acclaim". CinemaScore reported that audiences gave an "A" average grade. Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter called it
"a compelling debut" and "a powerful dramatic feature film". He also praised the lead performances stating, "As Oscar, Jordan
at moments gives off vibes of a very young Denzel Washington in the way he combines gentleness and toughness;
he effortlessly draws the viewer in toward him. Diaz is vibrant as his patient and loyal girlfriend, while Spencer brings her gravitas
to the proceedings as his stalwart mother." Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt has praised the film as the "best film" of Sundance Film Festival 2013.
In writing for The Village Voice, chief film critic Stephanie Zacharek called it "a restrained,
but forceful picture that captures some of the texture and detail of one human life" and praised first-time director Ryan Coogler, writing that he
"dramatizes Oscar's last day by choosing not to dramatize it: The events unfold casually, without any particular scheme. And yet,
because we know how this story will end, there's a shivery, understated tension running beneath." In his Sundance festival wrap-up,
critic Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said of Fruitvale Station, "Made with assurance and quiet emotion,
this unexpectedly devastating drama based on the real life 2009 shooting of an unarmed young black man
at an Oakland Fruitvale Station of BART impressed everyone as the work of an exceptional filmmaker." In a more mixed review,
Geoff Berkshire of Variety called it "a well-intentioned attempt to put a human face on the tragic headlines surrounding Oscar Grant."
Though he praised Michael B. Jordan's performance, he critiqued the "relentlessly positive portrayal" of the film's subject: "Best viewed as an ode
to victim's rights, Fruitvale forgoes nuanced drama for heart-tugging, head-shaking and rabble-rousing." In his negative New York Post review
and subsequent opinion piece in Forbes, Kyle Smith claimed that Coogler omits key information, while fabricating other scenes, in order
to manipulate viewers into a distorted impression of what happened. The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2013:  [^] 
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