''Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story'' is a 2004 American

made-for-television A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made fo ...

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

starring

Jamie Foxx Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), known professionally as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, comedian, and singer. He became widely known for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the 2004 biographical film ''Ray'', for which he won the A ...

Lynn Whitfield Lynn Whitfield ('' née'' Smith; born February 15, 1953) is an American actress. She began her acting career in television and theatre before progressing to supporting roles in film. She won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a ...

, Lee Thompson Young and

CCH Pounder Carol Christine Hilaria Pounder (born December 25, 1952) is a Guyanese-American actress. She has received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her roles in ''The X-Files'', '' ER'', '' The Shield'', and ''The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agenc ...

. The film was directed by

Vondie Curtis-Hall Vondie Curtis-Hall is an American actor, screenwriter, film director, and television director. As an actor, he is known for his role as Dr. Dennis Hancock on the CBS medical drama ''Chicago Hope'' created by David E. Kelley and as Ben Urich in the ...

and the screenplay was written by J.T. Allen. The film premiered at the

2004 Sundance Film Festival The 2004 Sundance Film Festival was held in Utah from January 15, 2004 to January 25, 2004. It was the 20th edition of the Sundance Film Festival, a program of the Sundance Institute. Non-competition features Midnight * ''Azumi'' * '' Freshman ...

and was later broadcast on the FX network on April 11, 2004. The film deals with the life of

Stanley Tookie Williams Stanley Tookie Williams III (December 29, 1953 – December 13, 2005) was an American gang member and spree killer who co-founded and led the Crips gang in Los Angeles. He and Raymond Washington formed an alliance in 1971 that established the ...

, the co-founding member of the

Crips The Crips is an alliance of street gangs that is based in the coastal regions of Southern California. Founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1969, mainly by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams, the Crips were initially a single alliance ...

street

gang A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collective ...

. Along with showing his life in the streets and his time in

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

, it shows the work Williams did while incarcerated to help decrease gang

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened ...

in the world. The film was shot in 2003 while Williams was still imprisoned. On December 13, 2005, Williams was executed by lethal injection in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Cast

Production

Development

During Williams' incarceration, he began co-writing a series of books with

Barbara Becnel Barbara Cottman Becnel (born May 30, 1950) is an American author, journalist, and film producer. She was a close friend and advocate for Crips co-founder Stanley Williams (aka "Stan Tookie Williams"; a convicted murderer and former gang leader wh ...

for young children about the dangers of gang violence. The first volumes of these books were published in 1996 by a small New York company. A quote from one of books which focuses on how gangs abuse power states, "... As a teenager, I didn't know the meaning of power. I thought that by using violence to scare people, I was proving that I had a lot of power. But when you use your power to make someone do something they don't want to do, or to hurt someone, you are abusing your power." The books generated enough publicity that in 2000, a member of Switzerland's national parliament nominated Williams for the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

. Shortly after, a biopic of Williams was pitched to FX. Producer Rudy Langlais signed on to develop the project, saying Williams "struck imas a man in the midst of sort of reinventing himself...wrestling with past and future, becoming aware he is one step away from extinction." The production took on a sense of "emotional urgency" in September 2002 when the federal appeals court rejected Williams' appeal against the death penalty and suggested his sentence be reduced to life in prison instead.

Filming

The film was shot in 38 days during July and August 2003. All of the filming took place in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, except for one full day in

South Central Los Angeles South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of downtown. It is "defined on Los Angeles city maps as a ...

and one half-day of exteriors in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. The Toronto water treatment plant was used as a double for the exterior of San Quentin State Prison. A scheduling crisis emerged as Foxx had signed on to do the

Michael Mann Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television who is best known for his distinctive style of crime drama. His most acclaimed works include the films ''Thief'' (1981), ...

Collateral Collateral may refer to: Business and finance * Collateral (finance), a borrower's pledge of specific property to a lender, to secure repayment of a loan * Marketing collateral, in marketing and sales Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Collate ...

'', which was due to begin filming soon. Though Foxx had the option of dropping out of ''Redemption'', he chose to stay on and the shooting schedule was compressed to accommodate for him. Foxx spent many hours visiting with Williams at San Quentin and continued to correspond with him after filming ended. Said Foxx, "I gave him my word I was going to take care of this story. I had to do this project....I know I'm going to be successful, but with projects like this it's not the money you make, it's having the chance to touch, to get a chance to inspire. Especially for black folks....If we can get some education about some of the things we go through, it's worth more than any amount of money." Foxx's

dialogue coach A dialect coach is an acting coach who helps an actor design the voice and speech of a character in the context of an on-camera (film, television or commercial), stage (theatre, musical theatre, opera, etc.), radio or animation voiceover production. ...

during the shoot was a former inmate of San Quentin.

Release

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2004. It was later aired on the FX cable network on April 11, 2004 and became a successful venture for the network.

Critical reception

While Jamie Foxx's performance was lauded, with ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'''

Alessandra Stanley Alessandra Stanley (born October 3, 1955 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American journalist. As of 2019, she is the co-founder of a weekly newsletter "for worldly cosmopolitans" called ''Air Mail'', alongside former ''Vanity Fair'' editor-in-ch ...

saying he plays Williams "with iron-cast reserve, quietly conveying the authoritative presence of the man", critics said the story was limited by its made-for-TV format. Stanley said the film "is not interested in exploring uncomfortable, contradictory truths."

Accolades

The film was the winner of five

Black Reel Awards The Black Reel Awards, or BRAs, is an annual American awards ceremony hosted by the Foundation for the Augmentation of African-Americans in Film (FAAAF) to recognize excellence of African Americans, as well as the cinematic achievements of the Afr ...

in the Network/Cable Television category, including Best Actor and

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...

for Foxx and Lynn Whitfield, Best Supporting Actress for CCH Pounder, Best Director for Vondie Curtis-Hall, and Best Screenplay by J.T. Allen. Allen was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award, and Foxx and Whitfield also won

NAACP Image Awards The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. Similar to ...

for their performances. At the 20th Independent Spirit Awards, Foxx was nominated for Best Male Lead and David Greene was nominated for Best Cinematography. Foxx also garnered nominations from the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Golden Globe Awards.

References

External links

* * {{Satellite Award Best Television Film 2004 crime drama films 2004 television films 2004 films Films set in San Quentin State Prison Films directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall Films scored by Terence Blanchard Biographical films about criminals Biographical films about gangsters Biographical films about writers Films about capital punishment Films about organized crime in the United States Hood films Films shot in Ontario FX Networks original films 2004 independent films American television films American crime drama films American gangster films 2000s American films