The movie "Slam" directed by Marc Levin is a moving story about a young man who rises to be above the violence. Ray Joshua played by Saul Williams is an average black man who is trying to survive in the streets of Dodge City by selling drugs. Unfortunately, one day Ray was arrested when his drug dealer was shot. When arrested the police found on Ray 1/4 pound of marijuana. He is then sent to prison while he decides if he wants to plea himself guilty or not. In prison Ray decides instead of being involved in more gang conflicts he will be better than that. Instead of throwing punches he speaks up with powerful words. Like when he stopped a fight that was about to break out between two gangs in the prison, but he used his slam poem "Amethyst Rocks," and that immediately ended the soon to be disaster. He demonstrates that problems can be solved without violence.

Things like growing up in the ghetto are what try to define Ray. People that grow up in the ghetto are known to be drug dealers and being in gangs. They are never seen as people that can do anything successful in life. In the prison there were two different kinds of gangs that try to recruit him. Since Ray grew up in the ghetto the gangs thought that he will accept their offer and become one of the members but they were wrong. Ray didn't want to become just another member. He doesn't want to be involved in the conflicts or violence that gangs create. He instead shows them with his poetry that he doesn't need to be in no gang to survive. As he says "So while your out there serving the time I'll be in sync with the sun while you run from the moon" (Slam) This means he will not be another gang member stuck in prison like the other ghetto folks he will instead be in harmony while they are running from problems.

One of the themes that I see in the movie is to accept consequences. When a person does something bad and gets caught they end up with a consequence. Some people accept it but others try to avoid it. In the movie Jay was caught with marijuana and he deserved a consequence because he knew what he posed was wrong. Selling drugs is a crime and Jay knew this but he did not want to face the consequences at first. But at the end no one can ever ran away from their destine consequences. It will eventually catch you. It's better to accept it at once and not try to run away.

The best parts of the movie I would say are when Ray would recite his slam poems. Both the lyrics and the way he recites them are very powerful. If you notice both his poems talk about the history in slavery. He shows how slaves were stolen and had to work hard and did not live easy lives. This shows that slaves were hard working and when he looks back at that history it inspires him to do better. Even now black people are sometimes judged and treated badly because all other people think that they will cause trouble. Ray doesn't want to be another statistic; he wants to exceed the standard. He doesn't have to settle with what society hands him but instead try to become something better. This is something that all people should know and try. Everyone should watch this movie because there are many things you can learn from it.

Many give in to the pressures of their surroundings but some are just stronger. The movie "SLAM" by Mark Levin is another typical story of a young man who gets into trouble and by doing so finds who he is. The issue isn't hard to identify making the audience put less thought into what is going on. A shooting while making an exchange of drugs puts Ray Joshua (played by Saul Williams) in jail where everyone wants a piece of him. Violence and drugs make him decide on different roles in his surrounds but he tries to stick to his own beliefs. When threatened in the prison yard instead of fighting he retaliates with words to also try to open up everyone's eyes to the real enemy that is holding them down instead of each other.

In this film society is showing the idea that when a problem arises people can be torn apart and start to fight each other instead of going after what the real cause of the problem is. The law is trying to make Ray accept his punishment for possession of pot and even for a crime he did not commit, shooting his close friend. He is forced to choose sides in prison on the current situation just like everyone else has. One side believes that Ray set his close friend up while the other knows he did not. By expressing his talents in the prison yard with a poetic rap he tries to define himself with his own views on the situation at hand and makes no attempt on joining anyone. His rap got him out of trouble that day as well as convincing the leader of one of the side to bail him out to reunite with his close friend who happened to have only become blind. He did this so he would make the others understand that the fighting need to stop to end the cycle. The retaliation from the shooting stopped when his close friend understood that he didn't want anyone else to get hurt or to even lose him.

My least favorite part of the film even though it may have been inspirational to some would have been anytime there was rapping going on. I honestly could not follow or understand what they would be saying when they did. With all of the drugs, violence, and jail time going on I could not relate to this story in any way that I could think of. I don't even think there was an exact time in my life that I could say that I "found myself". The film sends out the message that you need to accept the consequences for your actions and move on. I would only recommend this film to people who can relate to it. As for the people like me who can't or don't think they can relate to it will not find it interesting. The film would have been better if Ray would have been more of a bad guy in the beginning to show even more how he has changed.

Imprisoned on drug possession charges, a talented rapper is encouraged to use his gift with words to write poetry in this independent drama that won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in its day. Saul Williams is well cast as the flawed young protagonist who believes that racism and the fact that he was not prepared to rat out his friends was what led to him receiving such a long sentence. His rapping is very good too with the film's best scene being a part where he bonds with a nearby cellmate as they rap out a tune together. There is also a memorable (if unrealistic and improbable) segment in which an impromptu burst into emotional rap quells a riot about to break out between rival prison gangs. The key theme of the movie would seem to be that artistic expression can solve problems that violence simply cannot, however, the film has trouble finding focus in the post-jail scenes; Williams and Sonja Sohn (cast as the prison poetry teacher) certainly lack chemistry as potential lovers. The film is pretty interesting though in the jail section of the tale. The way Williams is treated upon arrival vividly brings 'A Clockwork Orange' to mind; scattered slow motion flashbacks with unusual audio effects also give the film a dreamy quality quite appropriate given how the prison experience wakens him up to the harsh realities of a world he has taken for granted.