Liberty Heights
- Adrien Brody: Van Kurtzman
- Ben Foster Ben Kurtzman
- Orlando Jones: Little Melvin
- Bebe Neuwirth: Ada Kurtzman
- Joe Mantegna: Nate Kurtzman
- Rebekah Johnson: Sylvia
- David Krumholtz: Yussel
- Richard Kline: Charlie
- Vincent Guastaferro: Pete
- Justin Chambers: Trey Tobelseted
- Carolyn Murphy: Dubbie
- James Pickens Jr.: Sylvia's father
- Frania Rubinek: grandmother Rose
- Anthony Anderson: Scribbles
- Kiersten Warren: Annie
- Evan Neumann: Sheldon
Liberty Heights is an American drama film by Barry Levinson in the year 1999.
Action
The action takes place in Baltimore in the 1950s. The brothers Ben and Van Kurtzman come from a Jewish family. Ben is still at high school while Van already studied. The father of the brothers Nate leads a theater.
Ben learns the African American Sylvia who was one of his school after the amalgamation of school districts. He falls in love and comes closer to her. Sylvia's father, a doctor, prohibits further meetings.
Ben dressed up as Adolf Hitler on Halloweenstag what his parents outraged. Visit Van and his friends a party, on the Van a blonde woman gets to know that he finds attractive. However, it comes to a fight, according to the present Trey Tobelseted with his car rammed the house. Tobelseted comes to court where Van and his friends appear as witnesses. It turns out that the blond woman Dubbie, Trey 's girlfriend.
The drug dealer Little Melvin Nate blackmailed, which he calls for protection money. Nate makes it instead a partaker of the theater. Sylvia gives Ben two tickets to a concert by James Brown, the visit he and one of his friends. They are the only white people in the audience. Van strikes again Dubbie.
Nate and his criminal business partners are accused and convicted. Nate visited before entering prison the closing ceremony of Ben and Sylvia. Sylvia goes to college with many African-American students in the American South during Ben can choose between two universities in the Northeast.
The film ends with the fact that Ben remembers after years of his youth, Sylvia and father of those.
Reviews
Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun - Times of 10 December 1999, the film is less a film about love and racism but rather about growing up. He had some weaknesses - for example, the character of Little Melvin was too " drawn out of focus " - which does not, however, be particularly serious.
Kenneth Turan wrote in the Los Angeles Times, 17 November 1999, the film come " from the heart " of the director and screenwriter Levinson and was his fourth film, the games in Baltimore. It was a " mature, consummate " work that is both comical and could be deeply felt. The film is hardly nostalgic, but contains a pinch of pain and sorrow.
The magazine wrote Cinema, the film was a " touching, often funny picture of manners ."
Awards
The film was nominated in 2000 for the E Pluribus Unum Award from the American Cinema Foundation. Rebekah Johnson was nominated in 2000 for the Black Reel Award.
Background
The film was shot in Baltimore, Frederick ( Maryland) and Towson (Maryland). He had presented its premiere on 17 November 1999 and was on 21 May 2000 at the Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival. The film played in theaters in the USA an approximately 3.7 million U.S. dollars.