Colors | |
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Original film poster
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Directed by | Dennis Hopper |
Produced by | Robert H. Solo |
Screenplay by | Michael Schiffer |
Story by | Richard Di Lello Michael Schiffer |
Starring | |
Music by | Herbie Hancock |
Cinematography | Haskell Wexler |
Edited by | Robert Estrin |
Distributed by | Orion Pictures Corporation |
Release date
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April 15, 1988 (US) |
Running time
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120 min. (original release) 127 min. (Director's Cut on Orion Home Video) |
Country | United States |
Language | English/Spanish |
Budget | $10 million |
Box office | $46,616,067 (domestic) |
Colors is a 1988 American police procedural action crime film starring Sean Penn and Robert Duvall, and directed by Dennis Hopper. The film takes place in the gang ridden neighborhoods of 1980's South Central Los Angeles, East Los Angeles and the LAPD Rampart Division, and centers on Bob Hodges (Duvall), an experienced Los Angeles Police Department CRASH officer, and his rookie partner, Danny McGavin (Penn), who try to stop the gang violence between the Bloods, the Crips, and Hispanic street gangs. Colors relaunched Hopper as a director 19 years after Easy Rider, and inspired discussion over its depiction of gang life and gang violence.
Two white cops, Bob "Uncle Bob" Hodges (Robert Duvall), a respected 19-year LAPD veteran, and rookie officer Danny McGavin (Sean Penn) have just been teamed together in the C.R.A.S.H. unit that patrols East L.A. and South central.
The older cop is appreciated on the local streets. He is diplomatic on the surface, preaching "rapport" to gang members to encourage them to offer help when it is truly needed and recognizes that every action cops take is scrutinized by the very people they are trying to help. Hodges explains his view on policing to his young partner with a joke about bulls and cows. Although the pair bond quickly, life lessons are seemingly lost on the aggressive, cavalier McGavin, whose stunted actions soon bring him quick notoriety with the local gang members and the people themselves, such as attacking a graffiti artist by spraying his eyes with the paint can. When McGavin wrecks their first unmarked car during a pursuit, its replacement, painted a vivid yellow, results in McGavin being nicknamed "Pac-Man" by officers and gang members alike.