Last Man Standing: Suge Knight and the Murders of Biggie & Tupac

Last Man Standing: Suge Knight and the Murders of Biggie & Tupac

This is another one of those interminable documentaries about some truly awful people. The problem is that the key characters are so vile, self-centered, posturing, and basically clueless that it's difficult to care much about what happened to them. If you're fascinated by gang culture, rap music, and wannabe gangstas, I suppose it might be worth a watch -- but the endless repetition of opinions and foggy details by the interviewees who comprise roughly 80 percent of this nearly two-hour screed made this a challenging watch for me. And in the end, you really don't know much more for certain about the murders of Biggie and Tupac than you did before. You do however get to see what nasty, narcissistic people they all were. In any case, my only suggestion if you opt to endure this film is to keep a vomit bag close at hand.

Good documentary, fair, enlightening... The whole plot behind the murders, said for a long time without solution, however those closest to them, involved, seem to know exactly how it all happened, the whole mafia behind the murders, and besides many other homicides resulting from these, among the gangsters, drug dealers and police officers, good documentary, fair, enlightening, particularly I'm not a rap fan, nor Tupac's, but I regretted his death for having left a beautiful legacy, especially the needy population, despite the short time of acting... Good documentary, fair, enlightening... Good...

If documentary producers were tasked at investigating Tupac and Biggie's murders from the beginning, I think they might of gotten who was behind their killings. Last Man Standing: Suge Knight and the Murders of Biggie & Tupac still asks the the question: "who killed Tupac and Biggie?" An account of new stories from those who were affiliated with Suge Knight who could never speak out before because they feared they'd next in line to join Tupac and Biggie. There's new footage, new faces but still no answers. Nonetheless, is still an interesting watch.

Tupac Shakur was a politically-aware rapper, the son of a Black Panther. But he was murdered after falling into a misogynistic gang culture that consumed him in the final years of his life. A former friend and rival, Biggie Smalls, was murdered soon after in revenge. Nick Broomfield made a film about this; now he has revisited the subject, taking advantage of the fact that with record (and gang) boss Suge Knight now in prison, people are more willing to talk. The younger Broomfield tended to place himself at the centre of his own movies: he does this less now, and the result is (generally) better films. This one is basically a sad story of people with too much money thinking they can do anything they want, set against a backdrop of a community blighted by racism and poverty. There's also a side story about police corruption; this is (to me) less interesting, not because police corruption is good, but because I'm not convinced the end would have been any different without it. Many of those who lived the life, and survived, now come across as thoughtful and perceptive: but they participated in a culture so toxic that even its king pins could not emerge alive, a culture that itself was a reaction against a less severe, but broader, toxicity in American society that Tupac was originally protesting against.

Of course there isn't a lot of new ground to cover in these two technically unsolved murders but the producers were able to get a lot of new people to speak publicly and on the record and they add a lot. The best and most important part is the indictment of the official LAPD investigation, led by Greg Kading. Absolutely debunks their suggestion that LAPD officers were not involved and proves Kading to be a fraud and a liar and another member of the cover up. I only watched it to see if there was anything new and was surprised there was so much.

Nick Broomfield is one one of the greatest documentary makers. His films are both entertaining and artistic. Here he is not afraid to expose dangerous gang members and crooked cops. I really believe that his version of events is the truth.

It shows what we know already with some extra footage and photos but Brookfield done great job piecing it together.

Apart from some unseen footage there was nothing new here just theories and nothing I haven't heard before. Overall frustrating to watch and a sad loss of two great pioneers.