2 Pac - Final 24 Film Review

For my documentary film analysis, I watched 2 Pac - Final 24.   The film, which is one in a series of several dealing with celebrity deaths, documents Tupac Shakur's life and how it related to and ultimately culminated in his untimely demise.

2 Pac - Final 24 is split into two alternating sections, one dealing with the last 24 hours of Tupac's life and one telling the story of his rise to fame.  A mixture of interviews and narration are used to guide the story.  The parts dealing with Tupac's final hours use primarily narration accompanied by dramatic re-enactments, while the story of his life is told through A-roll of interviews and archival footage of Tupac performing and being interviewed.

The movie, while primarily about Tupac's life and death, also incorporates some of the people who played a large role in one or both, such as his mother, rival rapper Biggie Smalls, and the CEO of Death Row Records.  It is told primarily from a third person point of view, but incorporates first-person when the subject of an interview describes a part of the story.

It also has a dark, mysterious mood to it and follows the format of an action/spy movie.  It incorporates cinematic aspects characteristic of spy movies such as a split screen with a timer shown to depict what is happening at a certain time before the tragedy occurs.  The lighting is very moody during the interviews, and the dramatic re-enactments all take place at night, which give the film a dark feel.  The music used consists primarily of hip-hop beats.  

The dramatic re-enactments use actors to portray the people who were actually present during the events described in the documentary.  Using pictures and actual footage from said events as a reference point, the filmmakers recreate the scenes as closely as possible using sets, and costumes.

Overall, 2 Pac - Final 24 is a very well-made film and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in hip-hop history.  It is also very engaging, more so than most documentaries, because of the murder mystery format.  The only thing I didn't like about the film was that all of the people interviewed were close to Tupac, resulting in a slightly biased image of the rapper.

The movie: