The short and storied life of Tupac Shakur is limned with almost prophetic urgency in "Tupac: Resurrection," Lauren Lazin's documentary about the songwriter and rapper who died in 1996. A flash-edited, often frenetic assembly of home movies, news clips, MTV videos and stock footage set to Shakur's narration, the film is eerily true to its title, as it seemingly brings the gifted musician and actor back to life to deliver a revealing, moving and often contradictory posthumous autobiography.
"I got shot," Shakur intones as "Resurrection" opens on a manic Las Vegas nightscape. When he was just 25 and at the height of his career, Shakur was gunned down and killed while driving with his record producer, Suge Knight. He's not talking about that event, of course, but of an earlier shooting in New York that he survived; still, he goes on to philosophize about his own death, the prescient musings intercut with his own music.
In the documentary, the slain rapper comes across as idealistic and intelligent as well as misguided and self-destructive.
(Paramount Pictures/mtv Films-amaru Entertainment)
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"This is my story," he says finally, "and my story is about ambition, violence, redemption and love." "Tupac: Resurrection" bears out that interpretation, although viewers are left to decide about the redemption part. To some, he was akin to a martyr, whereas many will see his demise as simply the product of ego, greed and the posturing, theatrics and fuzzy politics that went along with his self-described Thug Life.
Lazin, a producer at MTV, hews to the cable channel's signature visual style, rapidly intercutting images and often superimposing them with Shakur's handwritten lyrics and poetry. She moves through Shakur's life and career at a quick but comprehensive clip, pausing only in 1993, when he was arrested and imprisoned on a sexual assault charge.
"Tupac: Resurrection" was executive-produced by Shakur's mother, the former Black Panther Afeni Shakur, but Lazin has not produced a mere piece of hagiography. Although she relies on softball MTV interviews for most of her material, as well as Shakur's self-mythologizing pronouncements, she has still constructed an open-ended, honest portrait of a hugely talented young man who comes across simultaneously as idealistic, intelligent and even sweet, as well as misguided, disingenuous and self-destructive.
"Tupac: Resurrection" ends with a moving montage of people from all over the world holding Shakur's CDs and wearing his T-shirts; there is no doubt that his influence on rap has been deep and enduring. The film leaves viewers with the sad, even tragic sense that his legacy would have been more profound had he gotten out of his own way.
Tupac: Resurrection (109 minutes, at area theaters) is rated R for strong language and images of drugs, violence and sex.
