By Any Means brings an unusual chapter of America’s civil rights era to the big screen, revisiting a time when the FBI turned to a notorious mobster for help.
Directed by Elegance Bratton, the crime thriller stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Wayne Strider, a fictional Black FBI agent sent to 1960s Mississippi to investigate the killing of civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer.
Mark Wahlberg plays real life mobster and FBI informant Gregory Scarpa, a member of New York’s Colombo crime family who assisted the FBI with civil rights investigations in Mississippi.
In the film, Strider is forced to work alongside Scarpa despite the two coming from completely different worlds.
“When we first meet Wayne, he’s very much by the book. He’s very much committed to the FBI ethos,” Yahya said in an interview shared by Paramount.
“And then he finally gets his chance to get in the fight, and he’s partnered with a mafia hitman.”
Mark said the unlikely partnership also created room for the characters to clash.
“I think there was a lot of room for humor, for conversation, debate, banter, us butting heads,” he said.
The real case at the centre of the film involves Dahmer, a Mississippi businessman, NAACP leader and voting rights activist who was killed in 1966 after members of the Ku Klux Klan attacked and firebombed his home.
Elegance and his team travelled to Mississippi while researching the film, meeting members of the Dahmer and Scarpa families as well as people familiar with the case.
“I feel like Vernon Dahmer’s story is a story that people need to know,” Elegance said.
The film also stars Nicole Beharie, Josh Lucas and Giancarlo Esposito, who plays Dahmer.
By Any Means is now playing in UAE cinemas.
Source: Khaleej Times