Avon Barksdale Is Back

In March, just two years after The Wire went dead, the real Avon Barksdale will be brought to the screen in a new documentary, The Avon Barksdale Story—Legends Of The Unwired, which has already won best docudrama at the New York Independent Film & Video Festival.

Watch the trailer.

Ummm … is it just me? Or does this “gripping” docudrama look like one of those made-for-BET movies? The filmmakers could have scrapped all the extra footage and kept the camera trained on Barksdale. From the looks of the trailer, this film is going straight to DVD, with its corny Garage Band-produced background music and horrible acting sequences—bloody-mouthed pitbulls, a woman burned by a drug dealer with a Gold-n-Hot curling iron, bad hair weaves and a ridiculous dying scene. (How do you get shot in the head twice and then move the pillow away?)

Sans the bad B-roll and corny narration, the documentary of Nathan Avon “Bodie” Barksdale should be intriguing, if only for the interview. He’s obviously a character. “Don’t make me no rat, and don’t make me no snitch since y’all say there ain’t nothing I can do to stop it. Just don’t do that, and I won’t kill yo ass,” as he told David Simon when he was approached about being the inspiration for Wood Harris’ character.

I’m sure I will be compelled to watch it. I was an avid viewer of the show, admittedly a year after its run. And I still consume anything and everything associated with its brilliance. But if the trailer is any indication of this film's depth and vitality, I think I’ll stick to my soon-to-come DVD box set.

—ERIN EVANS