The hype machine is in high gear for the “White Boy Rick” movie. Variety, the movie industry bible, estimates Sony/Columbia pictures will spend over four million dollars promoting the film, which rolls out nationwide on September 14. The movie poster says Rick was a hustler, an FBI informant and a drug kingpin—all before the age of 16. White Boy Rick Wershe was NEVER a drug kingpin, drug lord, gang leader or anything else. There is NOTHING in police or prosecution records to support that smear, but it’s part of the media-generated White Boy Rick legend. NO ONE can prove otherwise.
Over the holiday weekend, movie critics saw White Boy Rick for the first time at the Telluride, Colorado film festival, and several were unimpressed. The reviewer for Indie Wire gave it a “C.” The reviewer for Variety said, “White Boy Rick” ultimately feels like a glorified TV movie…” and “What ultimately happened to Wershe was a scandal, though it’s hard to get too worked up when the movie itself is such a jumble.”
Yikes.
One of the problems is the story of Rick Wershe, Jr. is complex and full of numerous scandals and dramas. The screenwriters tried to make his saga something it is not. They tried to re-invent the truth as a father-and-son-against-the-world tale while apparently grafting important issues in Rick’s story on to the storyline in a way that doesn’t make sense.
Let’s be clear: Richard Wershe, Sr. fit what actress Bel Powley as Rick’s sister said about him in the movie: “You realize you’re the worst father ever!”
Wershe Senior was prone to domestic violence—when he was around, which was seldom. He didn’t fight for his family. He abused them. He beat his wife. He beat Rick. In 2003 Rick testified before the Michigan Parole Board that he had no parental guidance growing up, that he basically raised himself and took “some wrong paths.”
When the FBI wanted to recruit 14-year old Rick to be a paid snitch against the Curry Brothers drug gang, Rick’s father readily agreed, because he wanted the FBI informant cash. The danger this posed for his son didn’t seem to concern Richard Wershe Sr. in the least.
There is ample intrigue in the true story of White Boy Rick. Apparently, it didn’t make it to the big screen.
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