Ernest R. Dickerson brings a cinematographer’s attention to crime drama and horror. We rate him most highly as a television director, handling complicated characters in work whose success cannot be credited to any one person.
Fi1m perspective
In The Wire (2002), departmental politics get the weight other police dramas reserve for gunfire. We were gripped by the bureaucracy because the programme makes those arguments matter to the people caught up in them. Ernest R. Dickerson directed episodes across seasons two to five, including Bad Dreams and Hamsterdam, as well as season finales. We value his ability to handle this complicated, character-driven material. The programme is a collective achievement, but his sustained contribution gives us good reason to seek out his name in the credits.
Before directing, he shot John Sayles’ The Brother from Another Planet (1984) and six features for Spike Lee, from She’s Gotta Have It (1986) to Malcolm X (1992). His attention to composition and camera movement is hardly surprising after that experience. Juice (1992), his feature directing debut, was a crime drama starring Omar Epps and Tupac Shakur; he also co-wrote it. That move matters when considering his work: he was taking responsibility for the story as well as the pictures.
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995) is worth considering for his handling of horror, another recurring interest alongside crime and thrillers. The feature films have had an uneven critical reception, with Bulletproof (1996) among the poorly received titles. We would not recommend the whole feature filmography indiscriminately on the strength of his visual skill.
From the early 2000s, episodic television became his main directing occupation, taking him into The Walking Dead, Dexter and Bosch. The continuing collaboration with David Simon on Treme (2010) belongs alongside The Wire when considering where his strengths have been put to use. Keeping complicated drama clear across individual episodes is work we value, even when it gives us fewer opportunities to point to a director’s signature. Start with The Wire, and allow time for the departmental arguments; they are part of what makes it worth watching.
Biography
Ernest R. Dickerson is an American film and television director and cinematographer. Born in Newark, New Jersey, he initially studied architecture at Howard University before training in cinematography at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
He worked extensively as a cinematographer with Spike Lee on films including She's Gotta Have It (1986), Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991) and Malcolm X (1992). Dickerson made his feature directorial debut with Juice (1992) and has since directed episodes of series such as The Wire (2002), Dexter (2006), The Walking Dead (2010) and House of Cards (2013). He has received NAACP Image Awards for outstanding directing in a drama series.
