Life

While Ray and Claude are standing on a crate, Claude says one of his toes slipped into one of them. This actually happened during filming, but Martin Lawrence kept going even though Eddie Murphy's laughter, which was genuine, broke him up.

BEHIND THE SCENES · SOURCED

Among all the films Eddie Murphy and makeup artist Rick Baker worked on together, Life (1999) was the only one in which Murphy did not play multiple characters. Baker used the makeup in this film only to age Murphy's character.

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Spanky's (Rick James) limp was not an act. The scene was shot after Rick James had hip replacement surgery.

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This was Anthony Anderson's first film.

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According to the DVD commentary: in the diner scene, Eddie Murphy's character was originally supposed to get angry about the "White Only" pies, while Martin Lawrence's character just wanted to leave. During filming the scene was not working, so the idea of changing their lines came up. The scene played much better, and that is how it appears in the finished film.

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Ray and Claude arrive at the Mississippi prison in 1932. They spend 65 years in prison, so the final year in which the film takes place is 1997. And Ray says he is 90 years old that year, meaning he was born in 1907 (Claude was probably born that year or close to it). So they were 25 when they entered prison, 37 when shown in 1944, and 65 when shown in 1972.

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This was Eddie Murphy's last R-rated film until Dolemite Is My Name (2019).

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Life (1999) was the second film starring Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence together. They had previously worked together on Boomerang (1992).

CHARACTERS & CAST · SOURCED

It has many similarities to the Richard Pryor/Gene Wilder comedy classic Stir Crazy (1980), apart from the two friends being imprisoned (for a long time) for a crime they did not commit: one of them is beaten by a gay inmate (they later become friends); you are confronted with a giant, strong, terrifying, bald-headed inmate; and there is also a sport that could help them get out of their situation (bull riding/baseball).

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In the scene where Claude (Martin Lawrence) is trying to sleep but Ray (Eddie Murphy) keeps looking at him, after Ray turns off the lamp and says he will put Ray's wet sheets on Claude, you can see Claude smiling in the dark.

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Life (1999) was released in theaters in the United States on April 16, 1999, which fell on Martin Lawrence's 34th birthday.

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The trustee system was a prison security and discipline system used in various parts of the United States, especially in southern states such as Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas, because farmland was common in those states. The New York prison system also had a trustee system. Prisons with a trustee system had a limited number of staff to minimize costs, and most of the farm work was done by inmates. In 1901 the trustee system replaced convict leasing, which supplied labor to private entities such as plantation owners and companies; the majority of the inmates were African Americans. As depicted in the film, the Parchman Farm prison had a trustee hierarchy; the highest tier consisted of armed inmates serving as guards. "Trustee shooters" were inmates serving long sentences for crimes such as murder, and they were supervised by a sergeant who ran the camp. At the Mississippi State Penitentiary, the trustee system was abolished through the landmark Gates v. Collier (1974) case because of ongoing inmate abuse and corruption, and other southern states ended the trustee system as well, with Texas waiting until the 1980s.

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The word "fuck" is used 63 times.

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Sean Lampkin is the guard who shoots Biscuit when he crosses the gun line. Lampkin was also Martin Lawrence's assistant and sometimes a producer in real life. He also played Nipsey on Lawrence's show Martin (1992).

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Actor Brent Jennings (who played the sycophantic trustee Hoppin' Bob) had, ironically, played an inmate (and trustee) under the same conditions in another southern prison film, Brubaker (1980), about 19 years earlier.

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The film's poster shows the characters played by comedians Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence being menacingly tricked by the characters played by actors Bernie Mac and Michael Taliferro. Mac died in 2008 from complications of pneumonia, and Taliferro died in 2006 after suffering a stroke. In the death montage seen in the film, the characters played by Mac and Taliferro die in the same order. As of 2024, just like the characters at the end of the film, the only two actors from the poster still alive are Murphy and Lawrence.

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Bernie Mac had previously worked with Eddie Murphy's brother Charlie on The Players Club (1998).

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Bokeem Woodbine and Lisa Nicole Carson had previously worked together on Jason's Lyric (1994).

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Eddie Murphy and Miguel A. Núñez Jr. would later appear together in The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002), and had also previously worked together on Harlem Nights (1989).

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Actors Eddie Murphy and Anthony Anderson would go on to work with director Craig Brewer; Murphy starred in both Dolemite Is My Name (2019) and Coming 2 America (2021), while Anderson starred in the Oscar-winning Hustle & Flow (2005).

CAREER & AWARDS · SOURCED

In the scene where the commissioner tries to find the father of his daughter Mae Rose's baby among the inmates of Camp 8, each of the prisoners steps forward claiming to be the father in order to prevent Can't Get Right (Bokeem Woodbine) from being punished (he was the child's father), a nod to the "I am Spartacus." reference.

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Obba Babatundé was the only actor who agreed to wear contact lenses to make his eyes water. Rick Baker and most of his team therefore said he had the best makeup in the film.

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Bernie Mac and Anthony Anderson would later work together on The Bernie Mac Show (2001), in which Bernie starred.

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Eddie Murphy and Brent Jennings appeared in Another 48 Hours (1990).

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It is one of two films starring Martin Lawrence that were released in 1999. The other was Blue Streak (1999).

CHARACTERS & CAST · SOURCED

In the background scene where Jangle Leg (Mac) passes the ball to Claude (Lawrence), Jangle Leg's girlfriend Biscuit (Nunez) drops a bucket of water while drinking, and Hoppin' Bob (Jennings) is upset when Jangle Leg makes a fuss at him for flirting with Claude, assuming Jangle Leg is trying to cheat on Biscuit with Claude.

EASTER EGGS & REFERENCES · SOURCED

This is one of two films in which Heavy D and Eddie Murphy share no scenes together; the other would be Tower Heist (2011).

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An unused score by William Ross.

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R. Lee Ermey and Ned Beatty would later, eleven years afterward, voice Sarge and Lotso in Toy Story 3 (2010).

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Martin Lawrence and Miguel A. Núñez Jr. had previously worked together on A Thin Line Between Love and Hate (1996), which Lawrence also directed, and on the series Martin (1992), in which Lawrence starred.

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Martin Lawrence and Michael Taliferro (Goldmouth) had previously appeared together in Bad Boys (1995), in which Lawrence played a cop and Taliferro played a car thief.

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This is the only film in which Bokeem Woodbine's character Can't Get Right never speaks.

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