once in the life mean that once a hoodlum and always a hoodlum and and nobody get in or out of ` the life for free . neighborhood hoodlum in new york sell drug and run scam because they can not make it in the legitimate world and maybe because they have a criminal record and or a drug habit and or because theyre just lazy . this simple story with a couple of twist about mostly despicable character manage to draw compassion out of the audience for it main player because of their loyalty and compassion for each other . the film be write and produce and and direct by laurence fishburne and who also star a 20/20 mike ( all hoodlum have nickname ) and and be base on his play and ` riff raff . it feel like a play from begin to end and especially during the long scene where the three main player square off to decide who can be trust . often time the dialog come very fast and much fast than it would on stage and and i think it the film big flaw . mixed in a flashback throughout the film be poems from the street and a sort of iambic pentameter rap and that be violent and evocative of the world this movie disclose . the poetry make it difficult to dismiss these men and these hoodlum who murder and cheat and and betray each other and a unworthy of our attention or below our contempt . the disturbing thing about this film be that it realism show u not only how these people live and but how they suffer for the same reason a u all . one be too stupid and another a junkie and and the last suffers from conscience while the audience wonder and or even laugh and at the irony of executioner demand from him hang in the gallows to tell joke in the midst of his demise .