Dutty Sykes, a young urban male, whose childhood was spent in a neighborhood shadowed by Boston's expanding skyline, understood the reality of business decisions from an early age. Raised by Roneesha Sykes, a single mother who indoctrinated him with the maxim of supply and demand. Dutty's business endeavors began initially as an observer of and later a participant in his mother's home-based hustling venture.
A youthful Dutty becomes absorbed by the allure of business as he assists his mother's hustling enterprise, that emanates from their apartment. As his mother's assistant, Dutty frequently observes marginalized individuals, hears the lies they proffer as truths, and wonders why so many of them have had difficulty navigating success into their lives. It is this question that themes Dutty's desire to elude the fate of his clients, monolithic stereotypes that brand dishonorable expectations into human flesh, and to grasp a life predicated by direction and integrity.
As an adolescent, Dutty's renown as a merchant capable of attaining desired items for his client base, results in his celebrity status. However, this notoriety only sharpens his desire to expand himself and attain greater heights.
The realization of Dutty's goals occurs in his early twenties. Dutty's ascension into Boston's corporate community is a resultant of a relationship he engenders with one of his downtown clients. As an astute businessman, Dutty decides to use his street knowledge as leverage for entry into a world that was once only relegated to his dreams - the corporate world. By utilizing one of his contacts to arrange for both the acquisition and delivery of documents to his downtown client, Dutty embarks upon his quest to get aboard a legitimate and lucrative career in the business world.
Dutty's opportunity translates to his success, but it unfortunately also results in professional envy. Rising diligently in the firm, Dutty soon becomes the target of hostility from his colleagues. This hostility eventuates a series of episodes that not only threaten to nullify Dutty's successes, but also involve his incarceration. By utilizing his engendered values of loyalty and diligence as vehicles of salvation, Dutty eludes the trap of his enemies, formulates a strategy for success, and navigates a successful career course.
Business is War, a film set in Boston, explores the metamorphosis of a hood wheeler and dealer into the fiercest of Boston's business community's young lions.