Ambushed is a 1998 American action thriller film directed by Ernest Dickerson and starring Courtney B. Vance. The film has also been classified as African American noir. The film premiered on HBO on June 26, 1998.
The leader of a Ku Klux Klan lodge is shot dead and his son is taken into police custody for protection. The police car taking him to a safe house is ambushed and three police officers are shot dead. Officer Jerry Robinson is accused of the murders.
Filming for Ambushed took place in North Carolina, with some filming occurring at the Orton Plantation.
Ambushed premiered on HBO on June 26, 1998.
William Covey has classified this film, along with Across 110th Street, Deep Cover, Detroit 9000, The Glass Shield, and Devil in a Blue Dress as examples of films that "locate crime and criminality within white culture, while the moral center of each film is marked by black male heroism."
Ambushed received reviews from The Chucks Connection and TV Guide, the latter of which called it " boisterous but none too convincing. ... Short on logic and long on polemics, this pumped-up action pic dashes to a predictable, preordained conclusion." The Guardian was more favorable, noting that "his unfussy, effective approach augurs well for his directorial career".