On Disc: Blaxploitation
The new boxed set from Imprint is a treasure trove of the genre, including three titles never available before on disc.
The Imprint video company from Australia, known for releasing out of print and hard to find genre films, have scored a treasure trove for blaxploitation film collectors. A four film collection, simply called "Blaxploitation," featuring four films making their Blu-Ray debut. Three of the four making their physical disc debut.
Two Fred "The Hammer" Williamson films "The Legend of Black Charley" (1972) and "The Soul of Black Charley" (1973, more on those titles in a bit), "Superfly TNT" (1973) and the 1973 crime drama "Detroit 9000," which had been previously released on VHS and DVD by Miramax and Quinten Tarantino's Rolling Thunder company.
OK, the "Charley" films...
The original titles for the two Fred Williamson films were... (and this is as far as I will write) "The Legend of N-word Charley" and "The Soul of N-word Charley." These titles were insisted upon by Williamson, who has stated in numerous interviews that this was his way of taking the word back and causing controversy. The film was renamed "The Legend of Black Charley" and "The Soul of Black Charley" for broadcast television, on some newspaper ads and on some marquees. In this collection, "Legend" (rated PG) featured the altered title in the opening credits while "Soul" has the original title and was rated R.
Full disclosure: I've interviewed Williamson on several occasions. More than once, he chuckled about the fact that Paramount Pictures had to admit that two of their biggest moneymaking films in 1972 and 1973 were films with those original titles.
Williamson and "Charley" co-star D'Urville Martin teamed up for one more western in 1975 called "Boss N-word" (also labeled "Boss" in certain marquees, newspapers and future video releases. Williamson (who wrote and co-produced "Boss") plays a bounty hunter who takes over a small town. Some have called this a parody of Clint Eastwood westerns (especially "High Plains Drifter") while others said it was if "Blazing Saddles" was a drama.
Quintin Tarantino has mentioned the "Charley" films as an early influence for his own film "Django Unchained," calling their a "Spartacus"-type film for black audiences. Williamson plays Charley, a slave who is about be set free (thanks to his mother's pleading) by his deathbed-ridden master. Once the master dies, younger, more bitter Houston (Hall of Fame That Guy John P. Ryan) has other plans to keep Charley enslaved. A fight leads to Charley killing Houston and goes on the run along with house slave and comic relief Toby (Martin) and big man Joshua (Don Pedro Colley, Baron Samedi from 1974 film "Sugar Hill").
The first part of the film was shot on an actual former plantation in Virginia. Once Charley and Toby are on the run, the topography changes to New Mexico. Once west, the trio get into such western hijinks as causing a ruckus in a small town saloon by just showing up and wanting a drink and going to battle against a gun-toting racist Reverend (Joe Santos, enjoying his scenery chewing).
"Soul" picks up where "Legend" leaves off. This time Charley becomes a leader of a group of African-Americans who pull off a train robbery of gold. Then use the gold to purchase slaves who were to be sent to plantations in Mexico by a nasty ex-Civil War officer. "Soul" is a good enough watch of a western that quality-wise is somewhere in between the original "The Magnificent Seven" and its declining sequels. Fred Williamson will later show more of his Hammer swagger into the decade with films like "Three the Hard Way" and "That Man Bolt." He does show more vulnerability as Charley than he would allow later on, but these films were a good start in the building of Fred "The Hammer" Williamson brand as a star and later writer/director/producer.
"Superfly TNT" could also be called "The Ron O'Neal Show." Besides reprising his role of Priest, O'Neal directs this film and is co-credited with the story. The screenplay was credit to Alex Haley (yes, that Alex Haley). Priest is retired from drug dealing and living with his lady Georgia (Sheila Frazier, also reprises her role). They cross paths with another ex-New Yorker living in Rome (an early role for Robert Guillaume, who gets to sing in Italian in one scene). Bored with retirement, Priest is talked out of retirement by the elegant and conniving Dr. Sonko (Roscoe Lee Brown). Priest visits the African country of Umbria (played by the country of Senegal) at the doctor's insistence, sees its beauty and plight. Priest decides to assist in running weapons into the country. Things do not go as planned.
"Superfly TNT" was released five days before "Shaft in Africa." Both sequels wanted their stars to be international heroes like James Bond. Both films draw the parallels between the oppression going on in certain African countries and in American ghettos. Both films wanted to deliver a message. They did but with less action to boot. Audiences wanted Shaft and Priest strutting on American soil with great soundtracks accompanying them. The English/African/Caribbean funk band Osibisa did the music score for "TNT." They're not Curtis Mayfield, but it's still a solid score. "Superfly TNT" works as a travelogue with some social commentary and better supporting performances. Just don't expect... a dynamite evening...
Rounding out the collection is "Detroit 9000" (1973), which previously got a re-release in theaters and video release by Miramax and Quinten Tarantino's Rolling Thunder Pictures. Set in Detroit, a high-end political fundraiser for the first African-American to run for the governor of Michigan is robbed. Two detectives who aren't particularly crazy about each other have to work together. African-American, educated and former famous local athlete Jesse Williams (Hari Rhodes) and white, street smart Danny Bassett (Alex Rocco, fresh off playing Moe Green in "The Godfather").
This is one of the early cinema templates that would influence the buddy cop genre of the 1980s ("48 Hrs" and "Lethal Weapon" being the titans of that decade). Also add "Across 110th Street" and "Freebie and the Bean" to the early influence list. We get full stories on Williams and Bassett plus plenty of gunfights (with "A-Team" level results most of the time).
None of the films in the Imprint "Blaxplotation" collection are out-of-the-park home runs. However, all are still curiosities worth checking out. Especially when it comes to later influences on Tarantino and buddy cop films. Sometimes stand-up doubles and triples is all it takes for a night in your living room.
Matthew Socey is host/producer of the podcast Film Soceyology for wfyi.org.