nuport

...I liked it though , but this film won't be seen as a high point in the infamous genre thats for sure. I'd say they had a great enough story idea ,but probably not the right budget to bring this to life. The best parts of the flick are as follows :We have a young ,black non-commisioned officer in the U.S.Army ,who during a training mission is set up with a booby trap ,by other white racist officers. In anger the black guy lashes out,striking one them ,he is then railroaded into a dishonerable discharge and released from the military. Of course ,as we've seen in real life, chances of getting decent employment ,are limited when you're black ,near impossible with a bad discharge from uncle sams army. Johnny wanders the streets in a beautiful, though contrived looking montage sequence. The music is telling the story here ,and is wonderful considering the overall poor sound quality used in the film. Naturally he has run-ins with the local white racist pig -cops. Though he really does'nt want no trouble ,he's convinced by the local mafia that his bad fortunes will be turned around if he accepts "employment" with them. All he's gotta do ,of course is what the government trained him to...kill. With that, its all rather dull and uninspired action scenes we've seen hundreds ,if not millions of times before. The stodgy directing slows the action scenes down to a virtual crawl.Fred looks good in this,I mean ,I love to see the guy put in work ,especially the '70s Black action flix but this is a sleeper .

This film was one of the best of its kind back in the day.Apparently produced by David Susskind ,some of you may recall him from his talk show on TV in the 70's.I really enjoyed this because the producers stayed clear of any standard cliches you usually find in police dramas. Also being from N.Y., I would readily attest that most of this is about accurate as far as the late 70's drug scene goes.As mayor Beame and his political hacks looked the other way ,and coruption flourished in every precinct in the city ,drug dealers became Druglords and then went on to become Kingpins . Certainly Pam Grier steals the show ,and Paul Newman is excellent as the weary beat cop in the ghetto. I liked Lou Grant as a cop ,but he should have had more to do in this.This film is also a kind of time capsule ,most of the South Bronx where this was shot looks completly different today , mostly renovated and redeveloped perhaps because of the attention this film recieved at the time.

This brilliant and insightful film stars Billy Dee as a young college age man who is hell-bent on making changes to this racist and hypocritical system we call America .As the reluctant leader of a courageous band of young Black and White students,Billy's seething portrayal is incredible. We see not only the conflicts of race but also conflicts regarding family and the generation gap .It's obvious from the opening scenes the story can only end one way .The budgetary constraints are apparent throughout, but Oscar-caliber (imagine that!!ha ) performances make this film EXPLODE off the screen and grip you where it hurts.This picture also co-stars the late , great D'urville Martin best known as the sidekick of Fred Williamson in several fun ,but far less important blaxpo flicks. Its very interesting the story begins during the late 60's riots in L.A. with our main character mortally wounded so the story is told in a retrospect (ala Serpico)with all other characters reflecting on the situation up to the present .I think if we could , as fellow human beings relate to some of these issues in this film , America might be a decent place.Hats off to the Black Stuntmans Assoc.who helped bring this off .We need more of these films!A rarely seen GEM !