Twinkle Twinkle

 

 (themoviedatabase)

THE 9^th CONFIGURATION-1980-According to a narrator, after the Vietnam war many soldiers claimed psychosis and authorities thought they were faking so the government set up special facilities to investigate them. This takes place in No. 18, the last of those facilities, where a bunch of nuts (Joe Spinell, Robert Loggia, Alejandro Rey, Moses Gunn) insult each other and Grouper (Neville Brand), the officer in charge. 

An army psychiatrist (Stacy Keach), who imagines the Crucifixion at a moon landing, comes to investigate the inmates including an astronaut (Scott Wilson) who aborted a mission. Later, the shrink makes them dress as Nazis but he's not what he seems. 

Also with Jason Miller, Ed Flanders, George DiCenzo and Tom Atkins. Steve Sandor and Richard Lynch are motorcycle gang members. This very deceptive, psychological thriller was written and directed by William Peter Blatty (author of “The Exorcist”) from his own novel.

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He's A Bad Mother...

SHAFT-1971-This kind of relic from the '70's is in a way the ultimate "black exploitation" film. In most movies the lead character has trouble with a racist individual or racism in general but here John Shaft "the private dick who's a sex machine for all the chicks" really has nothing but disdain for white people. In the mostly actionless plot Shaft (Richard Roundtree) refuses to help a white police captain fight crime but takes the case of finding the daughter of a ruthless Harlem gangster named Bumpy (Moses Gunn) kidnapped by the Mafia. He enlists some black militant drug dealers to assist him. He has sex with his girlfriend but when she says "I love you" to him over the phone he just replies "Yeah, I know" and hangs up and later has sex with a white prostitute. In the climax he leads the gang (dressed up like cooks, janitors and bellhops) in an assault on the building where the mob is holding the daughter. After the rescue and some fighting, Shaft just laughs as the police have to deal with the mess he's made.

Shaft acts cool and tough but there's too much talk. Perhaps Life magazine photographer turned director Gordon Parks wasn't sure which way to take the story: serious cultural drama or action packed crime drama. The best part to me was the on location scenes of NYC in the early '70's (especially the 42nd Street area).

 Author Ernest Tidyman (THE FRENCH CONNECTION) wrote the screenplay based on his novel. SHAFT spawned two sequels and a short lived TV series. The Isaac Hayes soundtrack won an Academy Award.

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