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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Thomasine and Bushrod

THOMASINE & BUSHROD-1974-This neglected blaxploitation film is set in 1911 and follows the exploits of Thomasine (Vonetta McGee from HAMMER and BLACULA), a bounty hunter when she teams with outlaw Bushrod (Screenwriter Max Julien, a year after starring in THE MACK).  They rob banks, dressed in various outfits and make their getaways in a car (and later a motorcycle with a sidecar) stolen from a banker Thomasine killed. They give a lot of their stolen swag to poor folks and are obviously patterned on BONNIE & CLYDE (made by Arthur Penn in 1967). They are pursued by a U.S. Marshall played by George Murdock. After they become infamous "folk heroes" they start to argue a lot about money. When Thomasine is captured and held in an old church Bushrod dresses as a nun to rescue her. Veteran actress Juanita Moore plays a blind Comanche mystic who tells Bushrod: "you don't have much time". Glynn Thurman (J.D.'s REVENGE) shows up toward the end as their weird friend Jomo who plays blues harmonica before he's dropped into a snake pit by the Marshall.

The film isn't bad but the ending could have been better. The one kind of dumb part is when the duo steal the car. At first they look at it with awe, having never seen one before but then they steal it and Bushrod has no trouble operating it! Herb Robins (director of THE WORMS EATERS) is also in it. Arthur Lee & Love perform the theme song which Lee wrote. It was one of only four movies directed by Gordon Parks Jr., made between SUPERFLY and THREE THE HARD WAY. He made one more film AARON LOVES ANGELA before being killed in a plane crash in Kenya in 1975.

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