Black Gunn
directed by Robert Hartford-Davis
This 1972 film was a foreign made entry in the American Blaxploitation boom of the late sixties and early seventies. It's not a great movie. In fact it's not even a good movie, given that its story and themes had been done many times before, even as far back as 1972. It did have a somewhat well known cast.
directed by Robert Hartford-Davis
This 1972 film was a foreign made entry in the American Blaxploitation boom of the late sixties and early seventies. It's not a great movie. In fact it's not even a good movie, given that its story and themes had been done many times before, even as far back as 1972. It did have a somewhat well known cast.
But as I've written before these movies were some of the few times on the big screen when Black men were portrayed as heroic, Black women were portrayed as desirable, and Black people in general could inhabit the entire spectrum of human morality and skill. Black people weren't only comic relief or sexless sidekicks who either die first or spend the entire film trying to ensure that the white lead finds happiness with someone else.
That was unusual then and is still uncommon now. I've seen this film described as neo-noir but I disagree with that. This is an action film. The lead character, played by football superstar turned actor, Jim Brown, doesn't talk much. He's not morally compromised. He's not suffering from existential dread about the meaningless of life or unhappy with his career.