I won’t insult anyone by explaining what blaxploitation is, but I will break down the three levels of blaxploitation for the somewhat less initiated. They are:
THE TOP TIER: Here’s where your major studio releases go. Big budgets (though low by Hollywood standards), actual production value, strong scripts and performances. These are your Shafts, your Across 110th Streets, your Cotton Comes To Harlems (my vote for the single best blaxploitation film of them all), your Uptown Saturday Nights, and, well… Mandingo, if only on a technicality. The racial politics usually get put on the back burner in order to tell an involved story that just so happens to involve a predominantly black cast. After that, there’s…
THE SECOND TIER: Drive-in material. The budgets are lower, the scripts are worse, and we start to see a lot of B-movie guys and once respected actors with drinking problems and bills to pay… but, in general, there tends to be enough sex and violence to ensure a good time. This is actually the majority of the genre. Here we’ll find Slaughter, Cleopatra Jones, Truck Turner, Bucktown, Carwash, and other less reputable entertainments. The elements of race come up more often, and not always in as nuanced a manner as the bigger films. Finally, we have…
THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL: Hundred dollar budgets. Actors generally rounded up by holding casting calls at a bus terminal. Scripts written on cocktail napkins. With crayons. And boom mikes in frame, far as the eye can see… there tends to be more sex and violence, but usually done in such a sloppy manner that you’d have to be pretty forgiving not to burst into laughter at the sight of it. If you’re lucky, the incompetence of these movies can take on surreal proportions, but most of the time they’re just dull. And here is where we find movies like Black Shampoo, Velvet Smooth, Super Soul Brother, and yes, Dolemite. The race card is played frequently, and in a way that circles from empowering right back to violently offensive. Most people don’t know that, though. If they know about blaxploitation at all, they only know it through Shaft, and Pam Grier (if they’re cool).
In a finer world than you or I inhabit, the official face of blaxploitation wouldn’t be Shaft, it would be Trouble Man. Because Trouble Man a better, cooler movie than Shaft. And anyone who thinks otherwise hasn’t seen Shaft in a while, or has never seen Trouble Man.
Now this is not to say that Shaft is a bad movie, by any means. It absolutely is a fun, groundbreaking movie that deserves the accolades it gets. But there’s just something about Trouble Man that works better for me. And his name is Robert Hooks.
Hooks was mostly a TV actor. He’s done pretty much every show under the sun, from 227 to 21 Jump Street. But again, in that finer world I referred to earlier, he’s an icon along the lines of Charles Bronson or James Coburn. Yeah, he’s that good in this movie. Don’t get me wrong, I like Richard Roundtree. He’s a smooth mother (obligatory “shut your mouth”). But I’ve never bought him as a tough guy. A guy that can sleep with your girl, or any other girl he wants? Sure. A guy that can rock a turtleneck like no other? Oh, yeah. But when he tries to go all badass on us, it never rings true the way it does with, say, Fred Williamson or Jim Brown.
Another thing: Williamson? Brown? Those dudes WERE tough. They were ex-football players. Of COURSE they’re tough. They weren’t acting. Let’s face it: they couldn’t, really. They mostly got by on charisma. Robert Hooks was not a football player. He was an actor. Like, a playing ‘Henry V’ stage-type actor. Sure, he’s just PLAYING a tough guy. But because he actually knows how to act, he knows how to make that shit work! His Mister T is downright scary.
That’s his name, by the way. Nobody ever calls him anything other than “T,” or “Mister T” (which, yeah, I know, but just deal with it). So many movies have people talking about what a badass the hero is, how tough he is, and all that junk. But when they do it here, you believe it, and it’s all in Robert Hooks’ performance. He exudes charisma, confidence, intelligence, danger, style, and contempt for his lessers in a way most actors only dream of, especially actors in a blaxploitation movie. He’s on fire from his very first scene. Hell, from his very first line.
We open on a swimming pool. A beautiful woman makes her way poolside as T exits her house, impeccably dressed in one of his many $500 suits (remember to adjust for inflation from 1972). The woman eyes him longingly. WOMAN: “When am I going to see you again?” MISTER T: “I’ll have to think about that, baby…”
And off he goes, without so much as a second glance. If I wasn’t on board then, I would be the moment I saw this credit:
And heard this amazing theme song:
And in that theme song, I think we pinpoint exactly why I like this movie better than Shaft. Where the Shaft theme goes on and on about how sexy Shaft is, how complicated he is (and it’s always been weird to me that nobody understands him but his woman, when at the same time he is also a sex machine to ALL the chicks. By the transitive property, this implies that all the “chicks” are his “women,” so how the fuck complicated could he actually be? But I digress…). That’s sho nuff a funky riff, and Isaac Hayes sells the hell out of it. But the key word is “sell.” Hayes is hitting those talking points really hard.
Now, listen to the lyrics of Trouble Man:
I come up hard, baby, but now I’m cool I didn’t make it sugar, playin by the rules I come up hard, baby, but now I’m fine I’m checkin trouble, sugar Movin down the line I come up hard baby, but that’s okay
Trouble Man, don’t get in my way
First of all, listen to the message. Instead of hammering home how sexy he is and how he won’t cop out when there’s danger all about, Trouble Man sings about how life is tough, but he deals with it, and he moves on. Then, dig this part:
I know some places And I see some faces I’ve got the connections I dig my directions What people say, that’s okay
They don’t bother me, oh yeah
I’m ready to make it Don’t care what the weather Don’t care ’bout no trouble Got myself together I feel the kind of protection
That’s all around me
Trouble Man doesn’t need to convince you he’s a badass. He’s know what he’s doing, he knows where he’s going, and he’s been around long enough to know that nothing and no one can stop him from doing what he has to do. All that, and it’s sung in first person. Trouble Man doesn’t need somebody else to sing his praises. He’ll do it his damn self. I love this guy.
So yeah, Mister T is one arrogant son of a bitch. But here’s why I love the movie: they don’t do it at the expense of the other characters. Nine times out of ten in a movie, when they portray the hero as being smarter than everyone, rather than go to the trouble of coming up with situations for the hero to think through, they take the far easier tack of everyone around him super dumb. But with only one or two exceptions, everyone acts in a manner that makes sense, or at least as much sense as I’ve seen in a movie like this, for whatever that’s worth. Almost no one is made out to do something dumb just so T can get the drop on them. His victories (and his coolness) feel earned. Another thing I appreciated might be a problem for some people. Ostensibly this is an action movie, but there’s not a whole hell of a lot of violence until the end of the film. Outside of a quick fight here and there, and a plot furthering murder every half hour or so, there’s no violence until the final fifteen minutes.
I can see where that would be a problem for some people, but I liked it as a reflection of our hero. Unlike most heroes, he only instigates violence in self defense, and he meets people at their own level of violence. That is to say, he only kills people who try to kill him first. Maybe that doesn’t seem like such a big thing, but I’ve watched a lot of action movies, and trust me, it kind of is. And even better, look at the expression on T’s face after he kills his first set of guys. It’s the only time he lets his mask of coolness slip, and it’s an extremely unexpected grace note in what could have been a rote shoot-em-up in a lesser actor’s hands. Other than that, he lets his reputation and his cool speak for him. Where most heroes have to throw someone out of a window or hit them with a chair after being called a pussy or whatever, T just stares them down. His cool, unflappable gaze is the ocular equivalent of ten thousand knees to the groin (again, adjust for inflation).
As for the racial aspect, thankfully it’s more or less a non-issue. There are exactly two utterances of the dreaded n-word, neither of them imbued with any sense of hatred, which is kind of a hell of a trick, particularly in that era. And no one hates T on account of his being black. Come to that, almost nobody hates T at all (which is fascinating, because with his arrogance, they’d probably be justified). Everyone responds to him with either respect, awe, or fear. Even the obligatory antagonistic police captain (who is almost ALWAYS a racist) dislikes him because he assumes that somebody as rich and successful as T has to be corrupt, and even concedes that he himself would be corrupt if he weren’t a cop. He’s not a racist, he’s a cynic. And that’s just plain refreshing.
I know I’ve talked about the character and how cool he is but I’ve barely said anything about the plot itself. Partly because I think a viewer should just let it unfold, instead of me breaking down every scene and line and gesture by my new hero Robert Hooks. And also, I don’t want to be guilty of overselling this bad boy. I wouldn’t necessarily be surprised if somebody watched it and didn’t see what the big deal was. But here’s the thing: I’ve seen a ton of these types of movies. And there are very few that I can recommend without reservation. Usually it’s “okay, the acting is garbage, but there’s this part where he shoots a guy’s cheek off.” Or, “okay, the script is godawful, but the lead actress is crazy hot…” or, “okay, so I know this movie looks like it was shot in their uncle’s basement, but…” Or you’re watching for the camp and the crazy pimp outfits or maybe you’re only watching it because the Delfonics make a cameo and you love the Delfonics even though it turns out they don’t actually sing in the movie.
Yeah, mostly it’s like that. But every once in a while, you find one that you can say, “hey, this is a good one. For some reason nobody’s ever heard of it, but it turns out it’s really good.” And when you find that one, your natural instinct is to write a little over 2,000 words about how much you love it. And you violate the rules of rational criticism, setting the bar really high by flat out saying it’s better than the movie that’s widely considered to be the best in the genre. And people, being people, will line up to tell you how wrong you are.
Whatever. I didn’t make it by playing by the rules either. Watch the damn movie.
