{"id":5733,"date":"2010-02-11T07:10:56","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T14:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allouttabubblegum.com\/main\/?p=5733"},"modified":"2010-02-11T07:10:56","modified_gmt":"2010-02-11T14:10:56","slug":"pre-blaxploitation-blaxploitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/pre-blaxploitation-blaxploitation\/","title":{"rendered":"Pre-Blaxploitation Blaxploitation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Black<\/p>\n

[THE CHALK-OUTLINE]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Black Klansman a.k.a. I Crossed The Color Line (1966): Breakdown by Kain424<\/span><\/h3>\n

A black man’s daughter is killed in a Ku Klux Klan attack.\u00a0 He disguises himself as a white man and infiltrates the Klan in order to bring down the man responsible.\u00a0 Goofiness ensues.<\/p>\n

[THE EXECUTION]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

While the Blaxploitation genre is generally agreed to have been kicked off in 1971 with Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song<\/strong> and Shaft<\/a>, many of the themes and elements found therein were seen in a few films of the previous decade.\u00a0 Of note, is The Black Klansman<\/strong>.\u00a0 The movie sets a lot of the groundwork for the coming genre, with the overt focus on ethnic sexuality, female submission, and racial injustice.<\/p>\n

\"Wait,<\/p>\n

And yet the whole thing comes off less cool, and more like schlock.\u00a0 This isn’t a surprise when you realize the director, Ted Mikels, was and still is, a professional schlock director. The Black Klansman<\/strong> is ultimately meant to shock white audiences by playing off their fears and sympathies.\u00a0 The blacks in this are truly terrorized by The Klan, and violently so.\u00a0 Using squibs and primitive gore effects, the movie does manage to shock a bit, even in this day and age.\u00a0 And though effects would begin producing better results a couple years later in Night Of The Living Dead<\/strong>, one simply never saw this sort of thing in movies.\u00a0 I can only imaging what it was like for audiences at the time.<\/p>\n

\"Drive-by<\/p>\n

The Action is all very slow and boring, but the emphasis seems to be on realism.\u00a0 There is no stylization to pistol-whipping a guy in the back of the head.\u00a0 In fact, while there are fights, shootings, and even attempts at vehicular homicide, the focus is less on what’s happening than on the issues surrounding the movie.\u00a0 The intent here is to provoke a strong emotional reaction from the viewer due to the violence and the situations.<\/p>\n

\"Ebony<\/p>\n

Still, many of the “shock” moments fall flat.\u00a0 This is mostly due to the film becoming dated and the movie now stands as a testament to effectiveness of the Civil Rights movement.\u00a0 Seeing the black protagonist in a bed or in a car, kissing a white woman, no longer has the jolting effect I’m sure it had in the mid-60s.\u00a0 Also, the casting of Richard Gilden, while it sort of works for the story, was a bit of a mistake.\u00a0 He’s simply too light-skinned to be believable as a black man.\u00a0 But more on that later.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the movie isn’t simply black and white (seriously, no pun intended).\u00a0 At times, several KKK members seem remorseful for their actions and a violent black group attempts to meet violence with violence, confusing the issue of revenge and its justifications.\u00a0 While it ends up being largely a very dated sleaze film, the movie remains impressively aware of the political problems it’s facing in the script.<\/p>\n

Missing the funk music styles and overcompetent hero, The Black Klansman<\/strong> doesn’t quite make it as a clear example of blaxploitation.\u00a0 But it’s still an interesting watch.\u00a0 It’s got guns, babes, violent blacks versus the KKK, and intense sequences of human destruction.\u00a0 If you get a chance to see it, don’t pass it up.<\/p>\n

[HOW BAD-ASS IS THE MAIN CHARACTER?]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Jerry<\/p>\n

Richard Gilden is Jerry Ellsworth<\/span><\/h3>\n

Apparently a musician who left his black wife and kid behind him when he went to California, Jerry Ellsworth seems like a deadbeat to me.\u00a0 He goes into a rage, however, upon learning his daughter was burned alive in a KKK church attack and manages a fairly complicated means of vengeance.<\/p>\n

\"Still<\/p>\n

He takes on a few adversaries over the course of the film and even battles a guy in a pick-up truck.\u00a0 But is he really all that bad-ass?\u00a0 Nah, not really.<\/p>\n

[THE BODY COUNT: 7]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Hey,<\/p>\n

The movie starts off with a violent scene in which a black man gets shot to death by a group of Klan members.\u00a0 From there we get a little girl burned to death, another shot just offscreen, a couple hanged, and yet another shot in the face.\u00a0 The violence is worthy of an R-rating nowadays, so I can only assume it was quite controversial at the time of its initial release.<\/p>\n

[MOST SATISFYING DEATH]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The villain manages to gain the upper hand, and climbs into a pick-up truck.\u00a0 From there we are treated to a duel between our hero and the vehicle.\u00a0 After getting his shooting hand crushed beneath the wheels of the truck, Jerry begins firing blindly at the oncoming death machine with his other arm.\u00a0 The truck veers off and smashes into a tree.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Upon inspection, we see Jerry has blown out the back of the man’s skull.\u00a0 Pretty gnarly.<\/p>\n

[DUDESWEAT AND MACHISMO]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Other than Jerry’s hideous underwear, there ain’t much to say here.<\/p>\n

[EXPLOITATION AND MISOGYNY]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The girls can’t resist the dark meat.\u00a0 Or, in the case of this film, the very light-but-supposedly-actually-dark meat.\u00a0 Jerry shags one girl early on, and then seduces the Klan leader’s daughter.\u00a0 But despite what the alternate title poster would have you believe, none of these girls seem all that concerned about getting pregnant.<\/p>\n

\"Domestic<\/p>\n

One odd (and tragic) thing I noticed though, was that Jerry’s girl Andrea still seeks reconciliation after he chokes her and slams her around in a fit of racial rage.\u00a0 He momentarily blames her and the whole white race for what happened to his daughter (that he left behind to become famous), and she completely forgives him.\u00a0 Way to go, 1966!<\/p>\n

[EPIC MOMENT AND BEST ONE-LINER]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The epic moment for the film also contains my favorite one-liner.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I like it all for the wrong reasons.\u00a0 Gilden is playing a black man disguised as a white man, but even without his ridiculous wig he simply seems like a white dude with curly hair.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

But on with it.\u00a0 The Klan have captured the members of a black militant group and Jerry’s friends.\u00a0 Jerry breaks everything up, but allows the Klan members to leave. All but the leader.\u00a0 Jerry explains to The Man that he’s destroyed the Klan rally and essentially ruined the guy’s life.\u00a0 But his victim wants to know why.\u00a0 And so Jerry reveals himself:<\/p>\n

[flashvideo filename=videos\/TBK.avi.FLV \/]<\/p>\n

This is supposed to be the big shocking moment of the film, but it only ends up being goofy as a result of Gilden’s over-apparent whiteness.\u00a0 Even the way he talks is white.\u00a0 What is especially great about the scene is how the villain just gawks at him and squints his eyes as if he’s waiting for someone to tell him it’s all a joke.\u00a0 Oh well, I got to laugh out loud so I can’t say I didn’t enjoy myself.<\/p>\n

[THE MORAL OF THE STORY]<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Black people should organize themselves and white people should be more tolerant.<\/p>\n

[THE CHECKLIST: 10 outta 25]<\/span><\/h2>\n

[\u00a0 ] Athlete(s) Turned \u201cActor\u201d
\n[\u00a0 ] Clinging To The Outside Of A Moving Vehicle
\n[\u00a0 ] Crotch Attack
\n[\u00a0 ] Dialogue Telling Us How Bad-Ass The Main Character(s) Is\/Are
\n[\u00a0 ] Ending Featuring An Ambulance, A Blanket or A Towel
\n[\u00a0 ] Factory\/Warehouse
\n[X] Giant Explosion(s)
\n[\u00a0 ] Heavy Artillery
\n[\u00a0 ] Improvised Weapon(s)
\n[\u00a0 ] Macho Mode(s) Of Transportation
\n[X] Main Character Sports Facial Accessory(s) [a wig]
\n[\u00a0 ] Manly Embrace(s)
\n[\u00a0 ] Notorious Stunt-Man Sighting
\n[X] Passage(s) Of Time Via Montage
\n[X] Politically Fueled Plot Point(s)
\n[X] Senseless Destruction Of Property
\n[X] Shoot Out(s) and\/or Sword Fight(s)
\n[\u00a0 ] Slow-Motion Finishing Move(s)\/Death(s)
\n[X] Stupid Authoritative Figure(s)
\n[X] Substance Usage and\/or Abuse
\n[\u00a0 ] Tis The Season
\n[X] Torture Sequence(s)
\n[\u00a0 ] Unnecessary Sequel
\n[\u00a0 ] Vehicle Chase(s)
\n[X] Vigilante Justice<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"Color<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[THE CHALK-OUTLINE] The Black Klansman a.k.a. I Crossed The Color Line (1966): Breakdown by Kain424 A black man’s daughter is killed in a Ku Klux Klan attack.\u00a0 He disguises himself as a white man and infiltrates the Klan in order to bring down the man responsible.\u00a0 Goofiness ensues. [THE EXECUTION] While the Blaxploitation genre is … Read morePre-Blaxploitation Blaxploitation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allouttabubblegum.com\/new-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}