Review of Original Gangstas (1996) by James C — 16 Aug 2007

I never knew Indiana had any black people, let alone black people that could kick so much fucking ass. All the blaxploitation stars are back again, Jim Brown, Pam Greer, Fred Williamson, and the original Superfly.

A pretty generic action movie enlivened by the cast of old school characters fighting the new school thugs. Certainly on many levels a subtley racist movie, certainly a movie that advocates in some respect gang violence, and there are vicious scenes of casual killing.

Yet thats part of the fun, once you stop taking the film entirely seriously you get engrossed in the plot, men trying to redeem themselves, avenge their families, and take back their town. It is interesting that the lead villian is shown as a wise and in some regards chivialrous ruler who is simply surrounded by overzealous violent idiots he cant control.

Many homages are made to Westerns and the original blaxpolitation efforts of superior directors from Sergio Leone to John Singleton. Overall I recommend seeing it like I did, at 1am, slumped on the couch while it happened to be on cable.