Review of The Mack (1973) by Real G — 14 Jan 2005
Don't get me wrong, The Mack is not the greatest Blaxpliotation/gangsta pimpin movie ever made. I'm not sure I could even pick on I had to. I will say this though, The Mack is the Sweetback of pimpin movies.
Just like Sweetback opened the doors for Blaxploitation, The Mack opened the doors for Pimpin films. You've got to figure this film was made in the 1970s, now that's a good thirty years ago and yet you still hear references to it in hip hop mainly.
Dr. Dre's "chronic" album has a line from The Mack, Too Short is like a character right out of this film, same with Snoop Dogg, Sir Mix-A-Lot, on and on. The Mack is a cultural underground film.
If you get the version out now on DVD there's a very interesting Making of featurette. Now it's not like those fluffy, Hollywood-style featurettes where they interview family members and Joe Blow's second cousin and shit, I mean, this film almost didn't get made, because of funding, because of the Oakland underground, because of the Black Panther movement, very interesting stuff.
Also, for the Richard Pryor fans, he's barely in this film even though he gets top billing, that's just to draw people in (kinda like Jack Nicholson and Little Barbershop of Horrors). Still, Pryor is his erratic, coked-up best in the scenes he's in and ya know, Carol Speed aka Lulu is a freakin cutie.
haha.
This review of The Mack (1973) was written by Real G on 14 Jan 2005.
The Mack has generally received positive reviews.
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