Dolemite
The era of âblaxploitationâ films was both a fascinating and yet a sordid one as well, with a number of African American actors at that time including Jim Brown, Richard Roundtree, Isaac Hayes and Fred Williamson all competing amongst themselves as to who could be the âblackestâ action movie star, the qualifications being to have an extremely foul mouth, screwing women as if they were toilet paper (with extra points awarded if they were white ones) and disposing of various bad guys with a ruthlessness that few white action heroes would ever dare to show (usually a combination of white cops / politicians and assorted âselloutâ black gangsters who had formed some sort of an uneasy alliance with the former for the purposes of business). A latecomer to this whole movement would prove to be one Rudy Ray Moore, a standup comic from the Redd Foxx school of obscene âparty albumsâ whom in 1975 channeled his onstage Dolemite alter ego into this particular movie, in many ways a bumbling mess thanks to many continuity errors (i.e. a bad guy who seems to be dead starts moving his head from other camera angles), ham handed dialogue and a plot that swerves in several different directions (it appears at first that Dolemite is setting out to avenge the murder of his cousin in a drive by shooting which winds up not even being resolved). Moore himself though, is considered to be a culturally important figure for other reasons, most notably for being the inventor of freestyle rap, an artform he created during his shows where he would have a piano player strumming the ivories while he would recite improvised, extremely profane poetry much to the audiencesâ delight, a contribution that would not be lost on future generations as a number of hip hop stars would cite his work as being an inspiration and / or sample it in their songs while no less a star than Eddie Murphy would portray Moore in a film biography released in 2019 (Moore himself would die from diabetes at age 81 in 2008). As for this movie, it starts off with Dolemite in prison, being summoned from his cell by the warden where (in an especially James Bond style touch) he is given a top secret mission in which the warden (of all people) explains that upon his previously unexpected release, Dolemite must basically stay alive long enough to draw out his enemies and (more importantly) the majorly powerful people who are backing them up. It isnât long before we realize that Dolemite is actually a straight up pimp (read: human trafficker) with a bevy of girls waiting to pick him up from prison and no sooner are they a mile down the road does the first assassination attempt occur. As expected, it goes awry and Dolemite brutally shoots up the 4 would be killers, an incident that never even gets referred to again for the rest of the movie. Once back at his crib, he consults with his apparent Madam / bottom bitch / business partner (and nothing more than that) Queen Bee (Lady Reed) who gives him some bad news: His beloved nightclub has now been taken over by a rival gangster (DâUrville Martin, a fixture in blaxploitation films for supporting roles whom here also assumes the role of director) and worse, his girls have now been forced to walk the streets in order to get any kind of business! Dolemite sets to work, looking to uncover who or what was behind him getting framed and sent to prison in the first place, hooking up with various old whore girlfriends in order to let them know that the best they ever had is back in town and even cornering a junkie to find out about who had killed his aforementioned cousin before a couple of gunmen come in out of nowhere, kill the junkie before he actually says anything of consequence and then get killed themselves by the raging fighting machine known as Dolemite. If you havenât guessed yet, a very big part of the Dolemite persona lies with his advanced martial arts skills, something which proves to be very useful when it comes to confronting a pair of white racist cops on the take or really anybody who comes at him brandishing a firearm. Is any of this any good? Well, if youâre a fan of Ed Wood style filmmaking mixed with the hardcore black mentality and sprinkled with the specific type of cheese that permeated most low budget cinema of the 1970s, then you might find yourself truly enjoying this even as Moore himself is a terrible, passive actor (with an obvious beer belly) who only seems happy and relaxed onscreen when reciting his famously obscene poetry. It all commences (or collapses really) with a big show taking place at the nightclub featuring music acts that seem to go on forever before a big brawl / gunfight breaks out (and after over half of the once capacity crowd have already left for no reason) during which Dolemite literally rips the guts out of one bad guy with his bare hands and a number of his girls who happen to have had extensive martial arts training themselves dispose of the rest. But in a world where you have a black preacher character hoarding a sizeable armory in preparation for whatever war is coming, a setup situation where several dead guys in coffins suddenly pop to life with weapons drawn and a contract being put out on our wounded main character which leads to several hitmen openly walking into the hospital brandishing weapons and asking the front desk(!) what room heâs staying in, you know youâre actually watching a flick about one manâs personal fantasy about what it would be like playing the coolest character imaginable to him so maybe thatâs how we should take it as wellâŠ
5/10