Iâm Gonna Git You Sucka
Probably the most fun side effect to come from the success of the civil rights movement was the emergence of Black Action Cinema, otherwise known as blaxspoitation. With Hollywood finally embracing the notion that genre movies with mostly black casts (and with them always playing the heroes) can be profitable, it thus gave way to many grittier types of cinematic entertainment, more importantly opening the door for a whole generation of stars to make their careers off of these films including Jim Brown, Isaac Hayes, Richard Roundtree, Jim Kelly, Fred âThe Hammerâ Williamson, Ron OâNeal, and of course Pam Grier. Raising the levels of violence and profanity along with mostly b level production values became commonplace in these movies, but they were certainly lovable for what they were, not the least being in the occasional touch of political incorrectness as well, with the black heroes usually having to deal with rich, white villains (though sometimes with black henchmen). The whole phenomenon petered out as the 1980s arrived, but in 1988 a then budding young writer and director named Keenan Ivory Wayans (the first notable member of The Wayans Family to achieve stardom) was told an offhand idea for a movie from none other than Eddie Murphy (who certainly took a page from these movies in many of his own âmainstreamâ comedies) and even came up with the title as Wayans later asked for and got his permission to take the ball and run with it as his own directorial debut. It can certainly be said to be the best creative comedy effort from any of The Wayans Brothers (although that distinction is almost considered dubious at best) as it is not only extremely funny with the way that it lovingly spoofs many of the rather ridiculous storylines of blaxsploitation, but there is even a little hidden social commentary throughout regarding the black community both back then and even now. For example, in place of any direct references to heroin (or any hard drugs sold in the ghetto), we are told that the epidemic that is utterly destroying inner city youth is none other than gold chains, an addiction that if not curbed, can actually result in death (referred to here as OG, or âovergoldâ). Right off the bat, with the discovery of the latest victim to have âOGedâ, the eerily prescient references to future hip hop culture can be easily spotted, along with the obvious allegories to deadly, hard drugs. Turns out the latest victim had owed a substantial amount of money to the local (white) neighborhood crime boss, Mr. Big (John Vernon taking a paycheck role and running as far as he can with it) so he sends his thugs around to harass his mother (Jaânet Dubois) and widow (Dawnn Lewis) with the intention of recruiting the young wife for prostitution duty, only to find out that the old woman can fight harder than most men. This precludes the arrival home of the other son, Jack (Wayans), who has spent ten years in the army and despite vowing revenge and claiming that he was trained for combat, has never actually been IN combat and really hasnât the first clue about what he needs to do in order to carry out a war on the streets against organized crime that operates on the notion of keeping down the African American community to stay mired in their own ghetto squalor. To that end, he recruits an old boyfriend of his motherâs, a âretired professional crimefighterâ (i.e. vigilante) of a legendary stature named John Slade (an obvious prototype of the hardest hitting blaxsploitation stars of the 70s as portrayed by Roundtree and Williamson, who both most likely turned the role down) played by Bernie Casey, a âreal actorâ so to speak with a long history of starring in mainstream fare, but barring the participation of the more obvious choices, he turns out to be a fine fit for the role, bringing the necessary charisma and presence to the film as he brings in some more of his running buddies played by Brown and Hayes (whose hilarious first scene also introduced a cameoing Chris Rock to the world) along with Steve James as Kung Fu Joe who is so over the top and dementedly funny (in an clear homage to Jim Kelly) that we wish that he had had at least a little more screentime even as he effortlessly steals the movie with what little he does get to do. The game plan? To disrupt Mr. Bigâs businesses with armed raids and steal as much of his dirty syndicate money (which in strict real world terms, is patently illegal) in order to bring him to his knees and finally track him down. Thereâs your plot right there, but what keeps the fans of this film coming back time and time again is the anything goes style of humor patented by both ZAZ and Mel Brooks even while it retains the harder edge than usual that blaxsploitation usually featured in order to garner an R rating rather than the normal PG / PG-13 territory that we usually see for these types of comedies. Even funnier is that much of the material riffs on the urban / ghetto culture that we still see even today, including a âGhetto Olympicsâ where young black males compete in foot races while carrying TVs on their shoulder (and being chased by attack dogs) and by seeing who can strip a car in the shortest amount of time. We also get a âbeauty pageantâ called Pimp Of The Year (won by Starsky And Hutchâs Huggy Bear himself, Antonio Fargas), an attempted sneak attack by a family of midgets, an encounter with a cameoing Clarence Williams III as a has been black revolutionary leader married to Eve (Jan Brady) Plumb complete with two little white offspring (with the son being named âWhiteyâ), a fight scene involving the mother where she is blatently doubled for by a white stuntman with a moustache and a wig, an encounter between Jack and a possible hooker who reveals that not only does she wear a wig but that her tits, ass, and left leg are all prosthetics, and a bit with Jack and Slade in a nightclub where they are told that the awful singer on stage is the âdirectorâs sisterâ (Kim Wayans) complete with a shot of the embarrassed look on Jackâs (Keenanâs) face. As the years went on and Keenan would create and produce the more âurbanizedâ sketch comedy show In Living Color and later step down and out of the spotlight as his two (less funny) brothers Shawn and Marlon would take the mantle and become major comedy stars, one wonders just how far that he could have gone with the more daring, rulebreaking type of comedy such as this had he decided to pursue it along with his arguably funnier brother Damon Wayans (who gets a scene stealing supporting role here as an idiot thug), but watching him play a supposedly decorated soldier whose medals and citations are for things like surfing and shorthand and who initially freaks out at being the target for actual violence in the ghetto is some pretty inspiring stuff, and one also cannot underestimate the contributions of Hayes and Brown, two genuine meta badasses who greatly increase the authenticity of the story while also seemingly having a blast as they parody themselves (Brown: âWell what makes you think that you can be a black hero??â Wayans / Jack: âIâm an ex football player.â Brown: ââŚâŚâ ) and their own tough as nails screen images (Hayes even has a bit here where he annoys Brown by singing along with the radio, badly). There is even a hint that the story (and characters) will continue on in a possible future franchise, but all that ever came of that was a severely watered down ABC TV pilot called Hammer, Slammer, And Slade and that was it. The film also successfully tributes such black musical tropes as Motown and funk while also looking ahead to the advent of rap music (which has admittedly exploded to being far more expansive of a genre than anyone ever expected) after Jack is told that every hero needs to have their own theme music (complete with musicians following them around everywhere they go while playing their instruments) by bringing in KRS-ONE to perform his (very good) rap theme music. In the end, when you look at comedies featuring predominantly African American casts, this goes up there as one of the best, if not THE best (Murphyâs classic films tended to have a more even racial mix in the supporting cast) by not taking either the politics or even themselves all that seriously and still managing to maintain an irrelevant tone when it comes to the sense of humor on display, never getting too heavy handed or preachy (or if so, doing it as an obvious joke) and showing that just like Richard Pryor before them, keeping it funny while also keeping it real will smash all known audience boundaries to untold heightsâŚ
9/10