Directed by Gordon Parks, Jr.
Written by Phillip Fenty
1972/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Curtis Mayfield: [singing] Ain’t I clean, bad machine; Super cool, super mean; Feelin’ good, for the man; Super fly, here I stand; Secret stash, heavy bread; Baddest bitches, in the bed; I’m your pusherman, I’m your pusherman; I’m your pusherman…
The soundtrack alone makes this worth seeing.
Youngblood Priest (Ron O’Neal) looks to have it made. He has the best of everything, a brand-new Cadillac with a Rolls-Royce grille, and rotating black and white girlfriends. He is a cocaine dealer on the streets of Harlem.
In a story as old as the movies, Priest figures he can get out of the game with a big final score. The plan is to buy 30 kilos of cocaine for $300,000 and sell it on for a cool million.
Priest contacts his old friend who got him into the business. The friend is no longer dealing. He is able to sell Priest a kilo and finally agrees to try to secure 15 kilos for him through his contacts. Those contacts are quite willing to have Priest as a pusher. They are less willing to see him leave the game.
This movie was the first to be made and financed entirely by African-Americans. It’s odd that this is how they chose to portray themselves. Anyway, the story is fairly predictable and some of the acting is amateur-level. However, the whole movie is accompanied by an amazing funky soundtrack penned and performed by Curtis Mayfield. This makes the movie go down pretty easily. Of course you could just listen to the album.
The NAACP condemned the film for glorifying drug use and stereotyping African-Americans.
It is, hands-down, my favorite movie soundtrack, and if memory serves, is the first time in history that the soundtrack made more money than the film itself.
It’s a fine movie for what it is–as you say, it’s amateurish in a lot of places. But nothing goes down smoother than Curtis Mayfield singing Pusherman or Freddy’s Dead.
And, honestly, Youngblood Priest is one of the great Blaxploitation names, right up there with Mister Keyes from Three the Hard Way.
Curtis Mayfield rules! I think “Shaft” is the all-round best made of the three Blaxploitation films on the list. I’m hoping to get to Blacula before 1972 is over!
The movie came along with some pretty good extra material. It seems they were very lucky Curtis Mayfield got this involved with the movie, there was practically no funding. In the end it was a win-win, but who would have known?
It never hurts to have a hit soundtrack album for your movie! I liked it but would probably go for Shaft in a blaxploitation shootout.