Review: Slaughter

Jim Brown plays the title police captain an ex-Green Beret whose parents (who had mob connections!) are killed in a car bomb explosion. Slaughter does everything he can to find out what happened and who is responsible. This has him getting in the way of an investigation by the Treasury Department, headed by a racist Cameron Mitchell. Mitchell isn’t happy for the intrusion, but nonetheless offers Slaughter a deal: Be charged with murder (Slaughter kills a mob guy), or co-operate with the Treasury Department. Slaughter, not being an idiot, takes the second option. Mitchell pairs Slaughter up with fellow agents Don Gordon and Marlene Clark to track down mobsters Hoffo (Rip Torn) and his grandfatherly employer Felice (Norman Alfe), believed to be behind the hit. Stella Stevens plays the surly Hoffo’s girlfriend, whom Felice arranges to seduce Slaughter. Robert Phillips plays the henchman you know is set to get punched all over the face.

Jim Brown’s career actually started before the Blaxploitation era with a supporting turn in the iconic “The Dirty Dozen” as well as lead roles in films such as “The Split”, “Kenner”, “Riot”, and the “In the Heat of the Night”-ish “tick…tick…tick”. Perhaps that, combined with his football star status is what has kept his name fairly recognisable all these years later when some of the other names of the Blaxploitation era have faded into obscurity (Roles in Spike Lee and Tim Burton films in the 90s and 00s certainly have helped, too). In his own way, I think he’s quite an important figure in cinema from the point of view of the advancement of African-American presence and portrayal on screen. Of his several blaxploitation flicks, this 1972 action-drama from director Jack Starrett (“Cleopatra Jones”) and screenwriters Mark Hanna (“Not of This Earth”, “Attack of the 50ft Woman”) and Don Williams (who barely worked in cinema again, strangely enough) is generally regarded as his finest hour as a leading man. Like most blaxploitation movies – even the best – it’s rather rough around the edges in terms of plot and direction. In fact, I can’t say I was especially invested in the plot at all. However, it’s an enjoyable watch, especially for fans of this sort of thing like I am. That’s mainly due to the performances and some quite entertaining characters.

Things start off well with a funky-as-hell title song by Billy Preston. It’s one of blaxploitation cinema’s finest theme songs. And the song matches the awesomeness of Jim Brown and the title character. The overall music score by Luchi De Jesus (“Black Belt Jones”, “Friday Foster”, “Adios Amigo”) won’t be to all tastes, but it sure is funky. Why anyone would want to mess with Jim Brown or his family, let alone when he’s playing a cop and former green beret named Capt. Slaughter? Humans can be absolute idiots sometimes. Brown is perfectly cast with his relatively dour, slow-burn anger rather well-conveyed. Less impressive is secondary leading lady Marlene Clark, whose irritating character Brown’s Slaughter refers to at one point as ‘a dumb bitch’. Look, I’m not advocating such an insult, but I didn’t mind so much that Ms. Clark played much less of an important presence here than Stella Stevens. I gotta say, Stella Stevens definitely worked for me here, and I’m not just talking about how nice she looks in a bikini (very) or how nice her boobs and butt look in the requisite sex and shower scenes (again, very). It’s a bit of a shame though, that the cameraman seems more focussed on the furniture and Brown’s buff body than Stella Stevens’ hot body in their sex scene. Different strokes, but I can’t say I shared the interest there myself, though it still manages to be rather steamy. Performance-wise, Stevens is probably even better here than she was in “Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold”. Also stealing scenes is a younger, but nonetheless still permanently pissed off Rip Torn as the chief villain. The guy is perfect at playing mean, entirely hateful bastards like the one he plays here. At times Torn looks somewhat bored and mildly irritated to be in the film, but it works perfectly for the character, oddly enough. The other acting standout here is a frankly hilarious Don Gordon as Slaughter’s rather uncool associate. Gordon is responsible for a lot of the film’s humour. There’s also fine smaller turns by Robert Phillips as Slaughter’s eventual punching bag, and veteran Cameron Mitchell in a rather shocking but interesting cameo as Slaughter’s racist employer. He’s a complete and total arsehole here. As for Phillips, he might’ve liked his odds in the two-on-one fight scene at one point, but the audience knows better. Even though one of them has a knife…when Jim Brown takes his shirt off, you know Phillips and co are about to get fucked the hell up. Fun scene.

Although plot and direction aren’t anything special, this blaxploitation vehicle for Jim Brown has enjoyable enough performances and characters to come out strong by the end. It’s a good watch, warts and all.

Rating: B-