Black Gunn
U.S.A. / 1972
Directed by Robert Hartford-Davis
Starring
Jim Brown
Martin Landau
Bernie Casey
Color / 97 Minutes / R
Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC)
Columbia TriStar Home Video
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Just ASKIN' for an ass-whuppin'
WAV format | 98 KB
Review by
Brian Lindsey
 
5
     4   10 = Highest Rating  
Of the many professional athletes who've taken a shot at acting, American football legend Jim Brown was one of the most successful. Since I was too young to remember his phenomenal NFL career I know him primarily from the movies. While not exactly the world's most gifted thespian, he excelled at playing stoic, confident, soft-spoken tough guys. (To me, the quintessential Jim Brown Movie Moment comes in the 1967 action classic The Dirty Dozen: his character's heroic grenade-tossing sprint across the courtyard of a Nazi chateau.) Brown appeared in a number of mainstream Hollywood pictures during the late 1960s, such as Dark of the Sun and 100 Rifles, then became a blaxploitation icon the following decade by virtue of Slaughter and its sequel, Slaughter's Big Rip-off. During this time he also starred in the lesser known Black Gunn, a gritty but formulaic urban action-drama. Somewhat surprisingly, Columbia has issued this forgotten blaxploitation film on DVD.
    Needless to say it's quite politically incorrect by modern standards.
    Brown is Mr. Gunn (no first name), suave proprietor of an exclusive nightclub housed in the lower floor of his L.A. mansion. Life is good for Gunn — business is booming and he has a foxy, devoted girlfriend. His only worry is his younger brother Scotty (Herb Jefferson Jr.), a hotheaded radical who's joined a militant Black Power revolutionary group. The shit hits the fan when the militants, who call their outfit the Black Action Group, or B.A.G., rob a Mafia-owned betting parlor to raise cash for more weapons. The Mob doesn't take too kindly to being ripped off, but what really has 'em steamed is that the B.A.G. men made off with important "business" ledgers as well. Out for blood — and to get the books back — the Don orders his newly appointed chief of West Coast operations, used car salesman Russ Capelli (Oscar winner Martin Landau of Ed Wood), to scour the black community and find out who pulled the heist. Capelli is assigned a slimy, ruthless enforcer named Kriley (Diamonds Are Forever's Bruce Glover) and a squad of goons to provide the necessary muscle.
    Naturally, Gunn's little bro was part of the team that robbed the betting parlor. As a favor to him, Gunn reluctantly agrees to let Scotty temporarily stash the ledgers and part of the stolen money is his mansion. Before Gunn can decide on a course of action — the feds would dearly love to get hold of the Mob's books — Kriley's thugs zero in on Scotty and his militant friends. This puts them on a collision course with Gunn, who takes a dim view of being threatened in his own establishment. Some quick moves with a shotgun send the mob boys packing but ultimately he's unable to protect his brother. A dying Scotty is later dumped on the lawn of Gunn's estate as a warning to both him and the Black Action Group. In his grief, Gunn vows to take apart any and all who had a hand in his brother's murder.
    But this vendetta won't be just a one-man war against the Mob. Scotty's comrades in B.A.G. are also keen for vengeance. So they team up with the hard-charging Gunn to force a bloody confrontation.
    From the above plot synopsis you'll readily discern that Black Gunn serves up your basic crime/revenge formula with just a smidgeon of extra funk. It also possesses something of a mean streak, as personified in its two main villains. Landau doesn't have a great deal of screen time but when he does appear he's either chewing out underlings in staccato gangster style or slinging racial slurs with a wicked sneer. Glover (father of Crispin) practically leaves slime trails in his wake as Capelli's creepy enforcer. A foul-mouthed bigot, Kriley delights in telling watermelon jokes whenever he has African-Americans at a disadvantage. One can't wait for Gunn to pop a cap in his ass... though ironically enough, that moment never comes. Our hero simply beats the crap out of him instead. (Besides being evil, Kriley is incredibly stupid. Would any sensible person insult a guy built like Jim Brown — to his face — the way Kriley does in our featured audio clip? [See the left-hand sidebar below.] I think we've got a Darwin Award winner here!)
    Black Gunn is 1970s action filmmaking by the numbers. Nothing about the script or direction is inspired. The Mob ledgers turn out to be the most inconsequential of McGuffins, as they're completely forgotten once Gunn goes into revenge mode. There's nothing special about the action scenes, either. (The one we look forward to the most, Gunn's thrashing of Kriley, is marred by obvious stunt doubles.) But Brown is his usual cool self; blaxploitation vet Bernie Casey is also on hand as Scotty's friend and leader of the militants.
    There are a couple of cheesy laughs, too... When Casey is wounded during the explosive climax, his voice suddenly becomes very badly dubbed and that of an 80 year old man! And check out the goofy heroin junkie in the bowling alley. Where'd they get that guy?
    It's Poindexter on smack!

Columbia TriStar's DVD is strictly no-frills. At least the print they used is in decent shape, without any noticeable blemishes or damage. (It's letterboxed at 1.85:1.) The flat-sounding mono audio track does no favors to the music or sound effects but dialog is clear and always understandable. The disc offers a few promos for other Columbia releases no one really cares about. The trailer for Black Gunn is conspicuous in its absense. 1/26/04

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