Slaughter

Trailer—Slaughter

I'm all for 1970s low-budget exploitation films but Slaughter failed to satisfy. The plot, if there is one, is confused, as if the first reel was missing. After Billy Preston's lame theme song you are dropped into the middle of a confusing story about the mafia, or maybe Mexican mobsters, who kill star Brown's parents in the first 10 seconds. Why? I still don't know. Something about a computer. From there the tale meanders with little action and some really bad acting. That can be forgiven if the film is at least a little fun but there's not much of that either.Brown's 'Hell Up in Harlem" is a lot more fun and makes a lot more sense.

Take it for what it is...entertainment. Slaughter delivers. Plenty of action, shooting, punching, stabbing, etc. Slaughter takes on the mob and turns them out al dente. Rip Torn is suitably hateful as the Mafia hit man. Stella Stevens is incredibly delicious in and out of her bikini. Slaughter spends the entire film kicking butt on those cheese suckin', mother ------' mafia racists. Great car chases, I might add. I liked it when Slaughter just sped up to the mafia estate in his Mustang, skidded across the courtyard, let the door fly open, and start shooting. One dumb scene at the beginning: Slaughter's dad gets blown up by a car bomb. His car is engulfed in flames while the camera lingers on the inferno. The next scene, we see Slaughter in the ER waiting room. The doctor comes out of surgery and tells Slaughter that his dad didn't make it. Uhhh...I guess the paramedics had to sweep him up in a dustpan to get him to the hospital.

Rip Torn makes for a good heavy, but the action sequences are poorly choreographed (sic?) . I've always liked Jim Brown as an actor, but this is not one of his best. Bad guys get shot on rooftops and they seemingly jump off when hit. All kinds of gunfire come from the mobsters but our "heroes" never get shot.............and on the other hand, our heroes never miss. And what happens to Jim Brown's female friend and Cameron Mitchell towards the end of the movie? It seems the screenwriter forgot about them..........watch it and see what I mean. Good enough for one viewing, especially if you want to see Stella Stevens in a rare * scene and that's it.

Ridiculous to be sure, but also extremely entertaining. Jim Brown is the title character, a former Green Beret who, after his "connected" father is blown up by a car bomb, exacts his revenge of the mobsters responsible. This being Jim Brown and a war hero, he has the blessing of the US government. Brown is his usual robotic self (read that as dullard), but the supporting cast is a real treat. Rip Torn is a really creepy mobster, Stella Stevens his put upon moll who, naturally, ends up in bed with Brown. Cameron Mitchell is the government man who ropes Brown in and he wears a really obvious toupee. The direction by Jack Starrett is pretty erratic...there's a pretty blurry chase on a runaway between a car and an airplane. Starrett would improve his drive-in cred a few years later with the likes of RACE WITH THE DEVIL and A SMALL TOWN IN Texas. Aping SHAFT and SUPERFLY, SLAUGHTER does have a pretty wacky title song (written and performed by the great Billy Preston).

...so goes Billy Preston's song. MGM had SHAFT (1971) with Richard Roundtree, AIP had SLAUGHTER with Jim Brown. After his parents are blown up by the Mafia, Vietnam Vet Brown's gonna kick some greasy Italian ass (Rip Torn), and along the way he gets a sidekick (Steve McQueen's mate Don Gordon), sleeps with Stella Stevens and generally causes havoc down in Mexico. It's not very good, but there are some decent action scenes and it's a hell of a lot better than some of the Blaxploitation garbage.

Low budget, low class, violent and overall grotesque film. Quite possibly the death nail in Steven's career.

...because I've been able to watch this film and other great blaxploitation classics.The plot is pretty basic for this genre(the tough black hero avenges the death of his loved one and kick some "whitey" butt in the process).Although the film seems dated,the action pieces more than make up for it.Jim Brown shows a limited range as an actor,but Rip Torn is great as the slimy mobster & Stella Stevens is hot as always as the girlfriend.

It kicks off a little slow, but by the time they get to Mexico, things pick up and get pretty smokin' in the conclusion--Jim Brown's entrance to the casino is terriffic, it's got the shock value of having a dwarf thrown through your bay window. His later entrance to the bad guys' lair from the car is also classic. Jim Brown isn't a great actor, but his ass-kicking stoicism is at it's best here, as he slaps down legions of bad guys with barely a raised eyebrow. (Did you know that, aside from his football skills, Jim Brown was supposedly the greatest Jai Lai player on earth?) Stella Stevens and Rip Torn are also very good, but even higher praise goes to Billy Preston's theme song.