Truck Turner

This is a better than average so-called "blaxploitation" film about a bounty hunter named Truck Turner (Isaac Hayes). When he and his partner are trying to bring in a pimp after he jumped bail, the pimp tries to shoot Turner and Turner has no choice but to shoot him. However, he never anticipated that the pimp's woman (Nichelle Nichols) was a total psycho and she put a contract out on Turner. The rest of the film consists of various hoods (most notably Yahpet Kotto) trying to kill Turner. This is a pretty exciting film and is well directed, written and acted--making this very unusual for the genre. Most blaxploitation films have horrible production values and are best seen as "guilty pleasures"--this film stands well on its own and doesn't suffer from many of the clichés you'd normally find in one of these films. One of the more interesting reasons to see the movie is to see Nichols in a non-Star Trek role. Here, she is 100% different from Lt. Uruhu, as she's a very filthy mouthed and angry lady indeed!! She's intensely nasty--and one of the most despicable women you'd ever see in a blaxploitation film! While this film is far from high art and not exactly subtle, if you are looking for a 1970s Black-American themed action picture, it's hard to do much better than this one.

I've always loved Blaxploitation films but don't know them all, and I recently found Truck Turner by complete chance. I LOVED it, Turner is such a bad-ass! He would kick Dirty Harry's and Shaft's asses big time! The film itself is also technically quite interesting, both in the direction, cinematography and editing; I loved the camera on Blue's face when he's about to die, or the shots that make Turner appear taller or his gun appear gigantic. The movie is also very funny at times, maybe more than it was actually intended: the vocabulary, several one-liners and the way the main characters bully anyone in the way just cracked me up. Hayes' music is also great, as usual. Great fun, great performances, great flick overall. A must-see for any who loves Blaxploitation. I wish I could see more of him; Turner deserved one or several sequels.

Theoretically 'Truck Turner' (a.k.a. 'Black Bullet') should have rocked. Isaac Hayes was high on the success of his score for 'Shaft', and definitely had screen presence, but the script by Oscar Williams ('Black Belt Jones') is below par, and even talented Roger Corman protege Jonathan Kaplan can't save it from being just very average. Hayes is pretty cool, his score is okay, the supporting cast is exceptional - Yaphet Kotto ('Blue Collar', 'Drum', 'Alien'), 'Black Belt Jones' Alan Weeks and Scatman Crothers, Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols, Corman legend Dick Miller,etc. but I was bored way before the end. The best bits for me were the scenes involving Koto's ice cold mack and Nichols ruthless madame, and watching the pimps on display was a lot of fun. But really I could list ten blaxploitation movies I'd recommend before 'Truck Turner', and if you want Isaac Hayes at his best rent 'Escape From New York', and listen to his 'Hot Buttered Soul' and yes, 'Shaft'.

A bounty hunter, Mack Truck Turner(Isaac Hayes)has a contract out on him by Dorinda(Nichelle Nichols, in a role bound to shock folks who know her as Ohura on STAR TREK), the vengeance seeking broad whose pimp daddy was murdered by him in self defense. Her fellow pimps across the city decide to take her up on that offer, but they aren't so lucky because Truck is hard to kill, and smarter than all of them(..that plus these hoodlums are all lousy shots because once they have aim, fire, and miss, Truck's taking them out). Harvard Blue(Yaphet Kotto), a sadistic pimp with quite a reputation, offers Dorinda his services for most of her prostitution business and hires assassins to target Truck, seriously hurting his boss and killing his bounty hunter partner. Soon Blue and his cronies themselves become the prey and Trucker the predator with a lot of dead bodies left after the dust settles. Tailor made vehicle for Isaac Hayes, getting a terrific role as a nearly unstoppable bad ass with an unglamorous career chasing down pedophiles, rapists, junkies and pimps(..along with Alan Weeks as his partner Jerry)for bond claimer Nate Dinwiddie(Sam Laws). I LOVED how the camera lens stretches the nose of Truck's gun giving the weapon a very intimidating look you just know is gonna cause some damage to the scum shot at. What a great cast of black actors! Yaphet Kotto is as intense and charismatic as Hayes, and what a finale in the hospital! Nichols as the vehement head hunter wanting Turner's death sure surprises(..just watch the scene where she scolds her whores who challenge her credibility as a proper pimp madame or how Nichols insults her male colleagues demeaning their manhood out of fear regarding Truck)in how she conducts herself towards those she has contempt for. I'd hate to not mention Weeks as Turner's buddy and fellow hunter whose life is constantly threatened due to the dangerous job(..and being associated with Turner)..he has some of the best lines and delivers them with pitch perfect accuracy. And Annazette Chase as Annie, Turner's thief girlfriend who can not seem to stay out of prison(..very amusing sequence has Turner setting the poor girl up for shoplifting out of fear for her safety!). Other amusing cameos from Scatman Crothers(..as a retired pimp with a hairpiece!), John Carpenter vet Charles Cyphers(..as a drunk!)and Dick Miller as a lawyer who often pays for Turner and Jerry's services. Lots of attitude, "colorful"(..often hilarious)street language, the gritty environment of New York City, and extreme graphic violence featuring plenty of bullets & blood. Solid entry in the blacksploitation genre.

Well straight off, I've got to say that the dialogue throughout the first half of this film had me in absolute non stop, side splitting hysterics. In terms of script, I can't honestly off the top of my head think of another film that comes even close to this! Just check out the conversation between our main man (the awesomely cool Issac Hayes) and his bounty hunting partner (the always excellent Alan Weeks) concerning Hayes cat peeing on his shirt as an example to illustrate the above – absolutely priceless! In fact everything and I mean everything about the film (for the said first half) is absolutely meriting of a full ten stars. Our main protagonists are instantly likable, the seventies fashions are groovy, the music is super cool and the action is spot on. Unfortunately although the film remains superb throughout, the feel good factor that so permeates throughout the proceedings early on is all but abandoned in favour of a far more brutal approach in the second half. Don't get me wrong, this in itself isn't a bad thing, it's just that the sudden loss of all humour is sadly missed. On the other hand, the action (and indeed gore!) picks up a major pace at the same point as if to compensate for this subtraction. And if it's violent action that you're after then you've come to the right place because Truck Turner proves to be one hell of an adversary to the villains in this. Special mention must be made of the main villains (played by the excellent Yaphet Kotto) eventual demise which utilises an intriguing reverse POV camera shot, meticulously mimicking his staggering death throes – great stuff! All in all, this is quite rightly regarded as a true blaxploitation classic. Simply awesome stuff!

In Los Angeles, the tough bounty hunter Mac 'Truck' Turner (Isaac Hayes ) and his partner and friend Jerry (Alan Weeks) work for Nate Dinwiddie (Sam Laws) hunting down fugitives from the law. When the drug dealer and pimp Richard Leroy 'Gator' Johnson (Paul Harris) is murdered by Turner, Gator´s woman Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols) hiresthe gangster Harvard Blue (Yaphet Kotto) and his professional killers to kill Turner. Will they succeed? "Truck Turner" is another full of action blaxploitation movie from the 70´s. The tall Isaac Hayes is funny in the role of a tough bounty hunter and former football player hard to be killed and the film is highly entertaining. My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): "Truck Turner"

Truck Turner is an ex-football star, built like a Mack truck. Fortunately his name IS Mac (though why they released it as BLACK BULLET in Australia is beyond me) which makes for a sensible nickname. There is practically nothing else remotely sensible thereon in, when Mac goes head-to-head with a bunch of no-good…well, macks (pimps). It is a typically paradoxical blaxpolitation film. It serves as both a reminder why the genre were so enjoyable - brazen heroes and villains, loads of sexy chicks for each, a top soul soundtrack - and why it had to die eventually - the burden of uninspired cashing in, here there and everywhere. BLACK BULLET is as b-grade as they come, and it's surprisingly nasty in places. With a similar cast and crew to the far-superior BLACK BELT JONES (a blaxploitation gem), you expect tongue in cheek, but by the time you've heard the world `bitch' a thousand times, it starts to lose its comic gleam. But at the end of the day it's all in good fun. It's just a shame the modern gangstas didn't get the joke.

Isaac Hayes provides whole new dimensions to the term "Coolness" in his own and first Blaxploitation highlight "Truck Turner" (not counting the Italian Blaxploitation-Crime thriller crossover "Three Tough Guys"). Prior to this movie Hayes was only known as the performer of the legendary Shaft theme, but God bless the person who came up with the idea of giving him his very own movie-franchise! Hayes is brilliant and much cooler & tougher than all the other Blaxploitation heroes together, in my humble opinion. If I were to be stuck in a dark alley late at night, I would rather run into a combination of Richard Roundtree, Fred Williamson and Jim Brown than facing the gigantically postured and naturally petrifying Hayes. The plot of "Truck Turner" is rudimentary but nevertheless engaging and literally stuffed with awesome characters, witty comical undertones and phenomenal action sequences. I truly adore how each and every character that walks through the screen, even including Truck and his lovely wife, is a bit of a "badass" and living on the edge of the law him/herself. Mack 'Truck' Turner is a former football player who now works as a feared bounty hunter since an injury ruined his career. Truck loves his wife, even though she's a recidivist shoplifter and all the women in the neighborhood crave him, and there isn't a single thug on the streets who doesn't fear and respects him. Together with his partner Jerry he's tailing the fugitive big shot pimp Gator, but when the latter gets killed during a spontaneous bust, all hell breaks loose. Gator's main bi-atch Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols, acting like the black version of Ilsa Harem keeper of the Oil Sheiks) gathers all the city's most prominent pimps and promises the ownership of all her top-class prostitutes to whoever succeeds in killing Truck. Seeing the main story lines are so thin, "Truck Turner" mostly benefices from its 'shoot first ask questions later' action sequences, the splendid soundtrack and multiple stellar performances. Hayes receives great support from Yaphet Kotto (as a really creepy super-pimp), Alan Weeks (as the sidekick) and Sam Laws (as their employer). There are also excellent cameos for prominent B-actors like Scatman Crothers and Dick Miller. The violent climax in the hospital is simply awesome and has an original and tense anti-climax. Another downright brilliant and unforgettable scene takes place during the pimp's funeral. Pure 70's goodness!

Tedious, routine, predictable, this is the kind of action film that introduces a group of supposedly ultra-cool, ultra-efficient assassins (one of them says: "There are too many amateurs in the field today") as the hero's opponents, who later turn out to be as lousy at aiming and especially at protecting themselves from enemy gunfire as the inept bad soldiers of "Commando". Isaac Hayes and Yaphet Kotto are agreeable, and there are many action scenes, but most of them are not very exciting. Watch for the hilarious scene where Kotto spits on a camera! (you'll understand when you see it). (*1/2)

Blaxploitation films are so frequently ridiculed and parodied (much of it with reason) these days, that it's easy to forget that some of them were actually pretty good. Shaft (1971) paved the way for the sub-genre with its strutting bad-ass lead who's a sex-machine to all the chicks, and Isaac Hayes' Oscar-winning score (for what he will forever be best remembered for). Hayes himself steps into the lead role here as ex- American football star and bail bondsman Mac 'Truck' Turner, who according to Yaphet Kotto's bad-guy pimp Blue, is "like a bulldog with eyes up his ass!", and displays some surprisingly charismatic qualities that makes it quite a shame he didn't appear in more. Greasy lawyer Fogarty (the great Dick Miller) employs bounty-hunters 'Truck' Turner and his partner Jerry (Alan Weeks - with the best grin in cinema) to track down a low-down pusher and pimp named Gator (Paul Harris). After an extended chase scene, Turner and Jerry manage to kill Gator, much to the dismay of Gator's lady Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols - Uhura!). Dorinda rounds up the big pimps and offers her valuable collection of whores in exchange for Turner's head, a deal in which Blue accepts. Wanting to settle down with his girlfriend Annie (Annazette Chase), Turner finds his life turned upside when Blue employs a gang of hired killers. Beginning almost as a buddy-comedy, the witty script and some genuine chemistry serve up some amusing early scenes, showing off Hayes' natural screen presence. But this turns into pure police procedural blaxploitation as the main plot kicks in, with jive-talk, pimps in some of the most delightfully ludicrous dress I've ever seen, car-chases, slow-motion shoot-outs, cocaine, hookers, and of course a tragically neglected soundtrack from Hayes himself. The action scenes are surprisingly good, and Corman protégé Jonathan Kaplan (director of fellow Grindhouse Project feature Night Call Nurses (1972) - review #443) makes sure he includes as much slow-motion men falling off rooftops and gushing fake blood as possible. Bloody good fun, and probably better than Shaft. www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com