SLAUGHTER

US, 1972, 91 minutes, Colour.
Jim Brown, Stella Stevens, Rip Torn, Cameron Mitchell, Don Gordon.
Directed by Jack Starrett.

Slaughter and Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off? were features for ex-footballer Jim Brown. He had appeared in such films as The Dirty Dozen as well as topical films like The Slams. However, after Shaft and the various blacksploitation films of the early 1970s, Slaughter became an iconic figure.

The films are generally revenge films. Brown appears as a Vietnam veteran and has to avenge deaths caused by the Mob, even being asked by the FBI to go to Mexico to eliminate other Mobster connections. In Slaughter’s Big Rip- Off, the action is doubled – but a similar theme and plot.

The films show the thinking about black characters on screen in the early 1970s, a breakthrough from the previous decade. However, the films were directed by white action directors, Jack Starrett (Race with the Devil, Small Town in Texas, Cleopatra Jones) and veteran director Gordon Douglas from the 1950s to the 1970s.

The films also feature some black character actors in supporting roles. They echo the attitude of the times, especially during the Vietnam war and popular feeling about the war. They are also influenced by The Godfather and Godfather II, produced at the same time and giving prominence to the Mafia on screen.

1. The value of this kind of entertainment? For what audience?
2. Use of colour, wealthy locations, people? The atmosphere of vealth, crime? As a reflection of American society?
3. The "blacks-ploitation" aspect of the film: For a negro audience, vhy? Impact for a vhite audience?
4. Jim Brovn and audience response to him? Negro hero? The conven¬tions of the American private eye film as applied to the negro situation, self-assertion, anti-white? Equality of the races? The significance of the title as the hero's name?
5. The conventions of action and crime melodrama? How interesting and enjoyable? Pace? The presentation of sex and violence in this context? Appropriate, exploited?
6. Slaughter as a character: As portrayed by Jim Brovn and his style, the Vietnamese background? His father and his father's mis¬tress? The mystery of his death? Audience involved with the investi¬gation? His allies especially Kirn Walker and Bastoli? The confron¬tation with enemies? Slaughter as a tough American type? Sense of right and wrong, values? The use of violent means to attain an end? (Any better than his adversaries?)
7. Slaughter in action: the confrontation with Jenny and her death? Confrontation with Felice? The clash with Ho... ? The friendship with Bastoli and their working together? The number of deaths, the torture and violence? The confrontation with Anne Cooper? Sexuality? Rivalry with Ho... ? The scenes of them together, black and white? The confrontation at the end and his being vindicated? Were audiences satisfied?


8. Bastoli and Kim Walker and their characters, being pro-Slaughter, the way in which they helped?

9. The presentation of Felice and the type of wealthy criminal background that he represented? His interests, way of acting, hold over people?

10. Ho... as the villain, the type, his relationship with Anne Cooper, the murder, his being kidnapped, confessing, the violence of his death? Conventional villain?

11. Stella Stevens’s Anne Cooper and the type of American woman that she represented? With Ho... , with Slaughter?

12. The background of the syndicate, wealth, violence? Credible, interesting?

13. The build-up of the action sequences and their style? The buildup to the ending? A valuable kind of entertainment? Transient?