SLAUGHTER’S BIG RIP OFF
US, 1974, 92 minutes, Colour.
Jim Brown, Ed Mc Mahon, Don Stroud, Brock Peters, Gloria Hendry, Dick Anthony Williams.
Directed by Gordon Douglas.
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 tone of the title, emphasis on Slaughter, rip-off and the size? The value of the film as a sequel, relationship to the original, exploitation of the original, box office hopes? Jim Brown and his style? A commentator said it was a typical film about blacks, blood and bullets. Is this an adequate comment?
2. Impact of action films, audience entertaininent by action, melodrama, violence? The size and impact of the violence and action? Exploitive?
3. Colour, wide screen, music, flashy photography styles, aerial photography, swift editing for action and violence? An appropriate style for this kind of action thriller?
4. Interest in the plot: the background of the syndicates, gangsters, sex and violence?
5. Slaughter as a hero? Jim Brown and his style, vigil? The vigilante approach to justice? Background of the Green Berets, suffering personal injustice, violence? His aggression against society? The decadent society which he attacked?
6. Comment on the presentation of the action and how convincing it was? In such an ugly world, black, white, clashes of the races? Slaughter purging this decadent world?
7. The character of Slaughter with his Green Beret background, the effect of killing, the club, Reynolds, the bond with Marcia, involvement in the rackets, the world of drugs, Duncan, creole?
8. The portrayal of the villains? conventional for this kind of material? Characters? Kirk as a contrast with Slaughter? The Karate men? Croydon?
9. The build-up to the big showdown, the melodrama, the violence, Slaughter and his interpretation of justice and his administering of it, relationship to official law and order?
10. What is the value of this kind of film? Does it stand for sound social values?
