Uptight

One thing about me and my love of movies is that I very rarely prefer remakes. However, this movie is an exception--a film far superior than the original. Now that might surprise you, as Victor McLaglen received the Oscar for Best Actor AND the great John Ford the Oscar for Best Director. Yet, I STILL liked the remake better. Much of it is that "The Informer" has not aged well and is dated. In particular, McLaglen's performance seems over-the-top--very, very unsubtle indeed. Also, while it's hard to imagine someone making a film better than John Ford, it's not as surprising when you learn that it's Jules Dassin--one of the best film directors of the 20th century but whose career was severely affected by the Red Scare--when he was forced to move to Europe and managed to STILL keep making great films.

Dassin decided to remake the story and set it in black America--in 1968. The film was VERY timely, and is set just after the murder of Martin Luther King--a time when black men and women were understandably talking about revolution. While the term 'Black Panthers' was never used in the film, clearly the film is intended to be about them...and their weakest link, a sad and worthless individual named Tank. Also, since time had past since Dassin's exodus from Hollywood, he was now able to return to the States to make a film and this one was made in Cleveland. This locale was great--adding to the realism. In addition, while most of the actors are unknowns (apart from folks like Roscoe Lee Browne and Ruby Dee), they did a great job--and Dassin got the most from them. Overall, a very hard-hitting and enjoyable film--and a nice update to the original.

I was very impressed by this film and am glad it was finally released on DVD. It is still relevant in 2021 and has even deeper meaning given how little has changed since 1968. It would make a great double bill with the recent film Judas and the Black Messiah. Similar themes but with significant differences.

I hope this film becomes more well-known. It truly deserves attention by everyone interested in civil rights and the political conflict between people who want to be non-violent and the people who are willing to use weapons. In the middle are people who just need some money to live day to day and get basic needs met.

Isn't it so telling how the liberal filmmakers who were blacklisted generally re-emerged with their most groundbreakingly progressive works, or at least their edgiest? After Trumbo was reinstated into the Writers' Guild, he made Johnny Got His Gun, completely turning the conventional sensibilities of his own Guy Named Joe on its head. Dmytryk began working with the socially impactful liberal filmmaker Stanley Kramer. It was after Kazan testified that he made the revolutionary On the Waterfront and the prophetic A Face in the Crowd. One could say that American B director Jules Dassin was transformed as a filmmaker by his time in Europe, having made his masterpiece Rififi in France, but Up Tight! could've only been made by an American, with his finger truly on the pulse of the American state of affairs, which is to say very few Americans could've made this film.

Repressive, fascistic conservative policies and propaganda are constantly suppressing freethinking and truth, but they only make it rebound more outspoken and with more passion than ever before. Up Tight! is a quintessential case in point. It's a candid handling of black militancy. A little to my amazement, it doesn't cop out. There's no regressing toward an appeasing moderate end. The zeal and attitude of black revolutionaries are seen face to face with us, with little in the way of consolation for white liberals maybe even including myself.

Black communities celebrated this complete surprise discovery on my part as a film that said something for them. It had audacity enough to represent the rage of the ghetto. And its characters behave and think like it. It's outstanding that a major studio like Paramount backed and distributed this film. Whenever Hollywood itself has gotten involved in the envelope-pushing independent filmmaking sensibilities, it has made it viable for other movies to reflect on the American reality.

Julian Mayfield is sturdy as granite in his depiction of Tank, the informant. It's a thorny role since Tank is by and large garbled and unversed in his own intentions. But Mayfield moves with conviction. When Tank pays a visit to a wake, his bewilderment and anguish are so poignant. Raymond St. Jacques, as a centrist turned radical, is commanding and somewhat startling. He has awesome screen presence. Ruby Dee is affecting, moving and absolutely beautiful as Laurie, Tank's girlfriend.

Up Tight! is a high-quality and attention-grabbing film mainly owing to separate elements. It has no-nonsense and plain-spoken dialogue. It has more than a few commanding performances. It has moments of truth, as when the cops mow down a radical leader, while residents of a projects bucket down tin cans and abuse. These moments have their own life and continuation. To see them on the screen is sufficient.

Dassin returned to the U.S. after a long and transformative absence to deal with a precise time and setting, and he has a great deal he wants to show us about it. This triggers challenging changes in the movie's pitch as he moves between his underdog protagonist, a heartfelt, half-wit alcoholic informer, and the rebellious leaders, straightforward, skillful, fanatical, vicious. Our feelings become mixed. This is good! When whites saw Up Tight! in 1968, many alleged to have been troubled by the audience reaction: There was a shout of approval each time a white guy got hit. Huh. Well, this should've been an enlightening experience, affording us whites with a fraction of the same kind of gut reaction that blacks had for a seeming eternity when a black guy got hit. Or had to scuff their feet. Or had to squeeze inside the Mantan Moreland and Sleep 'n' Eat stereotypes. Up Tight! brought those days to an end, that is before black filmmakers began pigeonholing themselves.

...this was actually a great movie...it was made during a tumultuous time in urban black America and it reflected the conflict...outstanding performances from max julien (don't want to even HEAR about the mack) this was a real blood and soul performance..raymond st. Jacques, ruby dee, dick williams, frank silvera, roscoe lee brown...this was a tremendous movie with a heart and soul you just don't see...if you ever, EVER, get a chance to see this....do it. There would not be many movies that combined intelligence and substance for numerous black actors and actresses in the same setting. Way ahead of it's time. These folks were truly inspired, hats off to the director (Jules Dassen) for creating a lasting work..

I was a young man of 30 years when I went to see this film. At the time I thought that the acting was fine and the theme of the movie was brave. The choice of actors were superb. The nakedness of emotion and tenderness of soul pervades this film on a gut level that speaks to the maverick sense that inhabits us all. Over the years hence because of the ways of the world it has stuck in my mind and gained strength. Even though it is a remake of the 1935 film, "The Informer" with Victor McLaglen, I think that political science majors may get more out of this movie than the regular movie buff. I have two copies of the musical sound track by Booker T & the MGs and I have found it to be a powerhouse in rendering this film.