Death of a Snowman

I know exploitation cinema isn't exclusive to America, many countries around the world have made and continue to make exploitation, but I have to say that I'm rather surprised to see a Blaxploitation film hailing from South Africa. I suppose when you think about it though, considering all of the political and racial strife South Africa has seen, Blaxploitation cinema definitely makes sense. Naturally this isn't the first time this particular film has seen release here in the states, a company called EastWest (likely a bootleg outfit) is still currently selling the "Soul Patrol" version of Death of a Snowman which runs one minute shorter than Synapse's. I know BCI also owned the rights to this a few years back though I can't seem to find any indication that it was indeed actually released.

Anyhow, the film itself was quite entertaining; there were a few sequences that seemed to drag along here and there but actors Davenport (lovin' his Sean Connery beard!) and Gampu were likable characters with a laid back, believable relationship. Seeing Gampu portray a respectable Blaxploitation hero with a strong moral compass was also a refreshing change-up from the usual pimps, pushers, hustlers, gangsters and vigilantes that typified the sub-genre.

Basically the action was right on point, violence over-the-top and the score was wonderful as it was filled with dark grooves and fast-paced action funk so, for me, everything about Death of a Snowman just felt right. As I said, there were a few lulls but this is exploitation…not Fellini. If there weren't some dull moments and missed opportunities for nudity, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed this so thoroughly. Yeah right!

Don't let the trailer mislead you. It's has nothing to do with the movie besides the clips. It's NOT Blacksploitation (and the immorals behind the trailer needed to be meleed for using racism as a vehicle to promote the film). What it is, is a gritty, South African crime noir tale complete with flawed heroes, formidable foes and well done brutal action sequences. My only gripe is the sound editing, where in one particular scene the dialogue was barely audible but I switched on the subs and kept on rocking. It in no way makes the film unwatchable, but still, you got to get that isht right! Fast paced, good plot, awesome action, no sex, just a great Friday and friends movie that I enjoyed watching and will view again soon.

This film begins in South Africa with a notorious crime lord being brutally murdered in what police believe is an obvious assassination. Sure enough, the very next day a newspaper journalist by the name of "Chaka" (Ken Gampu) receives a letter by an unknown person taking credit for the killing and promising that more underworld figures will soon be killed in the near future. Naturally, recognizing a good story when he sees one, Chaka immediately stops the presses to includes the manifesto in his newspaper. Unfortunately, not everyone is happy about this decision as the local police "Captain" (Peter Dyneley) not only accuses him of working with the vigilante gang, but also forbids one of his detectives named "Lieutenant Deel" (Nigel Davenport) to discuss the case with him as well. Meanwhile, as the killings continue, Chaka becomes even more determined to bring the vigilantes to justice--with or without the help of the local police. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this turned out to be a fairly good Blaxploitation film even though the geography was somewhat unusual. Strangely enough, even though the action increased toward the end, the movie itself seemed to lose some of its overall intensity at that point. Even so, I still enjoyed the film for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

I found this movie in the bargain-bin at my local Blockbuster, where it was available in a very old cassette (where it said VHS/Video 2000/Beta Max on the cover), and the title was 'The Hunt for Mr. Clean' in danish.

It took about an hour of playing time before this so-called 'Mr. Clean' would show up, and it was only as a pseudonym for Luther 'Snowman' Daniels, who was played by Madala Mphahlele, who apparently hasn't done any movies before or since this one. He plays a gangster who had some kind of connection with real-life gangster Joey Gallo, who got shot in 1972. (The cover of the film describes this movie as the main character being Joey Gallo chasing Mr. Clean, totally wrong and bizarre writings, kinda funny) - And Nigel Davenport who played Lt. Ben Deel, the cop on the case was only in the movie for about 15 minutes or so, the main hero is Ken Gampu who plays the journalist Steve Chaka, who has cracked down the entire case by himself, but the police don't trust him anymore, so he can't tell them anything about the information. Bima Stagg, who wrote this, has a role as Johnson in this movie, but I can't remember who he was. The most interesting character was a poor mans Donald Sutherland (with the big beard and long hair), who went around and killed a lot of people, but apparently he wasn't very important for the plot, since he suddenly was removed halfway in the movie.

All in all, there was a lot of muddled fights and chases, which annoyed me quite a lot, since you couldn't see what the heck was going on (say, ten black men fighting in a dark basement with poor lighting isn't very fun to watch, unless you like playing guessing-games) But I have to give it at least 4 of 10, since it had a lot of cool shoot-outs, and Asian mobsters in South Africa, plus two guys with HUGE Afros talking to each other, which made me laugh. It is quite rare, so you're lucky if you can find it. It isn't very likely that this will be released on DVD in the near future (or ever), so the VCR's (videoplayers) can't be deemed redundant yet.