Brotherhood of Death

I will admit that the trailer from Gorgon video did seem so tremendously cool. But I had seen the film back in the early 80's on a Saturday afternoon broadcast on a local channel. I was fully prepared for it and think perhaps the previous reviewer is overstating the case. Yes, the jungle scenes are filmed in a yard, but the story and acting far surpassed what I had recalled from my childhood. It took me many years to finally re-discover this film (and I might add it is available on DVD for less than $10) and was very pleased with my purchase. But not to dispute the previous review, the trailer did kick serious ass with the tag line "See them avenge the death of a Brother, the rape of a sister, and the murder of their only honky friend..."

A group of black Vietnam vets go up against the Ku Klux Klan.

Producer Ronald Goldman saved money by hiring a first-time director and having nearly the entire film shot in Montgomery County, near Washington. He further hired several members of the Washington Redskins as actors so he would not have to pay the higher fees of professionals.

Although forgotten today, Goldman reported that the film brought in approximately $1 million, after having been made at a cost of between $200,000 and $250,000. Not a huge haul, but still a fourfold profit.

Not surprisingly, the film was championed by director Quentin Tarantino, which lead to its eventual release on DVD by Anchor Bay. Say what you will about Tarantino (love him or hate him), he is an expert at getting old films noticed again.

Aesthetically speaking, this isn't a very good movie. There wasn't much of a budget, the actors well mostly amateurs (including several Washington Redskins football players in leading roles) and the film would never be mistaken for Shakespeare....yet somehow I still enjoyed it all very much. I think it's because despite some lousy scenes (particularly the ones supposedly set in Vietnam), there was an energy about the film and the violence didn't seem excessive--despite it being a violent film.

A group of Black soldiers are home from the war and head to a small Southern town. The town is dominated by a group of Klansmen who keep the Black majority from voting or being treated like human beings. However, these newcomers convince the local population to register to vote so they can take back power and achieve justice. When hundreds show up to register, the Klan responds with violence. Eventually, though, the Black community has little choice other than fight back and the film ends with a small war between these combat vets and the Klan.

The film did a good job of capturing the new and hopeful mood of Black America and it also, believe it or not, showed some restraint. The Black men in this film wanted to do the right thing and not take the law into their own hands. They wanted to work within the system. When the somewhat sympathetic sheriff was killed by the Klan and they took over the job of policing the town, there could have just been a free for all or mob violence. Sure, some evil White supremacists were killed in the end, but only after the Black men showed a lot of restraint and really had no other choice. It was not a "hate White folks" film, but was intelligently handled.

By the way, as far as football players Roy Jefferson, Mike Thomas and Mike Bass are concerned, they were competent but that's about all. As a result of their often lackluster performances, Jefferson and Thomas never made another film and Bass only appeared in one more film more than a decade later. I grew up a Redskin fan but this film convinced me that they were smart to keep their day jobs! By the way, this is NOT a film for the kids. There is some nudity, a rape scene (thankfully not too graphic) and a lot of shooting.

The story of 3 friends who go through the Vietnam War, and return to the deep south, only to have to fight the white supremacists back home. They fight fire with fire. There's no pacifism in this flick starring 3 different 1970's NFL stars. All in all this is a one-dimensional story of racism, and I have no huge desire to ever see this again. It is run of the mill good black men against evil white supremacists, the same story we have seen a million times before. It does have some good shootouts, and clever tricks, and the funk music never stops, but all in all nothing spectacular. However if you are a fan of Blaxploitation check out; you might get more out of it than me.

Nothing really ground breaking here, but here are the pluses: Story is told decently, although it is not groundbreaking and the basic plot has been done before, there were enough original parts in this film to make it worth a view all the way through.

The acting wasn't bad, the klansmen, the sheriff, the bar owner were pretty good, but with the main characters (who I later found out were NFL stars) you did notice a dip in the quality a bit.

Soundtrack was hot, I've gotta get my hands on it.

This film needed more women in it, there are only 2 woman in the whole damn movie and they get very little screen time. That first one in the beginning was smoking!

I think of this movie as, the extra lite step child of "the spook who sat by the door". Not nearly as bad or exploitative as many of the blaxploitation films I've seen.