S.O.S. Black Guns

"Lieutenant Danny Bassett" (Alex Rocco) has just been handed an extremely volatile case involving some burglars who have stolen approximately $4 million in cash and jewels from a fund-raiser being hosted of a black Detroit congressman. There is no way he can win because if the suspects turn out to be black the mostly black population will think it's a cover up. If the perpetrators are white then the white population will think it's a whitewash to appease the black community. And obviously if he fails to find the culprits the public will want his head on a silver platter. To make things even worse a black police sergeant named "Jesse Williams" (Hari Rhodes) is also assigned to the case who Lt. Bassett believes will get all of the credit for apprehending the suspects instead of him. Anyway, for a "blaxploitation" film this movie wasn't too bad. While the film was a little rough around the edges I liked the selection of Detroit for the movie which was a refreshing change from the usual locations (New York, Los Angeles and Chicago). I also liked the addition of Vonetta McGee as the prostitute "Roby Harris". Again, this wasn't a bad blaxploitation film and I rate it as about average.

Another entry into the blaxploitation genre, Arthur Marks's "Detroit 9000" has a black detective and a white detective cooperating to investigate the theft of some jewels from a congressman's fund raiser in the Motor City. For the most part the movie has a lot of the things that we expect to see in a blaxploitation flick, although they put an interesting twist on racial stereotypes: the black detective is the refined character while the white detective is the streetwise one. There was even a line or two that they obviously lifted from "Dirty Harry". Otherwise, it was just a fun movie with a funk soundtrack. Among the cast members are Hari Rhodes, Alex Rocco (Moe Greene in "The Godfather"), Vonetta McGee and Scatman Crothers (Dick Hallorann in "The Shining").

Detroit was long seen as the backbone of the US economy and now it's bankrupt. Geez.

I saw this movie because of Quentin Tarantino's initiative to bring back classics like this to the video stores. This movie is just terrific. First of all the story is very well done and it is still original today. This is remarkable considering that this movie is 26 years old! The actors might be a little weak at times but the cool dialogs and the raw action scenes are the best ones I've ever seen. There aint no special effects here but it still is pretty spectacular. Of course, this movie is not an Hollywood super production but it still is an excellent movie that one should see at least once. The music is also fantastic, seeing those guys shoot each others and thoses cars explode with some 70's era funk music is just too entertaining.

I recommend this movie to any action or thriller movie fans. Tarantino fans might also be surprised..this movie obviously influenced Tarantino a lot. See for yourself.

Detroit 9000 is a lesser known and very underrated heist thriller that somewhat falls under the blaxsploitation genre. No matter how you want to classify this Detroit 9000 packs a punch to the gut. Very well acted with Alex Rocco and Hari Rhodes as a pair of cops working on a high profile case. The film is very gritty and shows political corruption, racism and a whole lot of violence with high powered shootouts ending with lots of carnage, blood and lead left in it's wake. The score by Luchi DeJesus is very cool and stylish giving it that funky 70's flavor and I think this was quite well acted and well made as a whole. Scatman Crothers appears in a brief but memorable role and along with lots of familiar faces that worked in films at the time gets the job done on this very tough and action packed movie. Thumbs way up on this one.

Not your typical Blaxploitation movie. I rented it because Vonetta McGee is in it but was pleasantly surprised. You should see the top tier Blaxploitaion movies (Fred,Pam,Jim,Isaac) first to appreciate this one. Definitely a sleeper.