Uptight

...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 saw "Up Tight" yesterday (3/25/08) at the Cleveland Cinematheque. It is an interesting, but violent, story about a person who "snitched" on a criminal. The 1968-vintage scenes from Cleveland, ranging from downtown to the steel mills to a post-riot Hough, as well as other east side inner city scenes, is both historic and breathtaking. As a lifelong Clevelander, I enjoyed comparing the 1968-vintage east side scenes to what they look like today, especially the scene at East 55th and Woodland, which is desolate today compared to how it looked in 1968-the Cleveland Trust bank building is now a vacant lot, the Shell station is currently on its third rebuilding, the Sohio station now the site of a post office, the "Saveway" gas station...which advertised 28.9 cent gas!!!...now the site of a fish and chicken restaurant-that was once a Burger King...so many changes over 40 years. Seeing "Tank" going out on the town, buying everyone rounds at the bar with the stolen money, then staggering drunk all over Cleveland broke, makes this film a must-see. I also liked the scene where guns were stolen from a warehouse, with the old-geezer security guard chasing them, then falling. I also liked the scenes, as well as the old pinball machines and shoot-em-up games, at that arcade in the film, which, I believe, was once at East 105th and Euclid. A lot of easily recognizable locations if you are a lifelong Clevelander, or have once lived in the area around the time this film was shot. Sadly, this film was rarely seen since its December, 1968 theatrical release...I would love to see Paramount release this piece of Cleveland cinematic history to DVD someday. I highly recommend it.

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.

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.

I too saw this movie when it first came out. I was in college and involved in the student movement for more multi-cultural curriculum on campus. The movie was right on target and sensationally provocative at the time. At the end of the movie, just when you think there will be a political cop out in the story line, you're mistaken. The movie follows through on its no holds barred depiction of African American life in the USA at the time. It also depicts accurately how the 'black power' movement was resonating very powerfully in the countries urban ghettos. It is a terrific movie with a fabulous cast.A few years after seeing the movie I became very friendly with one of its stars, Raymond St. Jacques, he told me that "nobody could find a copy of the movie, not even Jules Dassin", it director. Many people felt that the movie industry and "gov't" had moved to squelch the showing of this film. It is curious that no one seems to be able to find a print of this film. Finally the sound track is amazing. Booker T of the MGs created just the right propulsive tension to capture the story's essence. I still listen to the sound track because the songs have such a great groove.