The Black 6

If it's at all possible, this one's even worse than THE BLACK GESTAPO (1975; see above): it concerns the revenge perpetrated by the free-spirited, peace-loving but ultimately tough brother (and his five equally brawny cronies) of a black man killed by a group of bikers for daring to go out with a white girl. The title characters are played by a variety of American Football stars but, apart from the novelty factor, this does the film no good as none of them can act - not that the rest of the cast is any better, as witness the old woman for whom they work early on in the film or the hysterical owner of the roadhouse diner they end up trashing after being insulted by their racist clientele! Even at this juncture, I can hardly remember anything about it - except for the exaggerated Afro hairstyle of the lead character's radical younger sister who rebukes him for going off on their bikes rather than joining the Black Cause - after which one of the guys tells him, "Ma-aaa-n, you have one he-aaaa-vy li'l sistah!" Also, the print I watched was so muddy and dark that, due to the characters' skin color, I could hardly distinguished one from the other, especially during the climactic fight!! There's also an eccentric white biker named Thor who, appropriately enough, dons a Viking helmet but I have no idea what he really had to do with the main plot at the end of it! Finally, the end credits show a hilarious title card which warns white "honkies" that if they "hassle a brother", they'll find the Black Six on their heels...or something! The director later made the intriguing horror film THE WITCH WHO CAME FROM THE SEA (1976) - whose R1 SE DVD from Subversive Cinema I've been eyeing for purchase for the longest time - but, after watching this piece of trash, I'll think twice before going for it as a blind buy...

I'm so glad this was brought to my attention. While watching a documentary about the Minnesota Vikings, I learned about the interesting life of Carl Eller, and this movie came up. Needless to say, I had to watch it. From a genre viewpoint, it was a pretty standard Blaxploitation movie, but dang was it kinda funny.

The story is basically the saga of a peace loving biker club, who all happen to be comprised of some of the best football players in the NFL during this era of the early 70s. It was a nice time capsule so to speak, as there was strife in the NFL during this time and the players felt they were not being properly compensated. Only the best could live off the earnings of their NFL paychecks in those days, for many of those men had to get second jobs during the offseason. It only made sense to bring in some well built, hungry football players to portray a tough motorcycle club that was seeking answers for a mysterious death. The fact they got Mercury Morris, Willie Lanier, Eller, Gene Washington, Lem Barney and Mean Joe Green is quite amazing, considering the profile these players had during their time.

All of the tropes are there. Black man gets killed for dating a white woman, the brother of the man searches for answers in a nearly all white town, no one talks, some casual racism is spouted out, good guys battle racism, etc. There is nothing different about this film than from any others beyond the fact the good guys hilariously destroy a racist cafe owner's establishment. Trust me, that scene is gold.

My main critique is the end. Boy oh boy what the heck happened. It's clear they ran out of money, because even though it looked like our boys were going to get burnt and killed by the racist motorcycle gang, the movie just stops and basically tells us they won. How? Anyway, weird ending aside, it's a fun movie and worth checking out.

BUT for that very reason, i highly recommend it to anyone who is sick of quality. oh sure, film can attain the poetic. yeah yeah. but then a movie like this will be made, humbling all high-flown notions about the heights film can attain. all-around horrifically bad acting (note the "cracker" jogging for his life from flora's diner), crappy background music (someone wake up the trumpeter and tell him to read the sheet music, huh?), poor film stock (but alas, it looks like the DVD releasing company color-corrected the 70s pink out of it), corny framing (note the waving American flag as Bubba gives his heartfelt soliloquy on the steps of the trailer post office.) it's high camp for those starved for poor taste. like me.

i'm giving it a '1' because it deserves it and connoisseurs of the bad would do likewise. but we LOVE crap like this, so a '1' in our books means #1!!! even though it really is awful and you'd be a sucker to watch it. but a lucky sucker indeed.

After his younger brother is beaten to death "Eddie Daniels" (Robert Howard) decides to return to his hometown and find out who was responsible for it. With him are 5 friends who served in Vietnam with him. Although none of them want trouble they believe they can handle whatever comes. What they don't realize is just how bad things really are where they're headed. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this movie is a combination of a biker film and a blaxploitation picture rolled into one. It also had the distinction of casting quite a few NFL players in prominent supporting roles. Unfortunately, the script was weak and the acting was pretty basic as well which resulted in a pretty tame effort all things considered. In any case, the fact of the matter is that regardless of the effort to combine two notable sub-genres, the effort was a dismal failure as this wasn't a good movie by any measurement. Accordingly, I have to rate it as below average.

The Black 6 (1973)

** (out of 4)

Blaxploitation flick about a black kid who is killed by a white motorcycle gang after they catch him with a white woman. Soon after his brother Bubba (Gene Washington) shows up with his five friends to get to the bottom of the crime and soon realize that they're going to have to take down quite a few honky's. THE BLACK 6 isn't a classic movie in the same field as THE DEFIANT ONES but who in their right mind is going to come into this thing expecting greatness? If you're looking for an ultra-cheap, silly and poorly made film that at least keeps you entertained then this here offers that. Again, there's no question that the film doesn't offer up anything of real quality but if that's what you're expecting then it's best to just stay away to begin with. The film's big point to get people to watch it is that the six black guys are all played by NFL players with the two biggest names being Joe Greene and Mercury Morris who most people will know from being on ESPN each year whenever the last undefeated team finally loses a game and protects his Dolphins only perfect season. None of the six NFL players can act but this really doesn't take anything away from the picture. The other motorcycle gang really can't act either so I guess you could say that everyone is on a level playing field. I really thought the story here was pretty predictable and it's certainly nothing we haven't seen before yet it kept me interested in the characters and there's no doubt that the six bikers were fun to watch. There's a very funny sequence towards the start of the picture where the six black guys are taking care of an elderly white woman, which I'm sure was meant to show that they didn't hate white people, just the ones that harmed them. This is followed up by another funny scene where a racist couple refuses to serve them so they literally tear down the building. THE BLACK 6 isn't as bad as its reputation as long as you go into it not expecting it to be something it's not.