La guerra di Gordon

OK, so this isn't one of the best movies ever made, but it is one of the better Blaxploitation films and is still not very well known.

A Vietnam vet returns home to Harlem, to find out his lady died from an overdose. This Heroin problem is not only a problem for him, but dope and pimps are taking over the whole neighborhood. He wants justice, not just for his woman but for his neighborhood and for his people.

He gets a group of his buddies from the Nam, and they form a a 4 man task force to push the dealers out of Harlem.

This movie is creative and fun, if you don't try to take it too seriously. Fans of the genre will recognize many of the actors in the movie.

This team not only tackles the dealers, the attack the infrastructure, and keep on fighting until they get all the way to the top until they get all the way to the top.

Paul Winfield presence is strong.

This is really more of an crime-action movie than a crime-drama. Car chases, fighting, comedy, and a few slick quotables in it as well.

If you like Blaxploitation flicks, you'll want to see this.

Those looking for classic blaxploitation will find it here: pimps and rug dealers in fancy furs, shooting galleries, naked chicks packaging heroin, black men and white women, and the mafia controlling it all from the shadows.

Paul Winfield had received an Oscar nomination for Sounder the same year as he made this film, and he was to make one of my personal favorites, Conrack, the next year, so this was probably the peak of his acting career.

He is a Vietnam vet who comes home to tragedy and vows to do something. He gathers some friends and starts a private war against the drug dealers. It was an interesting film with many familiar faces in the blaxploitation genre.

Despite the weak ending, it was a good example of a positive blaxploitation film.

I love this one alot I've seen it now about 12 times. Such a great perfomance by the main character .Good gritty Harlem NYC locations and situations.This film really hits home for me ,I grew up on some of those filthy streets .One mans noble mission to rid the neighborhood of this poison called drugs,is the focus of this film .Ozzie we love you ! I only wish this was true life . I would tell anyone to give this a try one evening ,but it seems to be such a rare piece...

This is by no means another cookie-cutter 70's Black crime drama: Paul W. and his band of Vietnam War Vets have come back to Harlem to try to eradicate the pimps and pushers who are sowing the seeds of devastation in their community. What is significant to me is the well orchestrated and articulated courses of action that they employ to achieve their goals. Gordon (Paul W.), the leader, demands discipline and dedication from his fellow Vet brothers to carry out the difficult tasks at hand and they in turn fulfill those demands by utilizing their own special skill sets in their own individual fashion. Note the technical skills used to set up command headquarters liaison and communication and also the street skills used in flushing out the dope den by "fakin' the funk" to simulate rat poison dope cutting.

The film moves along at a brisk pace, by not overindulging in extreme doses of gratuitous violence and wasted motion. The progression of events is shown in a logical and entertaining fashion, thanks to the directorial skills of Ossie Davis and by injecting "New Birth" cuts into the soundtrack.

Even though this is purportedly a Black film set in Harlem, you don't see any extreme cases of race badgering and "Honkey" this and that name calling. These brothers depicted here have returned to put out any and all hoodlums involved in the Harlem crime scene, whether it's Spanish Harry and his boys in the 'hood or the fat cat suppliers up the ladder in downtown Manhattan. To Gordon and his men, you mess around, you lay around! Even though this film is now 35 years old, the principles are still as applicable to today's problems as they were to the problems back in the day.

Gordon's War is an overlooked gem that needs to be seen by any fan of 70's Blackspoitation.