Willie Dynamite

After watching 100 or more blaxploitation movies in the last 10 years or so, my wife and I fell in love with this movie. You love blaxploitation for the cheesy acting, the characters, the cars, the ghetto heroes. But for this one, it's the costumes. Sure, it's got pimps, hos, bad cops, drugs and prostitution, even a ex-hooker with a heart of gold. With costume changes nearly every scene; leather, fur, satin and those hats!, this one should have taken an Oscar!

If we can find the DVD, this one goes in the permanent collection.

Mary and David

As all fans of exploitation cinema will know, there were many, many blaxploitation movies released during the 1970s after Melvin van Peebles left an incredibly impression on black audiences with Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song in 1971. While many are rather enjoyable in a comical way, few works of blaxploitation were actually any good. Tony Award-nominated Broadway director Gilbert Moses' Willie Dynamite is incredibly under-seen, but is one of the genre's most impressive works, shunning the usual hyper-stylised, lightly comic beats in favour of something more serious and dramatic, while also touching on themes such as black identity, racism and police corruption.

New York pimp Willie Dynamite (Roscoe Orman) has built himself a mini-empire, training his girls to work like a production line to maximise profits and keep his many customers happy. While his clothes are utterly outlandish (there are some of most ridiculous outfits ever seen in the genre here), Willie ain't no lovable scamp like Super Fly (1972), but a real piece of s**t; he regularly threatens his girls with violence, underpays them, and fails to offer any help when they get themselves arrested. When he's late to turn up to court for his most recent arrival Pashen (Joyce Walker), prostitute-turned-social worker Cora (Diana Sands) takes a particular interest, and becomes intent on rescuing Willie's girls and ending his reign of terror.

For a genre normally so rich in exploitative traits, Willie Dynamite contains no nudity and little violence, earning its adult rating instead for language and drug use. The lack of sex and action scenes leaves plenty of room for drama and character building, and Willie's journey to discovering his place in society and ultimately redeeming himself is all the more engrossing for it. Anyone familiar with Sesame Street will be left shocked at the sight of Orman wearing some of the most garish costumes ever committed to celluloid and trying to keep his bitches in check, and it's a very convincing performance. But it is in fact Diana Sands, who sadly died shortly after filming, who steals the film as the force of nature with a gentle side. Ripe for re- discovery, there's much more to Willie Dynamite than I would have ever expected. Now, bring me some scratch.

This Blaxploitation classic merits a viewing on at least two bases: one, you've got none other than Gordon of 'Sesame Street', a.k.a. actor Roscoe Orman, playing a pimp, and two, you have to love these COSTUMES! "Willie Dynamite" (Orman) is a capitalism-oriented flesh peddler with a wardrobe to die for. But he'll have a few thorns in his side: a pair of detectives (George Murdock, Albert Hall) out to righteously bust him, a mysterious enemy determined to screw him over, and a crusading social worker named Cora (Diana Sands), who acts as a patron saint to hookers.

Directed with style by Gilbert Moses, "Willie Dynamite" is generally engaging entertainment. Some viewers may be pleased to note that, although the rating is R, there's no excessive violence, and very little in the way of bare female skin. That doesn't mean, however, that it's not worth other peoples' time. It spins a decent yarn (screenplay by Ron Cutler, based on a story by Cutler and Joe Keyes Jr.) that unfolds at a respectable pace, gives us some agreeable action set pieces, and makes fine use of locations. There's a wonderful score provided by J.J. Johnson, and a rousing title theme song that gets you in the proper mood immediately.

Orman is great fun playing a charismatic antihero. The scenario lets you wait until the end to let you know whether or not Willie D. can be redeemed, leading to some poignant moments. Sands, sadly dying of cancer during this time, gives the best performance in the movie. Thalmus Rasulala is saddled with little to do as her attorney boyfriend. Similarly, there are other familiar faces here that are rather wasted. Judith Brown, Juanita Brown, Marcia McBroom, and Mary Charlotte Wilcox as some of Willie D.'s hookers mostly just take up space. The pretty Joyce Walker gets the lions' share of attention as novice ho Pashen. Roger Robinson, as an antagonistic pimp named Bell, is most amusing, but there may be viewers who will take offense to his stereotypical portrayal of a gay character.

"Willie Dynamite" is lively, funny, and sometimes touching. Blaxploitation completists will want to check it out, for sure.

Seven out of 10.

Not a very common blaxsploitation film released through Universal Pictures. This one had a decent budget and starred the one and only Gordon from Sesame Street (Roscoe Orman). It was a little odd watching him play a pimp but he did do an amazing job. I wonder if this role landed him the job as Gordon.

This isn't really exploitative at all with no violence or nudity instead tells a story of a pimps hardships with the police always arresting his girls and shaking him down constantly. His competition works him over as well every chance they get. His biggest problem seems to be his mother who obviously disapproves of his life choice.

A great film all the way through but the only thing missing was a funky soundtrack.

In the course of one week, poor Willie the pimp is getting the heat from rival pimps, from the cops (including the wonderful Albert Hall), and from a reformed prostitute who is trying to get Willie's ‘girls' to unionize (`You can call me the Ralph Nadar for prostitutes', she snaps in one of the film's funniest lines). He even gets the IRS on his ass, although that scene isn't terribly realistic since no pimp and/or drug dealer with even half a brain would put his earnings in a bank!. What else? His purple Caddy gets towed about twice a day, his girls get busted (or worse!) and ultimately, his poor mom strokes out. Pimping just doesn't pay! This film isn't like most of the other blaxploitation films. It downplays the guns and drugs angle, and the lead character is not so baaad that he's good – or vice versa. He's a nut, really. You can even see people in the background who were unaware they were in a film, pointing at him and laughing. You can almost feel sorry for him because he's more stupid than evil, and that's where the film wins the viewer over. The film breaks away from formula a number of times, and despite the OUTRAGEOUS costumes and decor (even the telephones are fur-lined!), we care about the people in this film. There are good cops and bad cops, and there is a nice balance of giving us women with brains and brawn, but who are still capable of a pretty nasty catfight when the need arises. Something for everyone! My only beef is that despite a pretty ‘bad' theme song, the score doesn't rock at all. In fact, there are even a number of scenes that are scored with folky harmonica music. How uncool is that? It's also a shame that this film wasn't nominated for Best Costume design, but we all know how unlikely it was that most of the Academy members ever even saw this film. Just isn't fair! Overall, I think this is one of the best films of the blaxploitation genre, and along with `Unholy Rollers' and `Switchblade Sisters', one of the best exploitation films of the seventies.