Thomasine & Bushrod/Shaft

Thomasine & Bushrod (1974)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Gordon Parks, Jr.

Starring: Max Julien, Vonetta McGee, George Murdock, Glynn Turman, Juanita Moore

From: Columbia

Shaft (1971)

Runtime: 100 minutes

Directed by: Gordon Parks

Starring: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John, Gwenn Mitchell

From: MGM

Last night on TCM they showed some films from both Gordon Parks, Sr. and Gordon Parks Jr. I'll talk about one of each, the first being one of the 4 films that Jr. made before he sadly perished in an airplane crash (and it's a film I hadn't even heard of before) then I rewatched a classic film from pops; I hadn't seen Shaft in quite a long while so it was nice to check it out again. First, Thomasine & Bushrod, then Shaft.

While I do think it's cool that TCM plays a lot of movies from WAY back in the day (& I enjoy checking them out), it is also cool when they play something from the 70's or 80's. Last night they had the spotlight on some films from both Gordon Parks and Gordon Parks, Jr. This was one of them and I hadn't even heard of it before. It was one of the four movies that Jr. made before he sadly perished in an airplane crash.

It's an obscure blaxploitation western about a male and female duo (blaxploitation veterans Max Julien-who wrote this-and Vonetta McGee) who are like a Bonnie & Clyde in the Texas of the 1910's and with the aid of the newfangled inventions of the automobile and motorcycle they are able to rob banks and evade being captured by “the evil whitey” of this film, which is a Marshal played by George Murdock, likely best known as “God” in the much-beloved Star Trek V. Here, he looked quite a bit like a chubby Kelsey Grammer.

This is not a movie to watch for its action scenes; a good amount of that stuff is covered in wacky montages. Instead, it's more about the story and how the outlaws (at the time, a real life couple off the screen) interact with each other. It has to be said that the movie is intentionally anachronistic at times and the girl is the dominant force in the relationship. Both are interesting aspects in this genre. The heroes are also like Robin Hood in that they give a lot of their stolen loot to the poor people, no matter their creed or skin color.

Another interesting aspect is another blaxploitation vet-Glynn Turman-playing Jomo, a wacky Jamaican who is pretty much a Rastafarian. He provides some comic relief in what is usually a serious tale of outlaws who do wish to settle down but circumstances get in the way. While this isn't a great film I still thought it was fine and I wish it could be more widely available so people don't have to wait for an extremely rare TV showing to check it out.

Now, onto Shaft.

Of course I had seen this a few times before but the last time was a long while ago so I was happy when I saw that TCM would be showing this. Among the lists I have compiled is one for blaxploitation films; now that I have this film on there the list seems most complete, as this helped create a genre that ruled during the 70's.

This isn't a wild and over the top film like you typically saw in the genre. Like others have said it's just a low-key detective story where someone has to help find the kidnapped daughter of a gang leader and it turns out that the mob is involved and all-out chaos could break out due to the race implications.

It's just that this is a well-done movie all around from the interesting story, colorful characters, a quality score overall from Isaac Hayes and of course an awesome magnetic performance from Richard Roundtree as the title character, and it's focused on African-Americans and you get to see the dirty and sleazy parts of New York City and the blue-collar live of that huge city. As it was a huge hit you got all those imitators and there you got the craziness and zaniness.

Like I said it's a movie done well and along with the nice cinematography you have a legendary opening with the all time great opening title song and in just the first few minutes you get the perfect look at who John Shaft is and just how cool that bad mother... is, and it's strengthened by how he acts throughout. Also, what a fiery finale too.

I'll return Sunday night.