This review was originally published in Klon Waldrip's Ghastly Horror Society zine. I've republished it here in memoriam of Jonathan Kaplan.
Big Brother is
Comin’ and He’s Comin’ On Strong!
All American International Pictures wanted out of Truck
Turner was a kickass Isaac Hayes score and enough action footage to cut a
decent trailer. The script had been bouncing around for years and when it
failed to come together as hardboiled crime flick intended for Bob Mitchum or
Lee Marvin, the producers decided to make it a “black” movie and reached out to
Hayes. AIP’s hope was to replicate the double fisted success of Shaft
and deliver decent box office performance alongside a hit record. For his part,
Hayes was willing to ink the music deal provided he got to star in the movie
(after winning the original song Oscar for Shaft, he had no shortage of
offers). Jonathan Kaplan had been attached to direct since the Mitchum/Marvin
discussions and wasn’t sure what to make of the “Black Moses of Soul” but went
out to meet his new leading man. The two hit it off almost immediately due to
their shared love of Otis Redding, Kaplan’s passing resemblance to Stax Records
stalwart Donald “Duck” Dunn, and a mutual conviction that the film as written
wasn’t much fun. They agreed that to better suit both Hayes’ temperament and
their artistic convictions, they’d inject the straightforward crime story with
humor and heart while still delivering on the tunes and action enough to fill
five trailers.
When
He’s Baddest, He’s the Best!
Truck Turner’s set up changed very little from the
early drafts, but the plot did go through some evolution – Mac “Truck” Turner
was a former gridiron star turned .357 Magnum packing skip tracer in L.A. He
and his partner Jerry take a risky job to bring in a violent pimp by the name
of Gator. Gator is killed in the pursuit and his lover and stable madam,
Dorinda, offers a bounty of her stable of women to any pimp in L.A. who can
take Turner out. The details are heavy, but the delivery is light. Turner is introduced
as a slovenly, oversleeping cat-dad (Harry Callahan, he ain’t) and he and Jerry
(Alan Weeks) give each other shit over cars and women. When Turner indulges in
a fistfight with a racist blowhard they’re hauling in, Jerry rolls his eyes
like he’s seen this dozens of times before. Besides his friendship with Jerry,
Turner’s relationship with his thief girlfriend Annie (Annazette Chase) infuses
a lot of heart to the film. Hayes’ performance is solid, he’s essentially playing
himself on camera, but Chase is good enough to bring substantial emotional heft
to their scenes. Nichelle Nichols undeniably steals the whole damn show as
Dorinda. Tough, foul mouthed, and mean – apparently Nichelle adlibbed much of
Dorinda’s dialogue and she crams as many “bitches” and “motherfuckers” into
every scene as she can. Heartbreakingly for genre fans, this was a one-off
performance for Nichols who would immediately retire from the blaxploitation racket.
Fortunately, she left us with gems like “Gentlemen, this is my family. These
all prime cut bitches, $238,000 worth of dynamite. It's Fort Knox in panties.”
Rounding out the main cast is Yaphet Kotto as Harvard Blue, the hardest and
most pragmatic of the L.A. pimps. Kotto wasn’t particularly interested in Turner
but he was going through a divorce and needed the scratch. In a way, this works
for his character. While everyone else in the film seems to be having the time
of their lives; Harvard Blue brings a sober, “sick of your shit” attitude that
pairs beautifully with Kotto’s inherent gravitas. It’s not the most charming
Kotto’s been on screen, but he makes you believe that he’s bad.
When He Gets It
On, the Action Takes Off!
Kaplan was well aware of what his producers were looking for
in the dailies and his attitude towards action sequences was that if they were
completely over-the-top, he could maintain a more lighthearted tone. He
absolutely nails that in some sequences: during a high-speed car chase, a pimp
barrels through a baby cart filled with bagels for no discernable reason. The
“Pimp Funeral” is one of the more notorious sequences in the film: a procession
of candy colored “pimpmobiles” delivers a coterie of Gator’s associates decked
out in everything from mourning veils to rainbow wigs to jeweled eyepatches (the
look of the working girls was supposedly derived from the Pointer Sisters). Along
with his editor, Michael Kahn (Spielberg’s go-to guy for decades), Kaplan’s facility
for visual storytelling makes for stylish, propulsive, hard-hitting (they used
the punching sounds from Enter the Dragon) filmmaking even if visual
continuity gets tossed out the window on occasion. Because the crew had to work
fast and on-budget, they utilize a ton of fantastic location footage from
mid-70s L.A.: fistfights and chases erupt through Skid Row, dive bars, insane
mansions, and even a water treatment plant. Kaplan also cranks the violence up
to eleven showcasing some blood-drenched brutality. There’s a distinct shift in
tone for the final 30 minutes of the film resulting in some truly visceral
shootouts and carnage. Is it funny? I’m not so sure that it is, but it’s
cinematic as hell.
By 1974 the initial wave of blaxploitation pictures was losing steam. Both Shaft and Superfly were subjected to less heralded sequels and studios were beginning to combine elements of horror or martial arts to help invigorate the genre. Truck Turner distinguished itself from the pack with its comedic leanings and freewheeling style. It’s not the toughest blaxploitation flick, and it’s certainly not the meanest, but it’s arguably the most fun. See it now, see it again, and see it with an audience if you can.
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