THREE THE HARD WAY

Director Gordon Parks Jr. / 1973 / USA

Three cities: LA, Washington and Detroit. Cesspools of the 70s urban black. A pseudo-Nazi plan will cleanse these American citadels of the Negroid gene. Their water supplies will be injected with a serum that selectively kills all African Americans but leaves the Caucasian races unharmed. Three tight polyester pants. Three bulging crotches. Jim Brown, Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly drive Cadillacs and Rolls Royces. Kiss women real slow. Live it up on the town in soulzak tableaux of classic Afro-aspirations fostered in Ebony magazine. Engage in James Bond-style action sequences in car washes, marina bridges and hydro electrical power stations. Jim Brown talks too slow but wears the biggest lapels. He's a record producer - of The Impressions, no less, the band on the soundtrack. Fred Williamson smokes long cigars and cracks wise. Jim Kelly does serious kung fu in flared leather pants. In slo-mo! Three vessels of male hormones out of control. Watch out for the Kawasaki-riding halter-necked lesbian interrogation trio. The most perfect document of hysterical racial/sexual paranoia produced in the 70s. - Philip Brophy

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