Blaxploitation Education: Slaughter

Jim Brown gets to play a badass sex machine.

Slaughter
Written by Mark Hanna and Don Williams
Directed by Jack Starrett
1972

Prior to the Blaxploitation era, it seems like Jim Brown was one of the biggest Black stars in Hollywood, possibly being second only to Sidney Poitier. He was famous enough as an NFL player that he was able to build a solid reputation as an action star, starting out as an ensemble player or co-star in movies like The Dirty Dozen or Dark of the Sun and then becoming a leading man. In fact, several of the movies he made in the late 60s and early 70s most likely could have been included in this series (and I may get to them at some point), including The Split, Riot, and Tick, Tick, Tick.

However, Slaughter seems like the moment when Jim Brown really became a Blaxploitation star. It takes its cues from movies like Shaft to give Brown the role of a badass, highly competent tough guy who doesn’t take any shit from Whitey and delivers violence and vengeance with a grimace and an occasional quip. He’s not quite as charismatic as Richard Roundtree, but he delivers the action where it counts, and it’s clear that he has the presence to pull off a character who swaggers into rooms full of antagonists without cowering in the slightest, always ready to pull out his trusty pistol and blow some motherfuckers away.

It’s possible that Brown stands so tall here because the rest of the movie is pretty thin, with barely enough of a plot to justify all the action. It was produced by Roger Corman’s American International Pictures, which was known for quick, cheap, independent productions, and it seems like they sketched out an outline for a plot and then just figured they would start filming and add some dialogue whenever necessary. Most of the actors give it their all, but aside from the title character, who is seeking revenge, damned if I could figure out what anyone else was there for.

The movie gets to the action quickly; after a neat animated title sequence featuring images within bullseyes and a theme song by Billy Preston, we see an elderly Black couple get into a car, which promptly blows up. Turns out these were the parents of Slaughter, who somebody mentions in passing was a captain in the military, but that’s pretty much all we learn about his backstory. He immediately sets out for revenge, figuring that since his dad had “mob connections,” it was a hit. He questions a white lady associate of theirs, who is hesitant to give him any information, since she wants to walk away from the life and thinks he should too. But when a guy suddenly pops up outside her window with a machine gun and fills her with bullets, she gives Slaughter the name of the guy he wants, who is about to leave the country that night on a plane.

So Slaughter shows up at the airport just in time to gun down one guy and chase down the plane in a car, preventing it from taking off by smashing into it and causing it to explode. Except, whoops, the guy he was looking for got away, and it turns out Slaughter ruined a sting operation by Treasury Department officials who were trying to catch these guys, and wouldn’t you know it, all the evidence got burned up. The head of the operation (Cameron Mitchell, who would star in lots and lots of B movies), gives Slaughter a chance to make up for it by heading down to where the mafia is operating in Mexico and…killing everybody, I guess?

The actual plot once Slaughter gets to Mexico has something to do with computers and punch cards, with the mob gathering data for some purpose that isn’t explained very well. It’s probably an example of trying to base a plot around technology that was in the news at the time but that nobody understood, like movies in the 90s used to do with the internet. Whatever the deal is, the guy who killed Slaughter’s parents, Dominic (Rip Torn, looking unrecognizably young but still pretty sleazy and disheveled) is there working for a local boss named Mario (Norman Alfe, who seems less like a mafia don and more like an East Coast car salesman who isn’t too happy about all this crime he has to do).

Upon arrival, Slaughter teams up with a local contact, Harry (Don Gordon), and he’s also aided by Kim (Marlene Clark, who’s going to show up in at least a few more movies in this series), who acted like sort of a stalker in earlier scenes, trying to get close to him by posing as a reporter for a Black magazine and then sneaking into his apartment and hiding in the bathroom, apparently hoping to seduce him or something (he discovers her after emptying a gun into the bathroom door, and then he throws her out into the hallway naked). Harry serves as Slaughter’s sidekick, getting a bunch of lines that are supposed to be funny but don’t quite make it there, and Kim is just sort of along for the ride, occasionally complaining about Slaughter’s unorthodox methods.

Those methods are definitely unconventional; when Slaughter finds out that Mario runs a casino that’s only open to high-class invitees, he dresses in a tuxedo and crashes the scene, forcing his way in by pulling a gun on the doorman. Surprisingly, Mario just lets him hang out and gamble for a while, giving him a chance to scope out Dominic and his girlfriend Ann (Stella Stevens). He also lets the mafia guys know where he’s staying, apparently hoping they’ll take the bait and try to kill him.

Instead, Mario sends Ann, apparently hoping to lure Slaughter in with the promise of some white booty. And he gets it, almost instantly ending up in bed with her, while also fending off some attackers who try to ambush him. Ann falls head over heels for Slaughter, but she’s worried, since she knows Dominic isn’t going to be happy about their relationship (he already uttered a few racial slurs at the sight of Slaughter at the casino). In fact, she tells Slaughter that she was given as a gift to Dominic, which prompts him to promise, “I’ll set you free, baby.”

There are a few more plot machinations, mostly involving guys trying to kill Slaughter and Dominic making a play to take over Mario’s data-gathering business, and it all leads up to a big shootout between Slaughter, Harry, and a bunch of mafia thugs, as well as a car chase where Slaughter gets to pursue Dominic through a Mexican village and finish him off in a cool, completely unruffled fashion. It’s all pretty ridiculous, with only the barest sense of connective tissue between action scenes. Fortunately, those are all pretty exciting, with Brown blowing lots of guys away and giving plenty of stuntmen the chance to throw themselves off rooftops to make their deaths more dramatic.

With so little to this movie, one could be forgiven for feeling like it’s not really worth bothering with. However, it’s a good chance to see how well Jim Brown could stand alongside other Blaxploitation stars. He’s got a great presence, displaying confidence and assurance whether he’s sitting by a pool or a gambling table and never backing down or being intimidated by anybody. He shows just enough vulnerability during the action to seem human, but he’s still a guy who can take on an army of goons and wipe them all out with the arsenal he packed in his suitcase. He’s as smooth and cool as they come, and hopefully as this series goes on, I’ll find a movie that lived up to his talents.

Rip Torn’s villain is also notable in that he’s an example of a completely despicable racist who you’re only too happy to see die ingloriously. He regularly refers to Slaughter using the N-word and other slurs, and he commits several other nefarious acts, such as forcing one of his minions to kill another guy who didn’t want to go along with his schemes against Mario. He also looks ridiculous and emasculated when Ann chooses Slaughter over him, leading him to beat her up in an especially hissable scene. And through all of it, he just looks ugly and gross, with long, unkempt hair, nasty teeth, and a sneer that makes you want to smack him in the face. He’s a great example of the racist white villains that would show up in so many Blaxploitation movies and look pathetic next to the virile, tough, and oh-so-cool heroes.

This was a fun one to watch, partly due to the dumb, nonsensical plot, but mostly to see Jim Brown leveling up to become a big-time hero who can carry a movie like this on his well-toned shoulders. I can definitely settle for that, even if I’m rolling my eyes at everything else.

Blaxploitation Education index:

UpTight
Cotton Comes to Harlem
Watermelon Man
The Big Doll House
Shaft
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song
Super Fly
Buck and the Preacher
Blacula
Cool Breeze
Melinda