When it comes to blacksploitation films, I feel no list of ‘key’ titles is complete without a Rudy Ray Moore film in there somewhere, Whether its the power packed punches of ‘Dolemite’ and ‘The Human Tornado’, the surreal horror of ‘Petey Wheatstraw’ or the downright campy funkadelica of ‘Disco Godfather’ Rudy worked a wide breadth of styles across his movies while maintaining a consistent badassery.
Honestly I have only the highest of respects towards the guy, he was a somewhat quiet, but to the point gent who decided to put himself out there, creating a larger than life standup persoanlity called ‘Dolemite’ who was basically the broad opposite of Rudy in real life. small gigs led to larger gigs, larger gigs led to a comedy record deal, which led to multi album deals and in 1975, Rudy took Dolemite to the next level in his own power punching, lady loving, gun toting movie. and man…its a trip and a half to be sure.
The film opens with ‘Dolemite’ in jail serving 20 years after getting framed up by cops for trafficking illegal furs and half a million dollars of narcotics. we’re 2 years into his sentence when the jail owner summons Dolemite to his office. There, he’s reunited with his ‘eyes on the street’ and business partner ‘Queen Bee’ who’s been speaking to the warden and has managed to convince him that Dolemite WAS framed, and that the bad mother behind it is non other than the notorious ‘Willie Green’ the baddest gangster the streets have EVER seen…well, unless you count DOLEMITE.
It turns out, since Dolemites been away, things have gotten much MUCH worse. Willie has taken over Dolemites old club, he’s kicked Dolemites ladies onto the streets, and he’s pushing drugs and guns into schools harder and faster than ever before. The wardens offer is simple. If Dolemite can stop the pushers, and find evidence that ties it to Willie, he’ll be a free man.
So! Dolemite accepts, he’s let out of jail and the next hour and 15 minutes could AT BEST be described as a thrown together comedy action romp. Seriously, this things all over tha place. with Dolemite kung fu fighting gang members, doing extended comedy sets in clubs and making 50 shades of love to every fine woman with a pulse. ‘Dolemite’ is blacksploitation taken to its silliest and most extreme conclusions this side of ‘Black Dynamite’.
I have a real love/hate relationship with this movie. Its ‘highs’ are largely unrivalled, there are moments in ‘Dolemite’ that will leave your jaw on the floor and keep your eyes firmly locked to the screen. But the ‘Lows’ for me are many and frequent. Which is a real shame, because had it had just a *bit* more consistency, this could have easily become one of my favourite blacksploitation movies of all time.
I think the thing that trips it up, is also the thing that kind of saves it, and thats the thrown together nature of it all. It feels like a script was written, and then Rudy just kept adding bits to the film, whether it made sense or not, whether it ACTUALLY would fit into the movie or not. If Rudy wanted it in there, you better damn well believe it went in there. For better or worse.
It means you’ll have sequences like Dolemite getting out of prison, mouthing off to the guards at the gate while half a dozen of his ‘ladies’ come to greet him with fresh clothes, he strips off AT the gates into his civvies, only to get into a limo and taken them all off again so he can make love to 2-3 women in the back of the cab.
You’ll get sequences like him walking into his old club, while the new gang keep cussing him out (but not doing anything) while he casually rips a hole in the floor and pulls out huge rolls of money, but rather than mention it, or start fighting him, the rival gang just continue walking/talking at him until Dolemite decides he’s had enough and destroys 4-6 gang members in one fluid motion…Moore was 47/48 years OLD when this film was SHOT. he’s wearing a gurdle through most of this for gods sake.
And…all that stuffs magnificent, its the character manifest, and its funny, bizarre, original and entertaining in equal measures. Which makes it unfortunate that the thing that hits this film like a train hitting a cow at a crossroads…is Rudys ACTUAL live standup material.
Yes, the film periodically stops and cuts to Rudy doing a live show in the character of ‘Dolemite’ each one is just him doing a comedic monologue, usually scewed on black stereotypes. and they are SO so slow going, not helped by the fact the camera movements are all so stripped back, over basic, fixed or pivoting camera shots with next to no b-roll. and it hits this film HARD, it slows everything to a halt for 3-5 minutes and THEN the film has the uphill battle of trying to reignite itself when…it’s DOLEMITE. How the hell do you reignite the enjoyment of a film where Rudy takes out 3 gangsters while wearing a full arm sling, when the previous scene was a 5 minute unbroken not particularly funny monologue?! Well, somehow Rudy just about manages it…but its a strain.
The script itself is scattershot, as mentioned the pacings all over the place in the best and worst ways, but the tone is kind of messy too. I know its *trying* to be funny. But the issue is HOW funny is it trying to be. It gets pretty serious in places and touches on issues facing black people at the time and to this day. Indeed the film has several moments where it gets unusually serious, before snapping back into Dolemite making a someone dance by shooting a machine gun at their feet.
And the problem with that, is that it makes it hard for me to know when they’re playing on a stereotypical issue for fun…and when they’re ACTUALLY saying ‘this is a problem.’
Add to that that the act structuring is basically non existent, the first act establishes itself pretty well, but then we get to about 20 minutes in, and the film kind of locks itself into a loop of Dolemite dishing out the pain, right up to the last 20 minutes when they haphazardly throw together a resolution while CONTINUING to have Dolemite dish out the pain. Its an unusual approach that I dont know if it fully works for me. But I cant say I was particularly won over by it.
The characters are all one note parodies. Dolemite himself probably gets the lions share of emotional range and complexity, but its never elaborated on. They just have scenes where Dolemite will get angry, or sad, or horny…and once he’s done the ‘Sad’ scene or the ‘Horny’ scene, its just…done. Never revisited, not used for character building. One and done, on to the next one. and thats your lot. The supporting cast LITERALLY only exist to give dolemite exposition. which is hilarious in its own right…Its like when Homer Simpson tries to advise the makers of Itchy and Scatchy how they could improve his character (Poochie) by suggesting that when Poochie isnt around, everyone should be asking ‘Wheres Poochie?’. Only in this instance, its ‘Wheres Dolemite?’
The direction is a shambles, boom mics, crew members, Cast members who arnt even SUPPOSED to be in the scene, somehow make it onto the camera, the direciton of the cast is even poorer with people literally ALWAYS starting a scene by walking into a room. floor markers are in full effect and noone DARES move off them in case they ruin the shot, items jump around the room regularly, because noones keeping tabs on continuity…and DESPITE the inconsistencies, this film produces at least 2-5 of THE defining cinematic images of the Blacksploitation movement. Which…is BLOODY impressive.
The cine fares the same as the direciton, you have folks who’ve barely if ever made a movie, learning in real time how its done, its ‘Ed Wood’ level bad in terms of framing, compositional choices and the aforementioned continuity/bad directional choices. It hangs together loosely with little to no B-roll, but…and I cannot stress this enough, its FUN. Everyone seems to be confused, or HAVING fun. and that manic energy of a load of people making their first film and feeling that the worlds about to open up to them and their world is frankly palpable.
As for the casting…does it really matter? the two to watch out for are Rudy Ray and D’Urville Martin as Willie Green. Moore is a stone powerhouse frankly. The man cannot act. he has one emotion. ‘Still.’ and thats. it. he locks himself down to the spot, unless its pivotal to the scene, and delivers cold, stoney lines with all the aggression of a wasp in a turbine. He IS this movie. and everytime he’s on screen is a moment you wonder ‘Where the hell is this going?!’ with a GENUINE concern for the safety of people on set.
Martin by contrast plays over the top, nervous and aggressive wonderfully and acts a strong contrast to Moore. But given the film sets him up as Moores nemesis. He’s barely even in the film. Which I feel is a shame, as i’d have loved to have seen him grow more into the role.
And what powerhouse flick would be complete without one of THE funkiest scores around. And arguably of the best parts of this film! The scores perfect tonally for the production, and edited in place incredibly well. With the titular ‘Dolemite’ theme being a personal favourite.
‘Dolemite’ Was Rudys first proper foray into film making, and…its kind of obvious honestly, this is a fun, but VERY flawed production that, even after my 4th watch now, I STILL cant say I know exactly how I feel about it. on the one hand the unintentional comedy, Rudy himself and the surreal moments he put into this film make me really love it. But on the other hand, the chronic technical faults, the ‘Live standup’ segments and the total lumpiness of the script, tone and lack of depth to the cast really puts me off this one…
His next film ‘The Human Tornado’ irons out a LOT of issues I have with this film. But as it stands? I’d absolutely say its worth checking out. But your milage may vary by the time the credits roll, In either case, i’d stay stick with Rudy, because his best films are yet to come…
TYTD Reviews 