J.D.'s Revenge (1976)

Critics,are you kidding us

Best movie ever!

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Unlike a number of other 1970s blaxploiation movies, the story of "J.D.'s Revenge" is a more universal one at its core; with virtually no rewriting, the characters could have been played by actors of any color. The predominantly black cast does a very professional job, especially Lou Gossett and Glynn Turman. And director Arthur Marks does add a little style and atmosphere here and there. However, the screenplay does have some big flaws. I would have liked a better explanation as to how the spirit of J.D. is resurrected, for example. But the biggest problem with the screenplay is that it unfolds extremely slowly. It takes forever for J.D. to start his quest for revenge, and when he does, it unfolds even more slowly. Things might have been better had there been more people responsible for J.D.'s death years earlier, which would have given the filmmakers the opportunity to pile up the body count at a regular pace. Despite problems such as these, this is far from the worst blaxploitation movie made... but it's also some distance from the best the genre has to offer.

According to the people who made that documentary entitled "The 50 Worst Films Ever Made", this mixture between horror and blaxploitation is irredeemably awful and hopeless. Luckily their opinions don't mean a damn thing to me and decided to watch it anyway. What I saw was a reasonably cool blaxploitation variant on "The Exorcist" with a strong first half and a sadly disappointing climax. The opening sequences are terrific and take place in the New Orleans of 1942. Loud-mouthed thug JD Walker is wrongfully accused of murdering his pregnant sister and executed on the spot by the real culprit; a jealous local big shot. Thirty years later in present New Orleans, the young law student and part-time taxi driver Ike volunteers to be hypnotized in a sleazy nightclub and becomes possessed with the vengeful spirit of J.D. Ike first suffers from a series of visions, showing in episodes what overcome to the real J.D, and from there onwards he becomes an instrument for extracting vengeance. With a sharp razor ready to cut anyone who crosses his path, Ike goes after Elijah Bliss – the brother who knocked up J.D's sister but nowadays pretends to be a devoted preacher. Okay, so here we have an obscure blaxploitation outsider with a relatively original premise, nifty set-up and a couple of really strong sequences during the first half hour. So this is great stuff, right? Not exactly, no… In spite of a satisfying first half and overall very enthusiast acting performances from the ensemble cast, "J.D.'s Revenge" inexplicably turns into a boring and cowardly lame film. Cowardly, because it never fully dares to develop into a horror flick and merely remains a prototypic blaxploitation effort with magnified clichés, like overlong preaches and exaggerated gangster stereotypes. One too many scenes of misogynist violence, too.

I recently saw a documentary called "The Fifty Worst Movies" (a title and concept they ripped off from the book by the same title). Since I like to occasionally laugh at a bad film, I decided to get a copy of "J.D.'s Revenge". However, the movie wasn't nearly bad enough to be in the documentary (and this could be said of many of the selected films). Sure, it was bad (far worse than many of the IMDb reviews would indicate) but the basic concept of the film isn't really bad at all--it's just that the horrible acting by Glynn Turman as "J.D." and the writing combined for a very bad paranormal blaxploitation film.Turman plays a nice guy who is going to law school and driving a cab. His wife manages to convince the overly studious guy to take a night off and go on the town with some friends. While a participant in a stage hypnosis show, the spirit of J.D. somehow creeps into him and slowly begins to reveal itself. This really wasn't explained well and was a bit confusing as to the how and why. Regardless, this isn't a huge problem. The huge problem is that the character of J.D. is almost like a combination of Steppin' Fetchit and Scarface!! The guy that Turman becomes is a giant walking negative stereotype of a 40s Black man and it's not even close to being subtle or clever--just rather silly and often offensive. What's worse is that some of J.D.'s behaviors were just cruel and made the film, at times, tough to watch. All the nudity wasn't the problem (though there was a lot), but when he rapes his wife and treats women like garbage I cringed and felt it was perhaps pandering to some that might actually enjoy seeing this sort of violence. This is certainly NOT a film that would receive the Betty Friedan seal of approval!! Turman's stupid characterization (which I blame on him and the writers) is a real shame, as there really was a decent story idea underneath all this crap (which included repeated and unnecessary shots of cows being slaughtered among other things). A man wrongly killed who returns from the dead years later to set things right is an exciting idea and how all this was worked out in the end was far more clever than I would have expected given the overall tone of the movie. Lou Gossett's character and his on-screen brother really were interesting and complex--too bad J.D. was just an idiot! By the way, Turman playing a jive-talking 40s punk reminds me of Robert Townsend's film "Hollywood Shuffle" as the film laments that the only roles for Black men in films are pimps, drug dealers and the like (which was very true until recently).

In 1942 New Orleans gangster J.D. Walker (David McKnight) is shot to death by Elija Bliss (Lou Gossett). It is believed that he killed his wife (he didn't). Cut to 1976. Mild mannered young law student Ike (Glynn Turman) is possessed by the spirit of J.D. He immediately becomes cruel and vicious and treating his beautiful girl friend Christella (Joan Pringle) like dirt. Then he realizes his ex rival Elija is still alive as a preacher and J.D. sets out to get his revenge.I've wanted to see this since it came out in 1976. I was 14 then and a newspaper ad showed a drawing of a gravestone and a pretty young woman lying dead in front of it with a look of horror on her face (needless to say nothing like that appears in the film). But the film only played one week and quickly disappeared--but I've never forgotten that drawing. I'm glad I finally got the chance to see it. It's not a great film but it's an interesting psychological horror film more than a blood and guts one. There's only one bloody attack scene and a shot of a dead animal being cut open (which was repeated at least 8 times).This concentrates more on Ike being possessed and trying to fight back. It's a hard role but Turman pulls it off. The only part where he goes too far is at the end when J.D. takes complete control and Turman REALLY overdoes it. It's also kind of fun seeing Gossett (REALLY chewing the scenery) as a preacher. His speeches at church are energetic (to say the least) and a highlight. The only thing that bothers me here is the disgusting misogynistic attitude. There's a truly sick scene where Turman viciously tries to rape Pringle. The only other female roles are TWO cheating wives who eagerly jump into bed with other men and Bliss's daughter who seduces Ike (J.D.) almost immediately. Also Ike has a friend who talks about women like they should be beaten up and controlled. This attitude permeates the film and makes it a chore sometimes to watch. Still this is a somewhat interesting reincarnation movie. I give it a 7.