Willie Dynamite (1974)

Very well executed

Absolutely brilliant

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

As all fans of exploitation cinema will know, there were many, many blaxploitation movies released during the 1970s after Melvin van Peebles left an incredibly impression on black audiences with Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song in 1971. While many are rather enjoyable in a comical way, few works of blaxploitation were actually any good. Tony Award-nominated Broadway director Gilbert Moses' Willie Dynamite is incredibly under-seen, but is one of the genre's most impressive works, shunning the usual hyper-stylised, lightly comic beats in favour of something more serious and dramatic, while also touching on themes such as black identity, racism and police corruption.New York pimp Willie Dynamite (Roscoe Orman) has built himself a mini-empire, training his girls to work like a production line to maximise profits and keep his many customers happy. While his clothes are utterly outlandish (there are some of most ridiculous outfits ever seen in the genre here), Willie ain't no lovable scamp like Super Fly (1972), but a real piece of s**t; he regularly threatens his girls with violence, underpays them, and fails to offer any help when they get themselves arrested. When he's late to turn up to court for his most recent arrival Pashen (Joyce Walker), prostitute-turned-social worker Cora (Diana Sands) takes a particular interest, and becomes intent on rescuing Willie's girls and ending his reign of terror.For a genre normally so rich in exploitative traits, Willie Dynamite contains no nudity and little violence, earning its adult rating instead for language and drug use. The lack of sex and action scenes leaves plenty of room for drama and character building, and Willie's journey to discovering his place in society and ultimately redeeming himself is all the more engrossing for it. Anyone familiar with Sesame Street will be left shocked at the sight of Orman wearing some of the most garish costumes ever committed to celluloid and trying to keep his bitches in check, and it's a very convincing performance. But it is in fact Diana Sands, who sadly died shortly after filming, who steals the film as the force of nature with a gentle side. Ripe for re- discovery, there's much more to Willie Dynamite than I would have ever expected. Now, bring me some scratch.

Not a very common blaxsploitation film released through Universal Pictures. This one had a decent budget and starred the one and only Gordon from Sesame Street (Roscoe Orman). It was a little odd watching him play a pimp but he did do an amazing job. I wonder if this role landed him the job as Gordon.This isn't really exploitative at all with no violence or nudity instead tells a story of a pimps hardships with the police always arresting his girls and shaking him down constantly. His competition works him over as well every chance they get. His biggest problem seems to be his mother who obviously disapproves of his life choice.A great film all the way through but the only thing missing was a funky soundtrack.

This was an entertaining story that made good use of its 1970s New York setting. Willie is trying to keep his position as the most profitable pimp in the city, but the heat are coming down hard. He has an enemy in a politically active social worker trying to liberate the women in his stable, and he has pressure from the other pimps to follow a group plan to out-maneuver the law. Willie doesn't want to deal with any of it; he just wants things to continue the way they have been. Eventually it starts to fall apart; the heat make trouble, costing him time and money, his women get pulled, disfigured, and killed, and his momma passes away after learning the truth about Willie's career. Willie then decides to rethink things, and the social worker turns supportive, offering him compassionate council, and with one conversation, he decides to turn his life around. For me, the weak parts were the chase sequences, as they tended to go on too long. It was also too abrupt when Willie reformed; it would have been a better story if they could have shown it to be a slow, gradual process. Something that stuck out was the sound design; you can hear every movement of fabric in this movie. If someone shifts in their seat, you hear their coat rubbing against the chair. The audio was like a high quality FM signal, and the main character's voice was especially resonant, so that was a plus. Bell was an entertaining protagonist, with the highlight being the first scene of the movie: the pimp council. This story remains fresh and interesting, despite the dated fashions. I think you could make pretty much the same movie today, and the message of unchecked ambition would be just as relevant.

This film is brought to you by the letter "P". Kids, let's think of some words that start with "P",...In probably the weirdest case of casting I can think of, Roscoe Orman plays the title character--who is a pimp! Years later, Orman would achieve some notoriety playing "Gordon" on SESAME STREET--now THAT'S interesting casting!! Seeing this 70s "super-pimp" all decked out in furs and pimp costume is very, very surreal--especially with the amazingly over-the-top style and language and crazy pimp-mobiles! Now, although Willie is on top of his game, his world begins to crumble when an ex-hooker turned social worker decides that enough is enough. She encourages the prostitutes to dump this jerk and either go into business for themselves or try something legitimate. Willie responds by threatening the lady. She decides to declare war on Willie and things look really, really bad for the pimp-meister.However, when things go worst for Willie, the movie takes a very, very strange twist with the social worker--one that rather blindsided me. While not at all believable, it was certainly an interesting twist.While this is a so-called "blaxploitation" film in many ways (especially due to the lead being a pimp), the film is much different than you'd expect. First, it's story is stronger than the genre--with some complexity. Second, the film isn't all "black and white" with cartoon-like characters and silly stereotypes. The cop who hates Willie the most is a Black cop who's a Muslim. Third, the film lacks the nudity and hard edge you'd normally see. And finally, the story doesn't seem either anti-White or glorify evil by the time it's finished--and as such, is a much more three dimensional film that's worth a look.Needless to say, this film that, at times, glamorizes pimps may seem like the ultimate misogynistic film, but stick with it. Rabid feminists probably should not watch this film or they'll suffer a stroke, but if they'd bear with it, by the end it does have a positive message and is not a "pro-pimp" film like THE MACK!!!