Gordon's War (1973)

How sad is this?

A Masterpiece!

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Gordon Hudson (Winfield) comes home to Harlem after serving in Vietnam. Once he gets there, he is angered, saddened, and shocked by what he sees. Drug pushers, pimps, prostitutes, junkies and other undesirables have turned Harlem into a wasteland. Drawing upon his combat training, he sees his mission as driving out the pushers and pimps, and he simply continues the war once home. In order to do this, he reaches out to his buddies Bee Bishop (Lee), Otis Russell (Downing), and Roy Green (King). They set up a command post in one of the many abandoned buildings in their area. They then proceed to clean up the streets in the most effective way: vengeance. You may be asking yourself how they know who to focus on, but with names like Big Pink (Heard), Spanish Harry (Lewis) and the dead giveaway Luther the Pimp (Gordon), their work is cut out for them. Will they rid the streets of the baddies and clean up their home? Or will they all lose GORDON'S WAR? Find out today! Excellently directed by Ossie Davis, Gordon's War is a winner. Davis adds a lot of nice little, subtle touches that keep the viewer highly entertained. You really do care about Gordon and his compatriots' plight. You want badly for them to succeed. The movie combines many of our favorite things that we're always looking out for: gritty NYC locations, a tough, no-nonsense approach, good character development, the setup of a command center, and the classic "assembling a team" scene, and of course, revenge, revenge, revenge. Among other noteworthy items, of course.This was before another one of our favorites, the "Cleaning Up the Community" montage really took hold - the whole film is Gordon and his friends cleaning up the community. Whether this movie is actually Blaxploitation remains in question - simply because it has Black characters automatically pigeonholes it as "Blaxploitation"? However, nostalgia fans will see a lot of their favorite things on screen: gigantic cars, fly threads and hip lingo. One of our favorite moments took place in a roller skating rink. No matter what subgenre of action movie may arise, it wouldn't be complete without the final abandoned warehouse shootout. A very cool chase caps things off nicely.Featuring the perfectly-chosen music of Barbara Mason and New Birth, Gordon's War delivers the goods.

Now in many ways, GORDON'S WAR and the comedy I'M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA are very, very dissimilar movies. However, if you think about the basic plot, the stories are practically the same. Both feature a soldier coming home to find out someone they love was killed by gangs of pushers. Both then consist of the leading men gathering a group of Vietnam vets to put the hurt on the dealers and eventually kill off "Mr. Big".Now GORDON'S WAR might easily be categorized as a "Blaxploitation Film", but in many ways it defies the genre. Whites aren't really even mentioned in this film and most of the warfare is directed against Black drug dealers, so the anti-White America rhetoric is missing. Plus, the film, while violent and idealizing vigilantism, has a much more positive message than many films of the genre. But of course, for those who love Blaxploitation, rest assured that this one still has a lot of amazing violence, lots of boobs and tough "take no crap from anyone" leading men.In this case, the lead is played by a man not associated with the genre, Paul Winfield. Winfield returns from 'Nam to discover that his wife got hooked on drugs and died. Instead of brooding about it, he vows to clean up the ghetto with the help of his army buddies.The film, while not especially deep, has a lot of action, a fantastic musical score (one of the best of the era) and is entertaining throughout. Well worth viewing.

Those looking for classic blaxploitation will find it here: pimps and rug dealers in fancy furs, shooting galleries, naked chicks packaging heroin, black men and white women, and the mafia controlling it all from the shadows.Paul Winfield had received an Oscar nomination for Sounder the same year as he made this film, and he was to make one of my personal favorites, Conrack, the next year, so this was probably the peak of his acting career.He is a Vietnam vet who comes home to tragedy and vows to do something. He gathers some friends and starts a private war against the drug dealers. It was an interesting film with many familiar faces in the blaxploitation genre.Despite the weak ending, it was a good example of a positive blaxploitation film.

OK, so this isn't one of the best movies ever made, but it is one of the better Blaxploitation films and is still not very well known.A Vietnam vet returns home to Harlem, to find out his lady died from an overdose. This Heroin problem is not only a problem for him, but dope and pimps are taking over the whole neighborhood. He wants justice, not just for his woman but for his neighborhood and for his people.He gets a group of his buddies from the Nam, and they form a a 4 man task force to push the dealers out of Harlem.This movie is creative and fun, if you don't try to take it too seriously. Fans of the genre will recognize many of the actors in the movie.This team not only tackles the dealers, the attack the infrastructure, and keep on fighting until they get all the way to the top until they get all the way to the top.Paul Winfield presence is strong.This is really more of an crime-action movie than a crime-drama. Car chases, fighting, comedy, and a few slick quotables in it as well.If you like Blaxploitation flicks, you'll want to see this.