Arthur Marks somehow knew how to do it: combining the tough and thoughtful police-thriller with a seeming exploitation (or blaxploitation) flick into something worthwhile. It may not be for some; matter of fact, from all I can tell looking at various reviews it's made little of an impression aside from negative. But I was drawn into this seedy, multi-racial tale of dirty criminals and (some) dirty cops and a dirty politician because of the simple strengths of the acting and (most of) the writing, not to mention an explosive climax and a nifty opening heist scene. It's even more than nifty; Marks somehow has the cojones to make a poignant moment in this scene, as well as a couple of other times in the film (i.e. Ruby dying in Jessie's arms), where the singer who's doing a number gets cut-off by the tape recording telling everyone to get down and fork over the cash and jewels... and she just goes on singing, and a song sung with a mournful voice.
The nuts and the bolts of the plot are that in Detroit, where according to officer/athlete Jessie Williams (Hari Rhodes) his new partner Danny Bassett (Alex Rocco) is in the minority in the black-dominant area, a heist has taken place during a fund-raiser for an up-and-coming politician (perfectly one-note Rudy Challenger), and there's already tension: is it an all-black gang, or all-white? Can there be a crack when those the cops find immediately shoot back and end up shot dead? It all leads down to a pimp and his girl, or so it's thought, and not everything is what it seems with tough/smart cop Bassett, yada yada. Describing a lot of the plot isn't necessary, as much of the interest in Detroit 9000 are in scenes of pure attitude, of this time and place in this city a microcosm of racial strife and unrest. If anything it's not even a blaxploitation movie, per say, but something of a black pride movie in a strange way. And there's at the least some equality: the gang is found to be multi-racial, including a dead) Indian from Canada!
There are ways this movie can get cheesy or stuck in its 1973 time-frame, and of course the clothes, the slang, and the soundtrack all speak to that. But I enjoyed how Hampton's screenplay struck a line between giving many of these characters, including supporting ones like Ruby Harris and Ferby some personality past their stock characters, or how the wit creeps up as really unexpected (the line Clayton's "assistant" gives to a prostitute is so classic QT lifted it for Jackie Brown). And Rhodes and Rocco, otherwise usually relegated to supporting and character-actor parts in other movies, get to show what their made of as cops on a dirty case that just gets dirtier. Lastly, without sacrificing some sophistication in the writing or a refreshingly bittersweet ending, Marks tops it all off with that big chase going six or seven ways across the railroad tracks and fields and cemeteries of *really* gritty parts of Detroit and put to a raucous, spot-on soundtrack.
In a word (and I can almost hear a James Lipton voice saying this as I type this): under-rated.
The nuts and the bolts of the plot are that in Detroit, where according to officer/athlete Jessie Williams (Hari Rhodes) his new partner Danny Bassett (Alex Rocco) is in the minority in the black-dominant area, a heist has taken place during a fund-raiser for an up-and-coming politician (perfectly one-note Rudy Challenger), and there's already tension: is it an all-black gang, or all-white? Can there be a crack when those the cops find immediately shoot back and end up shot dead? It all leads down to a pimp and his girl, or so it's thought, and not everything is what it seems with tough/smart cop Bassett, yada yada. Describing a lot of the plot isn't necessary, as much of the interest in Detroit 9000 are in scenes of pure attitude, of this time and place in this city a microcosm of racial strife and unrest. If anything it's not even a blaxploitation movie, per say, but something of a black pride movie in a strange way. And there's at the least some equality: the gang is found to be multi-racial, including a dead) Indian from Canada!
There are ways this movie can get cheesy or stuck in its 1973 time-frame, and of course the clothes, the slang, and the soundtrack all speak to that. But I enjoyed how Hampton's screenplay struck a line between giving many of these characters, including supporting ones like Ruby Harris and Ferby some personality past their stock characters, or how the wit creeps up as really unexpected (the line Clayton's "assistant" gives to a prostitute is so classic QT lifted it for Jackie Brown). And Rhodes and Rocco, otherwise usually relegated to supporting and character-actor parts in other movies, get to show what their made of as cops on a dirty case that just gets dirtier. Lastly, without sacrificing some sophistication in the writing or a refreshingly bittersweet ending, Marks tops it all off with that big chase going six or seven ways across the railroad tracks and fields and cemeteries of *really* gritty parts of Detroit and put to a raucous, spot-on soundtrack.
In a word (and I can almost hear a James Lipton voice saying this as I type this): under-rated.