, AMERICAN POP, and numerous short cartoons and comics.
"STREET FIGHT" debuted in 1974. It was originally called "COONSKIN" but several race based and censorship organizations forced the name change. The major protest came from the offensive imagery of the animated characters which were said to mimic the blackface minstrel characters from the past. However, the storyline clearly conflicts with the imagery of the characters. The characters are proud individuals and revolutionary in mind and action. I believe the critics must've judged the book by its cover on this one. Corrupt cops receive justice, Mafia bosses get dealt with, drug sales plunder, American greed and subversive plots are discussed... The critics couldn't have watched this film. It was written and animated by Ralph Bakshi. The problem most likely was with him being JEWISH and not BLACK, although the majority of the actors, co-writers and film crew, were BLACK. He became famous for his movie called COOL WORLD, and to a lesser extent FRITZ the CAT (his first full-length feature film). His other works include: HEAVY TRAFFIC , AMERICAN POP, and numerous short cartoons and comics. Ralph's ability to combine real actors and settings with animated characters was pioneering! He was the first person to do this and pull it off successfully. STREET FIGHT starring BARRY WHITE , PHILLIP MICHAEL THOMAS, CHARLES GORDONE and SCATMAN CROTHERS was a story rooted in duality between the animated and so-called real world. The film tells the story of a three man crew: WHITE (the Enforcer), GORDONE (the Preacher) and THOMAS (the Leader/Hustler). THOMAS finds himself locked in a prison and comes up with a scheme for his crew to break him out. While inside he finds fellow inmate CROTHERS that also wants to breakout. While they wait for their escape party, CROTHERS begins to tell THOMAS about a story of a character called RABBIT. CROTHERS feels that THOMAS is just like RABBIT and this serves as the foundation for the animated portion of the film. WHITE'S character becomes BROTHER BEAR and GORDONE'S is PREACHER FOX. The cartoon crew is on the run from a small town where RABBIT killed the sheriff. They set out for the big city, HARLEM, NY. Once they arrive, the crew sets out to take over the rackets, and run the heroin-bad preachers-corrupt cops-and Italian Mafia out. A key to this movie is that the cartoon and real storyline mirror one another. They constantly flip back and forth. There's an interesting side plot called MISS AMERICA-an animated character representing the larger government structure that socially controls and commits covert genocidal tactics on BLACK, BROWN and DISENFRANCHISED people in America. Check out the film to see if THOMAS makes it out of jail, or if RABBIT is able to hold down HARLEM.
1 Comment
Jene
5/31/2013 03:02:49 pm
This film was challenging for me to understand until I had a friend explain it to me. Reading this blog totally makes me want to watch it again in order to catch things that I missed. I think that it would be a great discussion piece in a group setting.
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