Bullet Points: Original Gangstas
If I had to quickly describe the 1996 movie Original Gangstas to someone who had never heard of it, I would likely tell that person it is a Blaxploitation version of The Expendables… except they did it first. Original Gangstas brings together Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, Pam Grier, Ron O’Neal and Richard Roundtree… the who’s who of Blaxploitation cinema in the 1970’s.
- Do The Right Thing: When Kenny Thompson, a promising young basketball player, is gunned down drive by style outside of a mom-n-pop owned grocery store, the owner of the store finds himself in a world of trouble. The owner and an eyewitness to the crime, Marvin Bookman, does the right thing and reports the license plate of the car to the police investigating the murder. The gunman belonged to the neighborhood gang known as The Rebels (or Rebs for short). When word gets back to Spyro (Christopher B. Duncan) the leader of The Rebels, that Mr. Bookman was the snitch, he sends some of his boys over to Bookman’s grocery store to trash the place and take Mr. Bookman out. Fortunately for Mr. Bookman the young gang banger who was tasked at shooting the neighborhood grocer was a horrible shot, even at point blank range, and ended up shooting him in the shoulder and not the head. Mr. Bookman was hospitalized, but more importantly he survived.
- Return of the Mack: When word gets back to Marvin’s son John Bookman (Fred Williamson), he hops on a plane and returns home to his humble beginnings in Gary. Since leaving Gary, John Bookman has enjoyed a successful career in the world of professional football (that’s called art imitating life). In his younger years John was actually the leader of The Rebels, but back in the day The Rebels weren’t doing drive by shootings and extorting money from local business owners, they were a protection gang keeping the people of their neighborhood safe from outside gangs looking to cause trouble. After visiting his family at the hospital, John runs into an old friend from his days as a Rebel, Laurie Thompson (Pam Grier). Laurie was the mother of Kenny Thompson. They are soon joined by John’s old friend and Laurie’s former significant other, Jake Trevor (Jim Brown). Trevor was also the estranged father of Kenny Thompson and he is looking for some revenge.
- Boyz in the Hood: I would like to praise the work of Christopher B. Duncan in Original Gangstas. Duncan makes it extremely easy to dislike him which is a wonderful quality for any movie villain to possess. Duncan’s Spyro has let his power go to his head, he’s even stepping on the toes of his superiors in the underworld and he doesn’t care. The man ordered the hit on Kenny Thompson because Kenny hustled him out of $300 in a basketball game. That is the definition of overreaction. That short sighted decision is the catalyst for the old school Rebels vs. new school Rebels battle that is brewing.
- I’m Talkin’ About Shaft: After not seeing Original Gangstas in years, I had forgotten what little screen time Richard Roundtree’s character Slick and Ron O’Neal’s character Bubba got in the movie. I would have liked to see the former Shaft and Superfly more involved and I would have also liked to see more of all five of the Original Gangstas together. The total time the Original Gangstas are in full force battling the new school Rebs was probably 5 minutes.
Original Gangstas put a nostalgic twist on the inner city gang movies that were hot in the 1990’s. The movie addressed the problems of gang violence in cities and how the gang lifestyle was a dead end for the young people who got mixed up in the world, but it didn’t beat the audience over the head with it. After all, Original Gangstas is an action movie and it wasn’t designed to be a heavy drama like many of the gang related movies that preceded it.
Original Gangstas’ novelty and nostalgia are the key ingredients that make it an enjoyable movie and a movie I’m glad I revisited.
My trip down memory lane continues with these Bonus Bullet Points…
- Familiar Faces: Aside from the Blaxploitation All-Stars in Original Gangstas, there are several other actors who action fans will recognize… Robert Forster (The Delta Force) plays Detective Slatten, one of the cops investigating the death of Kenny Thompson… The mayor of Gary, Indiana is played by none other than Charles Napier of Rambo: First Blood Part II fame… Wings Hauser (Deadly Force) plays a member of the mayor’s staff… And Paul Winfield of The Terminator fame plays Reverend Dorsey, a man of the cloth who doesn’t mind a little gang money to help his various charitable projects and a man who is tasked by the mayor’s office has to try to mediate things between the rival factions.
- Movin’ On Up: Isabel Sanford (aka Weezy from The Jeffersons) played John Bookman’s mom, Gracie Bookman
- Nice Earring: Why does Reverend Dorsey wear an earring? His earrings were even more annoying than Sage Stallone’s in Rocky V and considering Dorsey is a grown ass man, he really had no excuse to be wearing a dangling cross earring. He knew better. His attempt to be hip did give me the feeling he’s the type of reverend that would sit on a chair backwards when chatting with the younger members of his congregation.
- What Does It Even Mean?: During a “summit meeting” between the new school and the old school, John Bookman shows a total lack of diplomacy when he calls the most annoying member of the Rebels gang, Kayo, a faggot and goes on to say that Kayo doesn’t even know what sex his mother is.
