The Klansman (1974)
Dynamic DVD (region 0 Pal UK)
d. Terence Young; pr. William Alexander; scr. Millard Kaufman, Samuel Fuller; novel. William Bradford Huie; ph. Lloyd Ahren; m. Stu Gardner, Dale O. Warren; ed. Gene Milford; cast. Lee Marvin, Richard Burton, Cameron Mitchell, OJ Simpson, Lola Falana, David Huddleston, Linda Evans (112 mins)
The early 1970s saw a sudden boom in Afro-American exploitation cinema. These so-called blaxploitation films were racially charged, violent and usually urban set action movies with an often political polemic concerning white racist oppression and violent black retribution. For many, they sat uncomfortably in the post-Civil Rights era. Hollywood, surprised by the popularity of this genre, was torn over how to respond and if to integrate it into its own box-office rationales. Thus, there were several efforts seeking a social or historical pretext in which to set their explicit atrocities. These films thus straddled the line between exploitation and racial melodrama. Amongst them was the strange The Klansman, co-scripted by auteur Samuel Fuller and attracting such star names as Lee Marvin and Richard Burton. However, Fuller eventually backed away from directing the film and the task fell to British journeyman Terence Young, whose critical misfortunes showed no signs of alleviating. The location shoot was greeted with enthusiasm by local residents, happy that such big names and Hollywood enterprise had come their way, but this quickly became intense vitriolic displeasure when they were shown the final film. Indeed, such a reception would follow the film as it became one of the most detested and offensive of 1970s big studio releases and was accused of pandering to the very racist audiences it pretended to indict.
The Klansman takes place in a representative small town American South, run ostensibly by businessmen and politicos affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. A sheriff (Lee Marvin) is called on to act when a white woman (Linda Evans) is raped by a black man. Marvin interrupts an angry mob and arrests a suspect, taking him to jail. However, the mob cannot be so easily abated and so drive alongside two innocent black men. They catch one of them and kill him violently, an event witnessed by his friend (O.J. Simpson). Simpson is determined to exact revenge and subsequently begins to pick off the Klansmen one by one. Evans is ostracized and eventually taken in by the resident Southern aristocrat (Richard Burton), an idealistic drunk who has a friendship with a black female Civil Rights activist (Lola Falana). Burton is resented by almost everyone for his progressive views on race relations although he regularly chats with Marvin. When Simpson claims another victim, Klansmen led by the deputy sheriff (Cameron Mitchell) arrest Falana and rape her. Community pressures are coming to bear on Marvin and the peacekeeper convinces Falana to say that she was gang-raped by black men. However, Falana tells Burton the truth. When an effort to buy out Burton’s estate and get him to leave fails, the Klan in turn intend more violent means and so Marvin must explain to his friend the social realities of the South. read more