Truck Turner (1974)

Truck Turner is a bounty hunter. As such, he deals with rough people, people like Gator. Gator is such a rough person that Truck and his partner Jerry have to kill him to bring him in. All in a day's work for Truck. Gator has a girlfriend, Dorinda the Pimp. Dorinda is a bit upset about Gator's death, so she hires some hitmen to take out Truck. Truck has little trouble taking them out, instead. Desperate, Dorinda turns to Harvard Blue, another acquaintance of Gator's. See, Gator once stole Harvard's #1 b***h, and Harvard never quite got over that. He wanted to kill Gator himself, and Truck deprived him of that, so Harvard is more than happy to take care of Truck for Dorinda. The hitmen Harvard Blue has on call are much scarier than anyone Dorinda could get a hold of, let me tell you. Seems like Truck is going to have a tough couple of days ahead. Harvard Blue's hitmen beat the s**t out of one of Truck's most reliable clients. Oh, well. Harvard Blue's hitmen kill the ever-loving hell out of Jerry. Hey, that's kind of mean. Harvard Blue's hitmen kill Truck's cat. Oh, it's on now, you mother-f**kERS!

It was at that exact moment that I fell in love with Truck Turner.

Sure, sure, it drags a little between scenes of Truck kicking people's asses, but I've put up with a lot more dragging to get to a lot less ass-kicking. This is the movie that every other blacksploitation action flick wishes it could be. Truck Turner may not have the depth of Superfly's story, it may not have the outstanding central performance of Black Caesar, it may not have the sheer goofiness of Black Samson, but by damn it's got ass-kicking and sheer badassery almost unmatched in the annals of cinema.

Isaac Hayes, as Truck, comes across as quite possibly the baddest motherf**ker to ever walk the Earth. Hell, this movie left me believing that he'd have made a credible on-screen adversary for Bruce Lee! I came out of this movie thinking that Escape From New York should have been about The Duke instead of Snake Plisskin. I'm not sure how Isaac Hayes didn't become an action superstar based on this movie. Yaphet Kotto, as Harvard Blue, is every bit the villainous match for Truck that he should be. He comes across as too intelligent to ever outsmart, too strong to ever outfight, and too greasy to ever pin down. Harvard is seriously one of the best villains I've ever seen in a crime film.

If you haven't seen this, stop whatever you're doing and watch it now!