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First, let me say that this film is amazingly better than it has any right to be. I figured I was in for a low budget blaxploitation that would eventually disappoint.
I was somewhat right, but damn this movie is pretty good.
The film is about three black men who go to Vietnam and come back to find that their town hasn't changed much. The white folks still hate the blacks, and the town is still divided between the two races. But, things are starting to get worse. One day while in the woods, a black girl is raped by a white man, and pretty soon the KKK shows up and shoots a black man who's car is broke down on the side of the road. The three war vets take it upon themselves to take down the KKK in the town and to unite the black community to become stronger than their white suppressors.
Not only is the premise one of the best of the blaxploitation genre in my opinion, the film itself delivers. Most of these old grindhouse flicks usually boast their contents but rarely ever delivered on their promises. This one sets out to have black Vietnam vets taking out the KKK and it actually delivers on that, albeit in the last 15 minutes or so.
The most entertaining thing about the film is the scenes set in Vietnam. See, the guys decide to go there after p**sing off a prominent white man in the community one night at the gas station. It's pretty much:
"We should go to Vietnam."
"No, they'll send us to war."
"Yeah, well...lets go anyway."
Then the film cuts to numerous clips of stock Vietnam war footage that has been seen million of times before. Eventually, the film comes around to showing us the men's experience in "Vietnam". The film uses the woods behind someone's house as Vietnam and it's absolutely hilarious. The characters are talking about how it's not a normal war but a "jungle war" while being surrounded by the normal plants of any southern piece of woods.
While in "Vietnam", they team up with a reckless leader who trains them in the ways of the Vietcong and their various traps. He teaches them to move by night and to always be on the offense, never the defense. Obviously these are things that will come in to play later in the film.
The film doesn't have a lot of action until the last 15 minutes during a standoff between the main characters and a mob of white sheeted KKK. Despite it being such a short duration, you can tell where the film's meager budget went. There are explosions, numerous extremely bloody gunshots, etc. It seems they skimped on most of the earlier aspects of the film but really went all out in the end.
The most unsettling thing about the film is the use of a KKK sign welcoming people to the small town where the film takes place. Rumor is that the sign was completely real, and it's damn chilling to see it during the film. I live in the south and there is still a bit of racism alive here, but it seems to be the last dying strain of it. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who claimed to be KKK and if they did, then they're probably lying. It's so strange to see this film which was released before I was born, with such blatant racism and realizing how much of a reality it was in the south of the time.
Overall, this film is highly entertaining. The action, when it does come is great, and the acting here is much better than I had remotely expected. This is one to pick up on DVD. I have yet to watch the other film on the disc but with Jim Brown, Jim Kelly, Fred Williamson and Richard Roundtree in it, it looks like I'm in for more fun.
Oh, and I will find a copy of the Brotherhood Of Death poster for my home office.
This DVD has been on my want list for a little while now. Your review just reinforced that. It really does sound like a fun exploitation film from the period.