Truck Turner: Jonathan Kaplan

One of the major things that people tend to forget about blaxploitation films is how damned nihilistic they could be. People largely remember them for their style—Ron O'Neal cruising the streets of Harlem as Curtis Mayfield croons in the background—their humor—"Hey, where the hell are you going, Shaft?“ "To get laid, where the hell are you going?"—and even their kitsch. But most gloss over the fact that many blaxploitation films end with most of their cast getting killed, beaten, defeated, or destroyed by “the man.” Take Jonathan Kaplan’s Truck Turner (1974). An action thriller about a bounty hunter played by Isaac Hayes who gets a hit placed on him by a vengeful female pimp, the film is a gamut of killings, shoot-outs, and executions. Nobody escapes this film unharmed; even Hayes’ girlfriend’s cat gets killed and strung up as a warning. But what saves Truck Turner from being an exercise in emotional masochism is Hayes’ considerable charisma and humor. Truck Turner isn’t a man who makes jokes and cracks wise in defense against a brutal, racist world: he makes jokes and cracks wise in defiance of a brutal, racist world. And that makes all the difference.

7/10