On C List of Movie Reviews
(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)
Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
11/21
11/21:
Having been theatrically released one year before Shaft and
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Cotton Comes to Harlem is among
the first pictures of the Blaxploitation genre and therefore represents it very well.
Unfortunately, time hasn't been kind to the film which was shot on location in Harlem. The trouble is that it decides to
be frivolous at inopportune times. Had they been cut out, the detective plot would've been on the same level as
Shaft.
Instead, it's a message picture of how black leaders take advantage of their own people in the name of black power which
is true to this day. Just look at the bullshit put up by the Black Lives Matter group. What Deke O'Malley talked about smacks of
the "Back to Africa" movement that was led by Marcus Garvey who had no infrastructure in place and he had never been there in his whole life.
There's no question that the dialogue is well-written, but it can be stagy at times. There's a good assortment of characters,
however foolish some of them may be. The acting is fine for the most part, but there are no standouts.
All in all, Cotton Comes to Harlem is both silly and dull to pass for entertainment.