Vintage Image of the Day: Truck Turner
Filed under: Action, Vintage Image of the Day
With the recent brouhaha over Isaac Hayes leaving South Park, maybe it's time to remember his earlier days, when he played live-action characters instead of the animated Chef. Think of early Isaac Hayes and you might think of the theme from Shaft. However, Hayes doesn't actually appear in the 1971 movie for which he composed the Oscar-winning song. His first onscreen role was in the movie Truck Turner, a 1974 blaxploitation picture in which he had the title role. Yes, "Truck Turner" is a name, not a description.
Blaxploitation.com has posted a number of screenshots from this American-International flick, if you want a better idea of the plot. The cast includes Nichelle Nichols, Yaphet Kotto, Scatman Crothers, and the ubiquitous Dick Miller. And it's available on DVD. Perhaps now would be an excellent time to host your own Hayes movie retrospective night, including not only Truck Turner but Three Tough Guys, Escape from New York, and most recently Hustle and Flow. I'd rather think of Hayes as a bad-ass musician than as part of all this Scientology vs. South Park silliness.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-22-2006 @ 9:57AM
Buil said...
This is a terribly grainy trailer but effortlessly captures the essence of the film along with some choice dialogue from Nichelle Nichols that has been bleeped in the most terrible fashion. Still, the trailer does make good use of the Isaac Hayes soundtrack as well as his presence in the film.
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3-22-2006 @ 9:59AM
Cosmo said...
Truck Turner is an ex-football star, built like a Mack truck. Fortunately his name IS Mac (though why they released it as BLACK BULLET in Australia is beyond me) which makes for a sensible nickname. There is practically nothing else remotely sensible thereon in, when Mac goes head-to-head with a bunch of no-good…well, macks (pimps).
It is a typically paradoxical blaxpolitation film. It serves as both a reminder why the genre were so enjoyable - brazen heroes and villains, loads of sexy chicks for each, a top soul soundtrack - and why it had to die eventually - the burden of uninspired cashing in, here there and everywhere.
BLACK BULLET is as b-grade as they come, and it's surprisingly nasty in places. With a similar cast and crew to the far-superior BLACK BELT JONES (a blaxploitation gem), you expect tongue in cheek, but by the time you've heard the world `bitch' a thousand times, it starts to lose its comic gleam.
But at the end of the day it's all in good fun. It's just a shame the modern gangstas didn't get the joke.
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