Hit!

I have to say, that image of a tailored Billy Dee Williams holding a rocket launcher is a beautiful sight; but blaxploitation this is not.

"Hit!" plays like a straightforward drama and its star, much closer to Bronson or Eastwood, brings the intensity as a grieving father whose daughter just O.D.'d. the movie has its eye on commentary as Williams and his DIY strike team take the drug war to the kingpins at the top.

There are lighter moments - like the McDonald's product placement and Richard Pryor ad-libbing his end of the dialogue - and the pacing isn't perfect, but this is a pleasant surprise.

I knew I'd like this, but for different reasons altogether.

7/10

I wish the ended was a little different but hey, I'm not the director haha. Worth a watch. Richard Pryor did a great job as well.

"Hit" is an interesting revenge on Marseilles drug kingpins film, that one can't help comparing to "French Connection 2". I found "Hit" to be the better film. It does require some patience though to sit through the entirely too long buildup to the all to brief, violent conclusion. Of course the whole recruiting of the "magnificent seven assassins" is improbable, but Williams laconic charm holds things together. If perhaps 30 minutes wound up on the cutting room floor, the movie definitely would have benefited. While the payoff may not quite live up to expectations, there are moments of clever violence, and the cast is likable, especially Richard Pryor's character, and the pair of "senior citizen killers". - MERK

Starring Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor. With a title called Hit! This has all the hallmarks of a 1970s Blaxploitation movie but that is a deception.

Nick Allen (Billy Dee Williams) is a federal agent who goes rogue when his teenage daughter dies of a heroin overdose.

Realising that getting the pushers is not enough and the US government not interested in the big fish who live a life of luxury France.

Allen organises his own team in secret. People who have suffered loss because of drugs. He trains them and takes them to Marseilles and they are at first unaware that this is not an official government sanctioned mission.

This is a revenge thriller with a black lead. Dee Williams is suave and smooth, cunning and resourceful. He uses devious tricks to recruit his team. Pryor has a straight role as Mike Wilmer, a welder whose wife was killed.

The film was influenced by The French Connection but also has elements of The Dirty Dozen. The finale reminded me of The Godfather. This was released by Paramount Pictures and at one point, a victim of a hit is in the cinema watching the French version of The Godfather.

Sidney J Furie directs without much panache although there are a few good setpieces. It is at times illogical and overlong. The film could easily had been 30 minutes shorter.

John Alonzo lends some distinctive cinematography and gives the film some style. Hit! has become an obscure film but it does have a good performance from Pryor who apparently ad libbed some of his lines. It also is an important movie in 1970s black cinema because it was not a blaxploitation movie but a revenge movie with two black actors.

...and in fact, Hit! is an ambitious mixture of action and character study. At 134 minutes, one might suspect the director of overweening pride, but in fact there's little in the way of flab here. Billy Dee Williams proves that he should have been a major star and Richard Pryor is, as always, brilliant. Add a terrific supporting cast (Warren Kemmerling, Paul 'They Came From Within' Hampton, Sid Munson), a host of slimy French drug dealers, and a heaping dollop of revenge for a thoroughly satisfying blast of 70s-style crime dramatics.