The Mack

The Mack is not simply a 'blaxploitation' movie. You can take it seriously as a drama and it works very well. It depicts a time and place honestly, even as it is still making drama out of this world of pimps and hookers and cops and violence and money. It's crude, but it has a kind of inherent integrity that's hard to explain.

Max Julien may break out into a grin or smile once too much, but he can, and does, carry this movie really well. He makes this entire thing become alive in a way that he is likable and charismatic, and yet carries a level of authority. You don't doubt for a second that he can become this Mega-Pimp.

The scummy police men are played so slimy they transcend typical trash and become epically trash-tastic (the worst white cops maybe in any 70's movie?), and Richard Pryor as the not-really-comic sidekick helps a good deal too.

Great music, real dramatic conflict, and DAMN do some people get f****d up here! Most weird but enjoyable scene for me (and maybe the closest it gets to being so OUT-there exploitation-y) is when Goldie is giving his "orientation" bit to the hookers in the planetarium. I want to watch that on a loop.

Robert J. Poole deserves credit for writing clever and gritty lines. This movie was urban before people even referred to movies as urban. Pretty Tony: "You know the name of the game , your bitch chose me." Loved that exchange!!!!! The Mack showed that urban movies way back then had a broader appeal than thought by Hollywood. The whole subculture of pimping has been covered in books and movie. The Mack was far a head of it's time and place. I never understood why people would get offended over The Mack. Writer Robert J. Poole did not invent pimping. It's been there, Prostitution is the oldest profession. The Mack has intelligent writing.

Said be one of the seminal blaxploitation movies ever made I must say I will probably never become a fan of the genre. Goldie (Max Julien) has just left prison after serving 5 years in state penitentiary. On his return his is offered the opportunity to become a pimp. With hope to better his existence he agrees and quickly becomes one of the best in the business with 10 girls to his name. He improves not only his life but also that of his mother. All this success garners unwanted interest of the local drug distributors, rival pimps and corrupt cops wanting some greasing. On the other side of this is Goldie's older brother Olinga (Roger E. Mosley), who is a black activist trying to clean up the streets from drugs, prostitutes and crime.

The influence this movie had on hip hop and pimpdom is quite obvious. The costumes and the moves of artists such as Snoop Dogg are all The Mack. But in hindsight was this movie really deserving all its praise? Yes, it has some very interesting quirky scenes (especially those involving cops) and all in all remains a fun, if outdated watch. But watching it now I don't seem to be able to find the magic behind the movie. The storytelling is very disjointed and jumpy with a whole lot of sequences happening chaotically and with no purpose. The dramatic flow of the movie is severely lacking and as such I never felt pulled into the story, which left me watching it not too intently by the second hour.

Acting is definitely a big plus of the movie and everyone from the cast does a standout job. Some of the scenes are definitely worth note, but the movie as a whole stumbles and crawls all too often to really make you want to rewatch the flick.

All the quotes that youve heard in rap music regarding the pimping lifestyle is from this film. From Too $hort, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Nas, Raekwon, theyve all used snipets of this film.

This is defintely a great movie if you are a fan of the 70s films. Willie Hutch delivers a slammin score and the acting is phenomonal! Richard Pryor does his usual "free-style adlib" acting, while Max Julien plays the lead role. I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars.

'The Mack' is one of the very best blaxploitation movies of the 1970s, and one that has had an enormous influence on both hip hop culture and Quentin Tarantino. Max Julien gives a brilliant performance as Goldie an ex-con who decides that pimping is his best hope for survival and success. Julien had played one of the members of Jack Nicholson's psychedelic combo Mumblin' Jim in Richard Rush's 60s classic 'Psych-Out'. 'The Mack' should have put him up with Fred Williamson and Richard Roundtree as a major black star, but for some reason his career never took off, despite his obvious charisma and co-writing and co-producing the hugely successful 'Cleopatra Jones'. So much so that when Tarantino wanted him to audition for the part of Marcellus Wallace in 'Pulp Fiction' he was unable to even track him down. Too bad as Julien would have been a terrific Wallace and it might have kick started his career. Apart from Julien the movie features Richard Pryor as his crazed best friend Slim, Roger Mosley (who played Leadbelly in Gordon "Shaft" Parks little seen biopic) is Goldie's politically active younger brother Olinga, and Carol Speed ('Abby') plays Lulu, the prostitute who gets him started in the game. But my favourite supporting role is the one by Don Gordon who plays Hank, an evil corrupt cop. Gordon later went on to play another nasty piece of work in Dennis Hopper's 'Out Of The Blue'. He's just terrific in both movies and rarely gets the attention he deserves. 'The Mack' definitely makes my blaxploitation Top Five, along with (no order) 'Superfly', 'Shaft', 'Black Caesar' and 'Coffy'. (Sorry I don't count 'Across 110th Street' as blaxploitation, otherwise I'd list it).