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 Cotton Comes to Harlem 1970, 97 minutes Directed by Ossie Davis written by Ossie Davis and Arnold Perl  Cotton Comes to Harlem begins with a charlatan preacher named Deke O'Malley who is proposing a capmaign called Go Back to Africa for the residents of Harlem selling certificates that claim to guarantee the holder to land in Africa. Deke is unquestioningly loved by his community so they eat it right up. Officers Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones are literally and figuratively not buying what he's selling. Suddenly during his demonstration a group of robbers come and steal the money from the sales of the certificates. Coffin and Jones pursue the perpetrators through the street who drop a bail of raw unprocessed cotton from the back of their truck. The robbers get away and the cotton goes ignored initially but later the pursuit begins and now everyone is out to find it.  Before Shaft, before Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song there was Cotton Comes to Harlem. This movie would become the template for blaxploitation films through the 70s. A lot of the conventions of thhe genre can be traced back to Cotton Comes to Harlem. The characters, the fashion, the lingo, the sense of humor, the plot beats. It's all here. While This movie is not as radical as Sweet Sweetback, which would arrive not long after, it is still radical for the time. The entire focus was on black protagonists and the almost entirely black cast. The white cops in this movie only begrudgingly accept Coffin Ed and Gravedigger Jones, their competence is frequently questioned despite them being the only competent police in the film. The white officers are universally portrayed as ineffectual, apathetic, or outright bumblers. And yet Jones and Johnson are made to prove themselves. What the movie is saying is not subtle and few films of up to the time were this confrontational in that way. There is one scene where the neighborhood is protesting the arrest of Deke O'Malley and a group of young white liberal men show up and shout over the voices of the black residents. The film's depiction of Harlem was very noteworthy too. It's neither demonizing nor glamorizing the place. It's just showing it to you which is something that hadn't really been done before. Many of the extras and bit players were people who actually lived in the neighborhoods where the film was shot. It's one of those movies where the place you're seeing feels alive as if the setting is a character in and of itself. It feels like a time capsule.  Movie of the Month list
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Apr 1, 2020 06:01
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Available for streaming on Archive.org
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Apr 2, 2020 14:01
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"Down South, we sweat and strained, we were the prisoners of Cotton, but when cotton comes to Harlem, we kick cotton's rear end!" That opening heist/chase scene was absolutely genius. It was like Buster Keaton slapstick humour, meets Airplane's rapid fire jokes, meets The Blues Brothers just anarchic paint on paint automotive gore.
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Apr 5, 2020 09:37
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Debbie Does Dagon posted:"Down South, we sweat and strained, we were the prisoners of Cotton, but when cotton comes to Harlem, we kick cotton's rear end!" The 70s were a sort of golden age of car chases. That's a pretty strong start for the movie too not just because the chase is cool but because it's like a fast paced tour of the setting.
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Apr 6, 2020 06:26
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Thank you for this. I am absolutely going to watch this in bed tonight
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Apr 10, 2020 02:00
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Watched it. I loved Coffin Ed; the man just has this disgust for everything except for getting the deacon. What exactly was Calhoun's plan at the theatre?
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Apr 16, 2020 13:48
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Krazyface posted:Watched it. I loved Coffin Ed; the man just has this disgust for everything except for getting the deacon. Do you mean why was he there or why did he pick the single worst disguise of all time? He was there for the money.
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Apr 16, 2020 21:27
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Debbie Does Dagon posted:"Down South, we sweat and strained, we were the prisoners of Cotton, but when cotton comes to Harlem, we kick cotton's rear end!" Just watched tonight and this summarizes my feelings on the film. There's something hilariously perverse about a stripper on a bale of cotton. One of the great closing shots.
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Apr 24, 2020 03:27
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Finally watched and the whole climax is just brilliant, having the white villain in blackface minstrel garb, a total subversion of White appropriation and exploitation of Black people and culture. I think it's hard for the film to top that opening chase sequence, but it remains charming and fun throughout with a fantastic cast.
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Apr 25, 2020 17:39
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Watched this the other night. I really like how it gives you a panoramic view of an entire community, instead of just following the usual steps of a police procedural; by the time it's done, you have a very full idea of how the neighborhood works and how all the players connect with each other, and that's a lot more charming than what I was expecting.
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Apr 26, 2020 16:26
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The Walrus will be busting out a rare double feature tonight of Moonlight followed by this, to hopefully act as a compensatory-pick-me-up. We'll see how it goes, this film's style is definitely my jam.
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Jun 3, 2020 00:39
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TheOmegaWalrus posted:The Walrus will be busting out a rare double feature tonight of Moonlight followed by this, to hopefully act as a compensatory-pick-me-up. Moonlight hollowed me out and made me feel real, human emotions again, but for some reason I was expecting a tragedy. I thought I'd need consolation. Instead I just slept on a perfectly made drama for no reason. This movie though, this movie was a fun little blast. The two detectives, while distinct, you get the feeling would have made for a better merged character than a duo. Still, for a half-century-old film the humor lands very well and the gags teased out a few mirthful chuckles from a tired and inebriated Walrus. Like the OP said, one of the strengths of this movie is that it's a little slice of NY history. The places and the people who lovingly made this film are on fine display here, it's a cultural experience that most movies shy away from, but this one embraces it's identity loud and proud. Whatever a "Chili Woman" was, food or whatever, I need one in my life right now.
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Jun 3, 2020 16:12
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