Cotton!

We've been watching some African-American cinema lately - or you might call it blaxploitation. Cotton Comes to Harlem is either the first blaxploitation film, or ... not. Made in 1970, it preceded Shaft or Sweetback. It is very black-centric, with most of the white characters goofballs or villains (plus a comic jew or two). The protagonists, Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, are certainly bad-ass. The phrase on everybody's lips is "Black enough for you?", and the answer is "Not yet, but it will be."

But I feel that true blaxploitation requires a certain level of crude, rough film-making. Cotton looks quite polished for a first time director.

It's directed by the late Ossie Davis, who I only know as Jack from Bubba Ho-Tep. I loved him there, love him here. He also co-wrote the script, based on the Chester Himes classic, and some of the songs. Godfrey Cambridge plays Digger (their full names are never used in the movie) with a permanent smirk. Nothing fazes him - in a car chase he drives like he was cruising the parking lot for an empty space. Raymond St. Jacques is Coffin Ed, the guy with the temper, slapping the suspects and their girlfirends around. Honestly, he didn't really come across as a volcano of redhot rage. The movie's tone is too easygoing. Hence, it isn't blaxploitation.

It's more like Uptown Saturday Night - a black comedy, but not that kind.