{"id":9213,"date":"2024-11-30T01:29:54","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T06:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9213"},"modified":"2024-11-30T01:29:54","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T06:29:54","slug":"gordons-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/30\/gordons-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Gordon’s War"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Gordon’s War <\/strong>(1973)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th Century Fox\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 90 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, violence, nudity, sex, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ossie Davis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Howard Friedlander and Ed Spielman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Angelo Badalamenti (credited as \u201cAndy Badale\u201d) and Al Elias\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Victor J. Kemper\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 9, 1973 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Paul Winfield, Carl Lee, David Downing, Tony King, Gilbert Lewis, Carl Gordon, Nathan C. Heard, Grace Jones, Jackie Page, Charles Bergansky, Adam Wade, Hansford Rowe, Warren Taurien, Ralph Wilcox, David Connell.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $823,282 (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0As far as blaxploitation movies go, Gordon’s War<\/strong> is a pretty good one. Although you might not know it by name, you\u2019ll certainly recognize it as one of the primary influences on the 1988 blaxploitation spoof I\u2019m Gonna Git You Sucka. The hero, soldier Gordon Jackson (Winfield, The Terminator), returns home from Vietnam after his beloved wife dies from a heroin overdose. He quickly learns Harlem isn\u2019t the same as when he left. The streets have been taken over by criminals that flood the city with H, even getting young children hooked. He decides to do something about it. He gathers together a few Army buddies and wages war against the pushers and pimps destroying his city. See what I mean? Of course, you do.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Unlike other blaxploitation heroes, Gordon and his friends Bee (Lee, Super Fly), Otis (Downing, Up the Sandbox) and Roy (King, Hell Up in Harlem) have a carefully planned-out strategy that involves a little more than targeting and killing bad guys. Don\u2019t forget, they\u2019re trained military men operating in a war zone. They\u2019re armed to the teeth and determined to rid the streets of drugs and crime. Their plan basically comes down to forcing criminals out of business, stopping the flow of drugs into Harlem and taking down lead scumbag Spanish Harry (Lewis, Across 110th<\/sup> Street). Naturally, this bothers the white criminal organization that really runs the illegal enterprises in black neighborhoods. They want Gordon and his guys taken out.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by acclaimed actor Ossie Davis (Cotton Comes to Harlem), Gordon’s War<\/strong> tries to be more than a routine action picture by adding a layer of seriousness in showing urban squalor and addressing social issues (i.e. crime, prostitution and drugs) that typically plague poor black neighborhoods. It lets us see the damaging effects they have on good people who can\u2019t afford to live elsewhere. It drags a little in the middle section with scenes of both sides planning their next moves in the escalating war for control of the streets. However, there are some good, bloody action scenes with the fights and gun battles, topped off by a thrilling car vs. motorcycle chase through the streets. It\u2019s all played out to a groovy score by Angelo Badalamenti (credited as \u201cAndy Badale\u201d) and Al Elias.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The late Winfield was always one of my favorite actors. He consistently stood out in movies as varied as Sounder, Carbon Copy and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. He does a fine job as the angry, broken-hearted protagonist in Gordon’s War<\/strong>. He\u2019s a vigilante fighting for a good cause, the right cause. Well, somebody has to as there aren\u2019t any cops in sight. It could be they\u2019re afraid to set foot in Harlem, a lawless hellhole run by criminals who prey on the weak by getting them hooked on dope. ANYWAY, he helps make Gordon a plausible hero in that he\u2019s not indestructible or infallible. Shortly after beating the hell out of the creep he holds responsible for his wife\u2019s death, he gets his ass handed to him after being cornered by the creep\u2019s associates. He and his men make a few mistakes, but none as big as the bad guys thinking they can escape justice.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Please don\u2019t think Gordon’s War<\/strong> is completely serious. There\u2019s fun to be had watching Gordon\u2019s soldiers set the bad guys up for a big fall with tricks like tagging their cars with infrared spray paint. One pimp has his purple boots tagged with infrared shoe polish. Later, a hitman who tries to kill Gordon buys it Live and Let Die-style via a can of aerosol deodorant and a cigarette lighter. It\u2019s still cool. Needless to say, it makes for an occasionally uneven movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I first heard of Gordon’s War<\/strong> in \u201984 when it aired on one of the local UHF channels. I tried watching it, but couldn\u2019t get into it knowing it was edited for TV. I finally caught it uncut on cable in the late 90s. What can I say? It\u2019s a good flick. It has its flaws. Also, I couldn\u2019t help but consider the futility of the heroes\u2019 actions. In reality, they\u2019d have accomplished nothing as there\u2019s always another POS ready to fill the vacancy left by a dead or imprisoned dealer. Junkies will always find ways to obtain drugs. The very idea of a drug-free Harlem is pure fantasy. The makers of movies like Gordon’s War<\/strong> don\u2019t want you to consider such things though. Fine, I\u2019ll humor them since they actually made a pretty good action movie. At the very least, it\u2019ll hold the attention of genre fans.<\/p>\n

TRIVIA TIDBIT: Look for rocker Grace Jones in an early role as a drug courier intercepted by Gordon and his men.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gordon’s War (1973)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th Century Fox\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 90 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, violence, nudity, sex, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ossie Davis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Howard Friedlander and Ed Spielman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Angelo Badalamenti (credited as \u201cAndy Badale\u201d) and Al Elias\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Victor J. Kemper\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 9, 1973 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Paul Winfield, Carl Lee, David Downing, Tony King, Gilbert […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-b-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Gordons-War-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9213"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9537,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9213\/revisions\/9537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}