The Mack

Michael Campus' The Mack is considered one of the high points of the Blaxploitation genre. I haven't seen much of the genre, but I've seen enough to know the low points. The Mack isn't as exploitative as most of the others, and layers thoughtful social commentary into the story.

The protagonist is Goldie, a drug pusher who is busted by a couple of racist cops in the first scene and sentenced to five years in prison. He bides his time and is ultimately released. You get a sense that Goldie is at a loss with what to do with himself now that he's out. He decides to stay out of the drug business and get into the pimp game. Despite reaping the benefits of being a pimp, Goldie still seems conflicted about some of the things he must do to be successful. It's a slippery slope, though, and he winds up having to do some pretty bad things, and deal with the consequences that result.

There are many obstacles in his way: the two corrupt, racist cops that arrested him in the first place; a rival pimp; a crime lord trying to recruit him despite his refusals; and his own brother, an activist who doesn't approve of Goldie's lifestyle at all.

A lot of the acting was pretty impressive. Max Julien was quite good as Goldie. He was properly badass, but he plays his morally ambiguous actions with a subtle air of conflictedness, sometimes only visible in his eyes. He obviously is troubled about his trade, and tries to compensate by handing out money to neighborhood kids and telling them to not be like him. Richard Pryor plays his sidekick, basically as Richard Pryor. I assume there was a lot of ad-libbing going on. Roger Mosley is good as Goldie's brother, too. He gets to play the moral counterbalance to Goldie, and hopefully he sets the example that most viewers would walk out with.

A lot of the pimps in the movie were played by actual pimps. I thought that was interesting. Before I knew that, I was observing that some of the acting seemed very naturalistic, and didn't seem like acting at all. I wondered if there were non-actors in the cast. Turns out they were pimps. I guess it adds to the authenticity of the movie, but I hope they were at least former pimps. The movie tries not to glorify what they do for a living, but I think it crosses the line more than once. Goldie goes to the Players' Ball and wins the best pimp award. I still can't believe the Players' Ball is a real thing. Also, the real pimps get a special thank you in the end credits, maybe a little more appreciative than men who sell women deserve.

The Mack was pretty influential, too. I recognized elements that were referenced in the spoofs I'm Gonna Git You, Sucka! and Black Dynamite. I also saw reference points that Quentin Tarantino has used, specifically in Jackie Brown, the scene where Sam Jackson puts Chris Tucker in the trunk.

The movie mostly plays it gritty and real, and there's a lot of really good dialogue. There is one scene that seems oddly out of place. In it, Goldie talks about how you have to control the women. We then see how he does it: apparently, he brainwashes them by talking hypnotically into a microphone at a planetarium light show. They go through the whole thing, where he says how they should carry themselves, and they repeat it verbatim, as though in a trance. Pretty ridiculous, right?

You know what The Mack actually reminded me of at times? The Graduate. Bear with me. Goldie has a similar sense of aimlessness as Benjamin Braddock after his release from prison; he makes mistakes and ruins the lives of people he cares about (much worse than sleeping with your girlfriend's mom and then running off with your girlfriend at her marriage to another guy, though), and it also ends with a similarly ambiguous note. They should have called it Black Graduate, or better yet, The Bladuate.