Randy (Philip Michael Thomas) and Pappy (Scatman Crothers) have just
broken out of jail and are now waiting for Randy's accomplices Preacherman
(Charles Gordone) and Sampson (Barry White) to pick them up. To pass the
time, Pappy tells Randy a story about three black country bumpkins who
made it big in New York: smart Brother Rabbit (voiced by Philip Michael
Thomas), stoic strongman Brother Bear (voiced by Barry White) and wiley
Preacher Fox (voiced by Charles Gordone).
When the three of them first come to Harlem they are impressed by the
all-black community there ... but soon enough they see through the game
played in the city, realize the preacher promising the black revolution is
actually in cahoots with white gangsters, so they rob his collection money
to set up their syndicate, then they take care of the corrupt white cop
who is making his collections in Harlem by turning him black and getting
him shot by his own people ... and finally our threesome takes on the
Mafia itself which up to now controls the gangs in Harlem. To this end,
Fox and Bear actually turn traitors on Rabbit, who by now is the
Harlem bigshot - but only to lure the Mafia bigshot who controls Harlem
into a trap and ultimately perforate him with bulletholes ...
Paddy has finished his story, and Randy's friends come to pick them up
- but the guards have long noticed the two escapees and all our heroes die
in a massive shootout.
To judge Coonskin merely by its story would be dead wrong, in
fact the story isn't all that special, just your standard gangster-plot -
the real greatness of Coonskin is its merciless parody of black
clichés, but not parodying them in a way insulting to Afro-Americans (as
actually most of the clichés are parodies in the first place) but as a
slap in the face of those who made up the clichés in the first place and
those who take them for granted ... so maybe in a way, Coonskin is
actually a meta-blaxploitation movie that simply has to be seen to better
understand the genre - however, at the same time the film might also seem
to be a slap in the face of the politically correct crowd that
traditionally fails to understand provocative satire and all too rarely
goes beneath the surface of whatever movie at hand.
So you might have to watch it at your own risk.
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