The Klansman (1974) Reviews

• Nowhere near as bad as some people claim! Muddled, but still watchable.

  Infofreak2003-04-12

  I'd heard a lot ABOUT 'The Klansman' but had never seen it before, and hearing the behind the scenes stories (original director an co-writer Sam Fuller walking off set, stars Lee Marvin and Richard Burton both being allegedly so drunk they couldn't remember making it!) I imagined that it was going to be one of the worst movies ever made. It isn't. Now it isn't all that good, mind you, but it's watchable b-grade trash, and Marvin puts in a good performance, drunk or not. Burton's accent is I agree not too good but he is okay, especially if he like Marvin was as drunk as they say he was. The rest of the cast includes the notorious O.J. Simpson as a one man black revolutionary with a gun and an attitude, 'The Big Lebowski's David Huddleston is a racist mayor, and legendary character actor Cameron Mitchell ('Hombre', 'Ride In The Whirlwind', 'The Rebel Rousers',etc.) as the wonderfully named Butt Butt Cates, the later two both being members of the KKK. Linda Evans also appears as a rape victim who sets off a chain of events which end off in violence and tragedy. The main problem with the movie, and this is most likely because of the drama off camera, is that the movie can't decide whether it's trying to be a serious message movie or an exploitation film using racism as an excuse for some sensationalistic thrills. 'Mandingo' made the following year (and its sequel 'Drum') managed to juggle both approaches with a little more success, but 'The Klansman' suffers for its lack of a clear direction. Even so, this movie is nowhere near as bad as many people claim (people who I imagine have never actually WATCHED it) and is still reasonably entertaining, especially if , like 'Reservoir Dogs' Mr Blonde, you are a big Lee Marvin fan.

• Inferior production about racism with lots of violence, rape and unpleasant issues

  ma-cortes2009-08-13

  Hard-edge social drama centers around racial conflicts and is one of the most strange cinematic forays in this theme. The film begins with a bill captioning : ¨Drive carefully you are in Wallace County¨. This is the tale of a sheriff (Lee Marvin) in an US Southern town and a rich owner (Richard Burton) who protects the black men. Marvin receives a huge amount of hostility from the non-tolerant white establishment making his job very hard and every around has to decide the values really lie. The Ku Klux Klan (comes from Greek, Ku Klus that means band or circle and Klan that means family) pursues and mistreats the black people and the sheriff attempting to keep peace on racial tensions. When a young woman has been violently raped (Linda Evans), the white men immediately declare the culpability an African-American named Garth (O.J.Simson). He flees to the backwoods and wishes revenge. Meanwhile the Klansmen form some lynching party hunts and pursue him. The young on the run because the violent group seek to destroy him. But the racist posse kidnaps a beautiful African-American (Lola Falana) and rape her. This is a horrifying story of racial violence and xenophobia with countless shots of violation , burning crosses and frequent bad taste. Unfortunately, this is another example of a serious movie about xenophobia and racism in which white roles predominate and African-American characters provide background. Terence Young treads a brutal, gory path in this low-powered look at warped , evil white inhabitants of an American town , and the comparatively clean role played by Richard Burton. Big-name cast is wasted as Cameron Mitchell,Linda Evans, Luciana Paluzzi, David Huddleston as the Mayor, they only partially shine. Rumors circulated about Lee Marvin and Richard Burton , both of whom utterly drunk during the shooting. Even the all star cast can't save this movie because is a nightime Soaper and an exploitation story. Lousy cinematography by Lloyd Ahern and Aldo Tonti, as is necessary an urgent remastering. Furthermore notorious conflicts among producers, director, screenwriters (Sam Fuller, Millard Kauffman) and actors made a real flop. Mid-budget production, and the producers would like to thank the citizens of Oroville for their enthusiastic help and cooperation in the making of the film. The picture belongs a period in which made stories is similar style concerning on racial problems , such as ¨Hurry Sundown¨(1967, by Otto Preminger with Michael Caine, John Philip Law, Jane Fonda), ¨The liberation of L.B. Jones¨(70, by William Wyler with Lee J Cobb, Roscoe Lee Browne and again Lola Falana), ¨Tick, Tick¨ (70 by Ralph Nelson with George Kennedy, Jim Brown), and the Oscarized ¨In the heat of the night¨(by Norman Jewison with Sidney Poitier). And in the 8os stands out ¨Missisipi Burning¨ (by Alan Parker with Willem Defoe and Gene Hackman). Rating : 4,5, below average.

• Incredibly brave or incredibly reckless?

  barnabyrudge2003-01-05

  The Klansman could be one of two things. It is either a brave exploration of racial hatred and violence in the US Deep South. Or, it is a reckless film which is trying to generate entertainment by exploiting racial tension. I don't agree with the majority of critics who say that this film is violent and trashy rubbish.... in my eyes, it poses enough interesting questions and pushes the audience out of their comfort zone sufficiently to be a worthwhile film. I wouldn't say that it's a great, misunderstood masterpiece, but it is definitely a film that needs reappraisal. The story is set in Atoka County, Alabama, where race relations are balanced on a knife edge. The rape of a white woman by a negro triggers off a campaign of Ku Klux Klan violence, including the castration of a black youth, which in turn leads to retaliation by black extremists such as O.J. Simpson. Thrown into the struggles are Lee Marvin (the town sherriff who knows that racism is bad but tolerates it in order to cling to a degree of order) and Richard Burton (a landowner who sympathises with blacks, but is haunted by memories of what the Klan did to his grand father). The film contains at least one unwatchable rape scene and some tasteless dialogue. It also suffers because Burton is so clearly miscast as a southern sympathiser (his accent is dodgy and he seems disinterested in the story). However, it takes a highly chraged theme and deals with it interestingly and provocatively. The violence jolts you out of your chair and forces you to think about the two sides of the argument. The climax is memorable and leaves you feeling empty and sick, especially at the waste of life caused by the single-minded, lethal actions of racist extremists. A decent film, then, worth seeing for yourself. The critics got this one wrong. Give it a go.

• A Film So Bad I Almost Feel I Have To Justify Watching It

  Theo Robertson2013-08-14

  I remember watching ITV in 1981 and this film being trailed quite heavily to kickstart the station's Autumn season . In those days we only had three television stations and while THE KLANSMAN isn't blockbuster material on a par with GONE WITH THE WIND it did look quite exciting with Lee Marvin getting in to a battle with some nasty looking dudes wearing white bed sheets . For some unexplained reason it got pulled from the schedule just before broadcast never to be heard of again . Jumping forward to the internet era this film has something of a reputation of being rabidly racist and ill thought out and whatever message it is trying to send out is drowned in a explotitive sea of racist insults and violence . Not being put off by this I decided to seek it out to see if its notorious reputation is deserved . To be fair 1981 was another country where LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR was a fondly remembered situation comedy and we do live in more sensitive times . After seeing THE KLANSMAN I was slightly shocked as to why ITV bought the film or indeed how someone could make as recently as 1974 . This tells you how bad it is when viewed today in 2013 I'll defend it on the grounds it's not even intelligent enough to be classed as offensive because it's inept on every level of film making and is sometimes so bad I laughed out loud and gasped " WTF was that about " A white woman is raped and this raises racial tensions in a small Alabama town , the sort of small Alabama town that doesn't need any inciting incidents to cause racial tensions . Take this sensitive speech by the town mayor who looks like Jerry Falwell : " I'll tell ya we're not gonna have any trouble from outside agitators , not while I'm mayor . I spoke to the grand dragon in Birmingham and he say's the Klan is gonna do nothing so we ain't gonna be bombing no churches [ Loud disappointed moans ]I'm the damn exalted Cyclops and what I mean is this none of us want a bunch of agitators , whores , punks , scum , atheists , perverts all controlled by the communists coming in here bothering our n--ggers " so I guess an excess of racism is also tied in with an excess of solecism . By the way have I mentioned this town Mayor is relatively liberal and secular compared to most of the citizens of the county ? When the rape victim goes in to church she finds herself becoming part of the sermon as in " Get out , how can you push yourself on to good Christian folk when you have been in that n--ggers foul embraces ? " Remember this is a rape victim we're talking about whose husband has left her because of " working in the market cutting up pork chops in front of a lady who is dying to ask me what's it like having a wife who's been with a n--gger " . You do get the impression this might be a film along the lines of THE ETERNAL JEW on rednecks is directed by Malcolm X but don't worry because the main black character is played by OJ Simpson and he's as every bit as racist as the klansmen One can perhaps understand ITV bought the film on the strength that it starred Lee Marvin and Richard Burton and thought " Oh two big names must be good " only to find out the film's content . Regardless of the content this wouldn't be a good enough reason to buy it . Marvin is merely okay but Burton ? Oh dear his performance is an all time low . It's said that he spends so many scenes either sitting down or lying down because he'd drank so much his legs had stopped working . It's not difficult to believe this as he mumbles , slurs his words and his accent moves from a Welsh brogue to an idiosyncratic accent all of its own . When Marvin and Burton characters discuss having a drink you can't help thinking there's a meta-fictional scene happening I don't think I've ever seen a film like this before and I'm pretty firm that I won't be seeing anything like it again . It's incompetent on so many levels and yet it's one of those very , very few films that that almost lives up to the cliché as being so bad it's good . I say almost because there's nothing actually good about it but did manage to make me laugh while my jaw was on the ground and while it probably deserves 1/10 it is far funnier than BLAZING SADDLES even though that film was meant to be a comedy unlike this one

• I can't believe a TV cut exists (?)

  mlrobinson2004-09-16

  Mr. Mike's Couch Time Movie Review: I just watched a budget DVD version of this picture. All the curse words but not the "N" words were all edited out. This is easily the worst piece of film that Lee Marvin has ever been associated with. In fact, it's the worst piece of film HOKE HOWELL has ever been associated with! At least Howell can tell his grand-kids that Linda Evans played his wife in a movie....(Hello, get me casting....) The entire plot of the film is edited out of this version. Did they make a TV cut to capitalize on the mini-series Roots? Maybe that explains this. I can't believe that an airline movie print exists either of this monstrosity. Lots of familiar faces for stereotyped celluloid of the Old South: Cameron Mitchell, David Huddleston (if you guessed the corrupt Mayor give yourself 5 points!), Howell. But some of the oddest casting ever: Richard Burton co-stars with Marvin, as a left-leaning liberal, peace-loving friend to all races (at least all the women of all the races.) Early on, he's in the sack with Luciana, the local policewoman. There's an implied relationship (this is 1974) with Lola Falana. And after (unbelievably) trying to persuade a hippie clergyman to seduce the recently raped Linda Evans (?), Burton has to dirty his hands with this one too. I mention Falana. She's very good in this movie. As is (drumroll) OJ Simpson, Simpson plays (in this version) just a guy whose fed up with the Klan. Maybe in the complete version, it's Simpson who turns out to be the undercover FBI agent, since Marvin, the Sheriff, repeatedly catches Simpson only to let him go. Who knows? Who cares. The soundtrack is not to be missed either (insert sarcasm here) Memorable scenes: the Klan funeral interrupted by sniper fire, a high-speed herse chase, and 2 car explosions. Then there's the comedic (?) fight scene between Mitchell and Richard Burton and Richard Burton's stand-in. I just love bad film making. And this didn't disappoint. The Klansman gets 3 potatoes one for Richard Burton's stand-in, one for Richard Burton's on-again, off-again southern (?) accent, one for Richard Burton's on-again, off-again limp