Truck Turner (1974) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

Truck Turner is one of the better known blaxploitation films from the Seventies. Isaac Hayes wrote the music, as usual, but this time he also stepped in front of the cameras as well, playing the anti-hero, Mack "Truck" Turner.

Truck is a tough-ass skip tracer, one of those guys who tracks down the guys who skip bail. In the first act, Truck and his partner track down an abusive pimp named Gator. About 90% of the first half of the movie consists of the chase scenes, as they follow Gator on foot and in their car. In the process of the capture, the pimp is finally shot and killed.

So much for that half.

There is then a transitional scene which sets up the rest of the film. Hoo-boy, the pimp's woman (Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols) is really upset, and she's one tough "rhymes with witch", so she calls a meeting of all the pimps in Los Angeles, and promises them that the man who kills Truck Turner can have Gator's entire stable of hookers.

The second half of the movie basically consists of Truck defending himself against her contract, by shooting a long succession of anonymous guys wearing furs and very silly hats. (Example to the right).

The plot development in this movie is virtually non-existent. I just told you 100% of it. After the last Huggy Bear clone bites the dust, there is an abrupt edit and we see Truck just drivin' along in his car while some cool jazz plays in the background and the credits roll.

Of course, the intricacies of plotting have never been all that critical to this genre. When these Blaxpolitation movies work best, they feature a lot of funny trash talk, great music, and cool characters. I'd say this one was about average in all respects. Isaac and the main bad guy, played by Yaphet Kotto, were pretty cool, the music was OK but unmemorable. The trash talk was sometimes pretty funny, but there just wasn't enough of it.  Overall, it's an average genre film. I think it would have been a better film if they had cut back on the car chases and gunfights in order to make the characters less anonymous, and more colorful and memorable.