Slaughter (film)

Slaughter
Film poster
Directed by	Jack Starrett
Produced by	Monroe Sachson
Written by	Mark Hanna Don Williams
Starring	Jim Brown Stella Stevens Rip Torn
Music by	Luchi de Jesus
Cinematography	Rosalio Solano
Editing by	Clarence C. Reynolds Renn Reynolds
Distributed by	American International Pictures
Release date(s)	1972 (1972)
Running time	91 min.
Country	United States

Slaughter is a 1972 Blaxploitation film which was released during the early 1970s Blaxploitation film era. It was directed by Jack Starrett and it stars Jim Brown as an African American Vietnam Veteran and former Green Beret captain who is referred to only by his last name Slaughter. He seeks revenge for the murder of his parents by the mafia, which his father had ties to. This film was followed by a sequel the following year, Slaughter's Big Rip-Off (1973).

Plot summary

The plot centralizes around ex-Vietnam veteran and ex-Green Beret Captain, Slaughter (Jim Brown). The film begins with a nicely-dressed African American couple walking down a city street. The couple climbs into their parked Ford Galaxy vehicle. They sit in their car and after turning the ignition on, the car explodes and in effect kills both the man and woman. In the latter parts of the film the viewer soon discovers that the man and woman were the parents of Slaughter. Slaughter becomes obsessed with avenging the murdering of his loved ones. He learns that it was a Mafia Bomb Blast (i.e. Cleveland Mob) and he is on a mission to find the man responsible for this bomb blast. He tracks the presumed killers to an air field and as they try to escape he rams their private plane with his vehicle. Amidst the rubble and their now exploded plane Slaughter shoots at the mobsters as they attempt to flee. Of the three criminals that flee he shoots and kills one, wounds another man, and the third man escapes. Upon the arrival of the police they arrest Slaughter and attempt to apprehend him. The police were prepared to charge him with first degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon. However, after negotiating with U.S. Federal Agent, A.W. Price, Slaughter agrees to hunt down and kill the final escaped criminal on behalf of the government of the United States of America. In return, the Federal Government will get any/all of the charges against him dropped. Easily coerced into this position Slaughter agrees to partake in his vigilante justice. He is portrayed somewhat as a Hero to end the injustices caused by the Mob. To complete his part of the bargain, Slaughter must travel to an unspecific location in Mexico to hunt and kill the final man that escaped.

After arriving to Mexico he meets up with the American Law enforcement officials. They had a safe house in South America from which they were monitoring the business of local crime bosses. The main criminals were crime mob bosses Mario Felice and Dominic Hoff, who have seemed to have worked up to their positions within the Mob. Even though Slaughter acted as a one man army throughout the majority of the movie he was, at times, assisted by Harry. Harry was portrayed as a “rather socially awkward and romantically unsuccessful man”. Harry quickly takes a liking to Slaughters rough, stern, and confrontational ‘no shenanigans’ attitude. Slaughter was a man who was on a mission and Harry not only understood that but also respected it and quickly acted as his sidekick. Together the two created an alliance to confront Dominic Hoff and Mario Felice. However, the crime bosses had internal conflict struggles of their own. “You’re beautiful Mario, but you are slow. I run this operation and you know it.” (Slaughter,1972) Hoff attempts to take over Mario Felice. In addition, Slaughter is after them as well which leads to many ensuing gun battles, fights and car chases. There were many times in which Slaughter found himself in high speed pursuits and fights. At one point Ann- played by beautiful *Stella Stevens- was Hoff’s mistress and was sent out to seduce the mighty unstoppable Slaughter. Her efforts to seduce him served to no avail. Hoff only gets enraged with anger and jealousy and begins to beat Ann out of hate and distaste. He is ludicrous. In essence, the viewer begins to see the internal break down of the mob bosses. Not even a sexy seductress could impede Slaughter. Hoff’s jealousy of Ann’s supposed love for Slaughter accelerates the plot. Slaughter intuitively determined that Hoff was responsible for the Mafia Blast on his parents. Which proved true as Hoff was the older of the two mob bosses and claimed that he himself was the one that called the shots. Slaughter was a furious bull and went on a high speed pursuit to capture and kill Hoff. They were driving recklessly along the dirt roads in Mexico and Slaughter ran Hoff off the road and overturns his car after it rolls off the ravine. Slaughter kills Hoff in his overturned car and incinerates him alive. It was very vicious and justice had been served in a rather unjust way. Nonetheless Slaughter avenged the death of his parents and had the charges dropped.

Cast

• Jim Brown as Slaughter
• Stella Stevens as Ann
• Rip Torn as Dominic Hoff
• Cameron Mitchell as A.W. Price
• Dan Gordon as Harry
• Marlene Clark as Kim
• Robert Phillips as Frank
• Marion Brash as Jenny
• Norman Alre as Mario Felice
• Eddie Lo Russo as Little Al
• Buddie Gordon as Eddie
• Lance Winston as Intern
• Juan Jose Laboriel as Uncle
• Francisca Lopez de Laboriel as Aunt

Filming

Slaughter was generally a low-budget production film, which was typical of most blaxploitation films during this era. It was directed by Jack Starrett. Writers include Don Williams and Mark Hanna. Produced by Monroe Sachson. The filming of the movie was in Mexico City, Districto Federal Mexico under the American International Pictures production company. Its release date in the United States of America was August 16, 1972 in New York City, New York (www.Hollywood.com). “ In a May 2, 1972 interview with Hollywood Reporter, producer Monroe Sachson noted that the film's locale had to be changed from Mexico to a non-specified country at the request of the Mexican censorship board, even though the film had been partially financed by Estudios Churubusco. Sachson complained that the censorship board was 'totally against any reference to their country if it shows it in any bad light.' The article reported that Churubusco provided one third of the film's $850,000 budget, the rest of which came from Sachson's production company, JayJen II, AIP and Slaughter 1 Limited Partnership.”

Critics Review

“Slaughter is a decent mix of sex and violence, with particularly well-done action scenes. It also has just the right amount of comedy. Highlighted by a funky music score and Billy Preston's downright awesome theme song, Slaughter delivers solid blaxploitation goods.” “This release is a bucket of dumb fun that benefits hugely from Brown’s screen presence and by Starrett’s energetic direction.” Review made in May 2006

“Slaughter features dated set-ups, stiff acting and horrifying dialogue. But it does have Jim Brown, who is on bada**. Brown has a lot of charisma and he is always interesting to watch. This is a guy who in the movie portrays the proper stare, walk, and sexual bravura for his role. In addition to the fact that this is a non-stop action flick , it Slaughter will please even the hardest fan of the exploitation films.”.

“Featuring a dynamic theme song by Billy Preston, Slaughter was a major box-office hit in 1972 and one of the most popular films of Jim Brown's screen career; it spawned a sequel, Slaughter's Big Rip-Off, which appeared in 1973.” .

“Just about every tough black actor was given the opportunity to create his own blaxploitation hero in the early 70s. Ron O'Neal had Superfly, Richard Roundtree had Shaft, Fred Williamson had Hammer and Jim Brown had Slaughter. Although the football player turned thespian had a handful of film roles going back to the mid-60s, Slaughter represents his first real starring vehicle. While not critical favorites by any means, Slaughter and its sequel Slaughter’s Big Rip-off are action-jammed fun in the typical AIP (American International Pictures) tradition.”

Music

The music was principally done by Luchi De Jesus-as musical director/supervisor- for the original film. Manuel Topete was the sound designer. In addition, the famous theme song for Slaughter was by Billy Preston. The theme song associated with the film gives Slaughter its own unique sound that stuck around and made a significant presence in the Blaxploitation film genre. Ric Marlow also made contributions as a songwriter. Unfortunately no soundtrack LP was ever issued.

DVD

January 9th 2001 as an entertaining 70’s action movie. Subtitles for the DVD are available in Spanish and French. However, the DVD was only distributed in the U.S. and Canada by studio MGM (video and DVD). It has a runtime of approximately 90 minutes.

External links

• Slaughter at the Internet Movie Database
• Slaughter at AllRovi