The Black Six

Director - Matt Cimber (The Candy Tangerine Man, The Witch Who Came from the Sea)
Starring - Robert Howard (War is Hell, Hitler), Cindy Daly (Beetlejuice, Carrie), and Mikel Angel (Werewolves on Wheels, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song)
Release Date - 1973
Genre - Action/Crime
Tagline - "Six times tougher than Shaft! Six times tougher than Superfly!"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Last week I took my vacation.  It was mostly a staycation so I planned on spending time with my youngest daughter and watch as many movies as possible.  While I was looking through my review stack I wanted to check out something that wasn't horror.  I went through the sexploitation section and remembered that I had a blaxploitation box set that was sent to me from Mill Creek Entertainment.  I love horror but I will turn down a horror movie for a blaxploitation flick I had never seen before and this set of six had five I had never seen before.  It was a no brainer so I tossed it in.  The first one in the set is the 1973 film The Black Six.  Thanks Mill Creek for sending these my way.  

     The film follows 6 black bikers that travel around doing odd jobs for the elderly and other acts of kindness when one of them receives word that his little brother was murdered.  He returns home with his gang and starts investigating the murder where he uncovers that he was dating a white girl and her brother runs an all white biker gang.  After an encounter with them he realizes that his brother was murdered by the bikers for being black and dating a white girl.  The Black Six steps up and puts the biker gang down and gets revenge for the fallen brother.

     I love blaxploitation cinema.  I love the stories, the cast, the action, and the look of these films.  Some, like any other genre of film, are better than others but generally most blaxploitation films are entertaining.  The Black Six is one of the lower quality blaxploitation flicks I have seen but it was still very entertaining.  The acting in this one is fairly weak but far from ruining the film.  The characters are mostly comical from the main group in the Black Six but they are also the most awkward to watch on screen.  They are all professional football athletes and not actors so that makes sense.  The rest of the cast is drastically better and they do a much greater job in their roles.  The story for this one is similar to other blaxploitation following a black character that has lost a loved one (i.e. a brother, sister, parent, lover) and goes on the war path searching for the one responsible.  This one does mix it up a bit and takes the characters out of the urban setting and replace the drug pushers and pimps with bikers.  It has solid pacing and enough action to hold the viewer's attention.  Finally, this one has no blood or gore.  We do get some fight scenes with typical 70s exploitation fighting choreography that is goofy at times and fun at others.  Overall, The Black Six was a middle of the road blaxploitation flick that offered some excitement.  I recommend this for any exploitation or blaxploitation fan.