The Klansman (1974)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A Disappointing Continuation

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Outrageous, awful, astonishing...words fail to adequately to describe this big-budget picture distributed by a major Hollywood studio in 1974. On the eve of a "We Shall Overcome" demonstration of black people in the southern county of Atoka, a black man rapes a white woman stranded on the road (her husband later complains to the sheriff, "Why did this have to happen to me?"). This sets off members of the Ku Klux Klan against sheriff Lee Marvin, who wants to keep the peace but also placate the racists (he needs their votes come election time!). Richard Burton plays a southern aristocrat who befriends black rape victim Lola Falana, who was attacked by the white deputy; meanwhile white rape victim Linda Evans is shunned by the rest of the town for fornicating with a black man--they even kick her out of the church. Adaptation by William Bradford Huie's novel by Millard Kaufman and Samuel Fuller was extensively reworked during production, to the point where Marvin's character has become so benign he hardly makes any sense. Both he and Burton look sheepish just being in an exploitive movie like this, although for his part Burton was reportedly drunk throughout the filming. *1/2 from ****

Despite the obvious political incorrectness, the movie bombs in many other ways. Parts of the script appear to have been written at various times, with absolutely no sense of scenes relating to each other. While Lee Marvin has played the gruff sheriff role enough times to walk through his lines, Richard Burton stumbles and bumbles between Southern and British accents throughout. O.J. Simpson hides in trees and snipes at anything in a white robe and hood. Linda Evans, Lola Falana, and Cameron Mitchell, round out the embarrassed looking cast. What you are left with are racial stereotypes on parade, in a truly forgettable film. - MERK

I've witnessed movies about the American South that were awful and embarrassing, but this one goes overboard. Nothing or nobody in it is worth the one hour and 41 minutes of time it takes to suffer through this banal piece of junk. First off, here's poor Richard Burton limping about and trying to sound southern, but seems to have given this disguise up half-way through. Then Lee Marvin grunts and growls his one-dimensional sheriff's part with little conviction, so as to make O.J. Simpson's acting seem Olivier-like by comparison. That's right, Simpson's in it and playing the hero, no less. Rumor has it that Burton and Marvin were drunk during most of the filming. Shoot...they both had to be drunk when they first were handed the script.Seems the Burton character has drawn the wrath of the KKK by allowing poor blacks to live on his land rent-free, while taking in rape victims whose attackers were of the opposite race. They want him to leave town and, of course, he won't. So they come to burn him out. What needed burning is this stinker that sends the cause of good race relations back a century or two. I give "The Klansman" * 1/2 stars, with much credited to Johnny Walker.

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.