keep on truckin…

Truck TurnerAh yes, I finally got around to re-watching Truck Turner. Though it comes across pretty good, not having terrible cheap sets and horrible acting, it’s certainly not one of my favorite 70’s action films as it has a rather standard storyline and nothing particularly remarkable about it, well, nothing remarkable except for some great casting! Any weakness is more than made up for by the stars… First off, the incomparable Isaac Hayes is reason enough to watch it many times over! In fact, my first knowledge of this movie was when I found an LP of the soundtrack in a record store while browsing the Isaac Hayes records. Though the LP was sadly missing one of the two records, I bought it anyway and then went out and found the movie. And while it doesn’t have Pam Grier, it does star Nichelle Nichols, here playing a much, much different role than Lt Uhura…

Truck Turner



Ike plays Mac “Truck” Turner, a hard-boiled bounty hunter who will go after any target if the price is high enough. One of the assignments that he and his partner take on is going after a violent pimp named Gator. After he and his partner end up taking Gator down, his “all business and serious as all getout” lady Dorinda (that’s Nichelle) goes for vengeance and basically offers up a big piece of their stable of girls to whoever can kill Truck.

Truck Turner



Of course much bloodshed follows with people being blown away left and right, lots of fighting, girls in terrible Ho-clothes and some rad pimp outfits (try and avoid though laying your eyes on Desmond, though… a skinny white pimp who tends to go around in awful western style clothes with a matching eye patch). So it is a lot of fun!

I did watch it with a 13 year old, which made me somewhat uncomfortable with the endless foul language and rather overt subject matter. I think it was his first pimp movie viewing… Also be on the lookout for a small role for Scatman Crothers and a big role for another one of my old favorites, the always intimidating Yaphet Kyoto following up his awesome role as Mr. Big in Live and Let Die!

Truck Turner