Gordon's War

This is by no means another cookie-cutter 70's Black crime drama: Paul W. and his band of Vietnam War Vets have come back to Harlem to try to eradicate the pimps and pushers who are sowing the seeds of devastation in their community. What is significant to me is the well orchestrated and articulated courses of action that they employ to achieve their goals. Gordon (Paul W.), the leader, demands discipline and dedication from his fellow Vet brothers to carry out the difficult tasks at hand and they in turn fulfill those demands by utilizing their own special skill sets in their own individual fashion. Note the technical skills used to set up command headquarters liaison and communication and also the street skills used in flushing out the dope den by "fakin' the funk" to simulate rat poison dope cutting.

The film moves along at a brisk pace, by not overindulging in extreme doses of gratuitous violence and wasted motion. The progression of events is shown in a logical and entertaining fashion, thanks to the directorial skills of Ossie Davis and by injecting "New Birth" cuts into the soundtrack.

Even though this is purportedly a Black film set in Harlem, you don't see any extreme cases of race badgering and "Honkey" this and that name calling. These brothers depicted here have returned to put out any and all hoodlums involved in the Harlem crime scene, whether it's Spanish Harry and his boys in the 'hood or the fat cat suppliers up the ladder in downtown Manhattan. To Gordon and his men, you mess around, you lay around! Even though this film is now 35 years old, the principles are still as applicable to today's problems as they were to the problems back in the day.

Paul Winfield stars as the eponymous hero in this highly satisfying, gritty and violent actioner in which after returning home from Nam and finding his beloved wife has died of an overdose, our hero decides to wage war on the drug pushers, pimps and general low life infesting the streets of Harlem. Unfortunately, Gordon is brought to the swift realisation (painfully!) that one man alone is not enough to tackle the problem, so enlists the aid of some old army buddies including the ever super cool Tony King and promptly sets about coming down heavy on the nefarious wretches who are destroying the neighbourhood.

Bucket loads of glorious violence and some fine action set pieces follow in this solidly rendered flick which is all the more sadly, so little known. Winfield, although hardly pushed in this, is fine as ever as are the rest of the cast and the director really succeeds in making us care about these protagonists in the ever more perilous situation they find themselves in. Special mention also to the highly exciting final chase scene in this although the final conclusion involving the assassination of the apparent 'real' top dog running all of the drugs business in the area is regretfully somewhat confusing not to mention unsatisfyingly abrupt. Nonetheless, such a small matter in no way detracts from the overall entertainment value of all that precedes it. Highly recommended.

After playing a villain in Trouble Man, Paul Winfield was then cast by director Ossie Davis as Gordon Hudson, a Vietnam vet who starts an all-out war on the drug pushers in Harlem after his wife died of an overdose. He gets help from fellow veterans Bee Bishop (Carl Lee), Otis Russell (David Downing), and Roy Green (Tony King). Among the people they're after: Luther the Pimp (Carl Gordon) and Spanish Harry (Gilbert Lewis). Not all is serious, though, during one scene Roy gets very lucky with a fine white woman (Jackie Page credited as "Bedroom Girl") and you get to see...oh, watch the movie. Also, music artist Grace Jones appears as Mary, one of many naked women assembling the stuff in abandoned buildings. Lots of cool explosions and a climatic chase of a car pursuing a motorcycle keeps the film on an exciting level. So on that note, Gordon's War is worth a look. P.S. On the Wikipedia site, it's revealed that Lewis was the original King of Cartoons on "Pee-wee's Playhouse". He'd eventually be replaced by William "Blacula" Marshall.

I love this one alot I've seen it now about 12 times. Such a great perfomance by the main character .Good gritty Harlem NYC locations and situations.This film really hits home for me ,I grew up on some of those filthy streets .One mans noble mission to rid the neighborhood of this poison called drugs,is the focus of this film .Ozzie we love you ! I only wish this was true life . I would tell anyone to give this a try one evening ,but it seems to be such a rare piece...

Now in many ways, GORDON'S WAR and the comedy I'M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA are very, very dissimilar movies. However, if you think about the basic plot, the stories are practically the same. Both feature a soldier coming home to find out someone they love was killed by gangs of pushers. Both then consist of the leading men gathering a group of Vietnam vets to put the hurt on the dealers and eventually kill off "Mr. Big".

Now GORDON'S WAR might easily be categorized as a "Blaxploitation Film", but in many ways it defies the genre. Whites aren't really even mentioned in this film and most of the warfare is directed against Black drug dealers, so the anti-White America rhetoric is missing. Plus, the film, while violent and idealizing vigilantism, has a much more positive message than many films of the genre. But of course, for those who love Blaxploitation, rest assured that this one still has a lot of amazing violence, lots of boobs and tough "take no crap from anyone" leading men.

In this case, the lead is played by a man not associated with the genre, Paul Winfield. Winfield returns from 'Nam to discover that his wife got hooked on drugs and died. Instead of brooding about it, he vows to clean up the ghetto with the help of his army buddies.

The film, while not especially deep, has a lot of action, a fantastic musical score (one of the best of the era) and is entertaining throughout. Well worth viewing.