The Final Comedown (USA, 1972) 83 min color DIR-SCR: Oscar Williams. PROD: Oscar Williams, Roger Corman. MUSIC: Grant Green, Wade Marcus. DOP: William B. Kaplan. CAST: Billy Dee Williams, D’Urville Martin, Celia Milius, R.G. Armstrong, Raymond St. Jacques. (AFI)
This low-budget gem is one of Roger Corman’s rare attempts at tapping into the Blaxploitation market, produced through the AFI and not his own New World Pictures. Director Oscar Williams would go on to make more conservative pictures like Five on the Black Hand Side (released by AIP), but this movie (later recut and re-issued as Blast) is a marvel for its fragmented editing technique, scenes of overlapping dialogue adding to the frenetic nature, and a complex screenplay about race relations (based on Jimmy Garrett’s play).
Billy Dee Williams is very good as Jimmy Johnson, a black militant who has a vendetta against the white race. Yet interestingly enough, he must rely on Caucasians to carry out his protest. The film takes place at “the end”, in which a group of black militia is surrounded by police, after a botched coup. We soon learn that the reason for this bungled job is because a white radical failed in his promise to back up their actions. There are constant flashback sequences detailing Johnson’s ousting from the white world, including a job interview where the position is suddenly no longer available once the boss sees that a black man is applying. We also see Johnson’s gradual rise to social conscience, from planning revolutions in back rooms, to posters of Angela Davis in his bedroom, and the free breakfast campaign.
While the acting is sometimes rather forced (for instance, the role of Jimmy’s mother, who is tired of his blaming the white race for everything; or in the otherwise exciting dinner scene with R.G. Armstrong as the white radical’s father putting down the young generation), and the direction is somewhat pedestrian, The Final Comedown is commendable for not taking a facile approach to a complex social problem. With its fragmented time frame, the past and present fold in on one another, and justly shows how things never change, even as these militants try to create a voice in a lily white world. Sequences of the radicals combating police are intercut with shots of newspaper ads with “equal opportunity employer” circled in red, and an African American woman serving dinner to white people. Perhaps the most telling scene is an early moment where Johnson berates a white hippie female (after sex!): “We never had anything to drop out of!”
The Final Comedown is often featured on cheap DVD sets featuring Blaxploitation movies that seem to have fallen into public domain. So, it is well worth spending the few bucks for one of these collections for this movie alone!