"Black Gestapo" (1975) is an exploitation film that manages to both rise above its material and sink beneath it. The film features a group of black men who call themselves the People's Army, funded by the state of California, who engage in acts of community goodwill. Unfortunately the local white mafia corrupts the community with drugs, gambling, and prostitution. A faction of the People's Army, enraged by the rape of black women and the violence against black men, take matters into their own hands. As a viewer, I must admit that I found these scenes of vengeance quite satisfying--and therein lies part of the film's power. The film raises questions and provides some troubling answers. We want to side with the peaceful solutions of the helpful People's Army, but we also want bloodshed--racial bloodshed. We feel conflicted.

Sadly and predictably, the black avengers, after driving the white mafia from the area, become worse than the white mafia, running more drugs, more prostitution, more gambling. In a particularly painful scene, they beat a black storeowner because he doesn't make enough money to pay their protection prices. In the end, the peaceful general of the People's Army takes matters into his own hands and destroys the Black Gestapo.

As I mentioned, while the film raises important questions about white exploitation of black poverty--and how blacks should respond to that exploitation--the film also falters as the viewer is overwhelmed by tawdry scenes of violence against women (usually naked), and one wonders if the director is interested in making a point or just peddling trash to the dumbest drive-in voyeur.

A funky 1970's blacksploitation film with Charles Robinson, probably best known for playing the fileperson Mac on "Night Court". Robinson plays an officer in the "People's Army", a group of blacks given a grant by the white community to help the disadvantaged in a section of L.A. Following the assault of a nurse working at the Army hospital and some violence in local African-American-owned businesses, Robinson asks the general of the People's Army (Rod Perry) for a few men to embrace violence against a white crime syndicate operating in the city. He then takes the group in his own direction, dressing them up in Nazi uniforms and training them in all levels of combat, finally running the syndicate out of town. However, the group becomes a bit mad with power and ends up simply taking over the duties of the syndicate, abusing the community even more. Perry, who plays the general of the less radical People's Army, now must break into the compound of Robinson's Black Gestapo alone and use his wits to put an end to the mayhem. While the plot seems okay, what makes this a "bad" movie is its production. Most of the actors fall short of adequate in believability, and the movie seems more interested in showing off nudity than talent anyway. The individual members of the white crime syndicate are hilariously bad, as are the comparisons the film tries to make between the Nazis and the black militant group, such as when the entire group is raising their fists and repeatedly shouting "Vengeance!", the movie overdubs a sound clip of Hitler's Nazis repeatedly screaming "Seig Heil!". The boo-chikka-boo-chikka guitar music kind of completes the picture. Also, it seems like when the Black Gestapo gets together, all they really want to do is have sex with white women, which was kind of puzzling. There is absolutely nothing of any value to this movie, unless you like watching prostitutes get abused, black people marching around in Nazi uniforms shouting "Vengeance!", and a gangster's genitalia being cut off with a razor while he takes a bath. Actually, based on that, it's probably worth seeing. Watch it for a laugh, if you can stand it.