Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

What up, my brothas! Welcome to my Black Christmas (and I don't mean Q'Uanz'hah, or whatever the hell it is) write off. Come celebrate the best and worst of hard hitting, hard lovin', two fisted, no nonsense blaxploitation flicks ever offered by Hollywood (and of course from outside the studio system, too). The sleazy, the exploitative, the classics, the forgotten and the crap - all examined over the 12 days of Christmas. However, with this comes a disclaimer:

WARNING! Absolutely no one under 18 admitted to this review!

No, seriously. While I do try and keep in mind that epinions is an all-ages site and do try to mind my manners appropriately, there's no point in being polite when discussing movies like these. Salty language may and will creep in from time to time.

And with that, on to THE FINAL COMDOWN! Can you dig it?

When I started this, I was expecting to see goofy clothing styles, some funky soul music, some hard core two fisted action and some sweet brown sugah luvin. What I wasn’t expecting was a angry, incendiary piece about civil rights. Oh sure - the blacksplotation genre was all about black empowerment and giving the community heroes and stuff - but it's usually in the form of Shaft beating the crap out of some corrupt cops or Pam Grier in a Women In Prison flick sticking it to her white cell mate.

What I wasn’t expecting was a reasonably serious drama about the problems of a young black man in the inner city. Now, I'm a white middle aged honkey about as far away from Watts as you can get (both demographically and geologically), so I don’t really have any insight to the current plight of The Black Man, but I'm guessing things haven’t changed all that much.

Meet Johnny Johnson, played by then 35 year old Lando Calrissian - um, I mean Billy Dee Williams. Johnny is an angry, bitter and resentful black man (without crossing into just another standard stereotypical Angry Black Man. He’s college educated and very bright, despite being so vehemently anti-The Man). All around him he sees (or chooses to see, a big distinction) racism and inequality and oppression. Sadly Johnny is more Malcolm-X than Martin Luther King, believing that violence being the only way to get the point across.

The movie bounces around, starting in the middle of the action and then bounces back and forth setting up Johnny and his background. While this makes for interesting viewing, it's a pain in the ass to review - so I'll come at this in a linear style.

In the first act of the movie we get to know Johnny, his parents (who don’t share his Black Panther tendencies) his church group (where he’s a good role model to the kids), and some friends and fellow activists. We see The Man keeping him down by denying him a job at McDonald Douglass and getting hassled by cops while delivering food to underprivileged kids at the youth center.

Eventually Johnny hooks up with some underground movement leaders, who see the natural innate leadership potential in our angry young hero. Instead of channeling that energy into the community (the smart, non-violent course of action), they come up with an explosive, confrontational outlet for his emotions. They conspire to hook up with a group of rich sympathetic white kids, the kind who feel ashamed for being rich and white, to help them to throw down with the pigs. They believe that The Man won’t understand their plight until "white kids are being shot in the streets".

Johnny gathers up a small army of like minded soul brothers who come equipped with of weapons including revolvers, pump shotguns and a small number of M-14 carbines. The plan, it seems, is to lure the cops uptown, hook up with The Man's kids (The Kids?) and start some kind of riot, and thereby getting the point across that racism is bad. Of course The Kids, being self serving white guys that they are, panic and bail, leaving the Brothers high and dry, backs against the wall and a sea of Pigs in front of them. . . .

From the reading I could find on the internet (and there ain't all that much out there), this was Billy Dee's pet project to speak out about black issues and garner social consciousness. He wasn’t necessary calling for his brothers to take up arms and kill whitey, but that both sides - white and black - are being idiots and we all just need to chill. I can't fault him for having good intentions, and it's a perfectly valid message. The problem is that the movie is so focused on getting The Important Message out is that it bludgeons you to death with unrelenting social awareness.

Despite that sledgehammer approach, there are still very effective moments. The opening, for example, intersperses a group of Johnny's militant friends reading the Declaration of Independence while we get scenes of white cops performing acts of police brutality.

While not a great movie, or even a memorable window of social commentary, it was at least entertaining enough to make me watch the film end to end. Ok, I wasn’t fired up enough to reach for my AK-47 and kill me some Whiteys, but it held my attention till the end credits.

RUDY RAY MOORE OR PAM GRIER? No
BREASTS ON DISPLAY: 2
A BRUTHA GETS SOME: 1 time
MUSICAL NUMBERS: 0
EXPLOSIONS: Many (off screen)
ROUNDS FIRED: Hundreds
HANDRAIL DEATHS:
CAR CHASES: 0
AFROS: 46
F BOMBS DROPPED: 16
WHITEYS THAT GET IT: 21 cops and 2 sympathetic white kids
BEST LINE:The man got down. . . the brothers were ready. . . You must see it! It's a mother! (from the trailer)
SEVENTIES FASHION SENSIBILITIES: 12%
SOUL POWER 50%

THE DVD -
Looks like The Last Comedown is a public domain flick, so again quality will be all over the map depending on what disc you pick up. The version I got, from BCI/Brentwood, was fair shape, but not outstanding. It looked a bit better than a VHS copy, but not tons so. Audio was serviceable, but not outstanding.

THE EXTRAS -
I was lucky to get an FBI warning let alone any extras.

THE BOTTOM LINE
A surprisingly decent if not outstanding movie, despite it's low budget trappings. I've seen considerably worse for my money.

ON THE TWELVE DAYS OF BLACK CHRISTMAS, MY SOUL BRUTHAS GAVE TO ME. . . .
12) BLACULA
11) JACKIE BROWN
10) THE FINAL COMEDOWN
09) SHAFT IN AFRICA
08) UNDERCOVER BROTHER
07) DOLEMITE
06) BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA
05) MEAN JOHHNY BARROWS
04) TROUBLE MAN
03) SUPERFLY
02) THE MACK
And a LADY COCOA in a pear tree. . . .



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age