THETΛ

Detroit 9000 was, in the early seventies, a police code for officer wounded, shot or in serious touble.

This is in so many ways a fantastic movie. You would assume it to be blaxploitation by judging the trailer or the film poster, however it is just on the verge of it. Too less pimpin’, drugs, money and sex. Besides it has a strong storyline, which is simply to good for the blaxploitation gerne.

It kicks of with a heist at a fund raising party for a black governor candidate of detroit. $ 400.000 in mostly jewels gets looted by 5 totally masked guys. Obviously the central questions is, if the suspects were black or white fellows. Two detectives are set on the case, Danny, a white loser, in bad shape, with a racist and seriously ill wife, and Jesse, his black counterpart, a ladies man, smart, having a super hot girlfriend and a pool table in his apartment. Quite some time the two detectives stumble through the darkness of their investigations. We got a lot of pursuits during this time (pursuits by foot, car, boat and in the end even horse) and finally some clues lead the two detectives into a whorehouse. Surprisingly both of the guys are well known to the brothel madam. As after some seesaw the lead guides Jesse to an empty warehouse, which is perfectly suited for the final showdown. This includes some major shootings, pursuits (on horse) and a lot of artificial blood (they did not even try to make it look real). 4 of the guys are dead. The pimp survives and claims to be innocent. The story does not end here, but I don’t what to spoil anything in this article.

After all, one still doesn’t know who is good and who is actually bad.

Easily, the award for the best actor in this flick goes to Alex Rocco as Lieutenant Danny Bassett for his outstanding performance, reminding me of Bill Murray in his better days.

Unfortunately the soundtrack was never released, which is a shame. The score is hold in detroit/motown style and Laura Lee is giving a great guest performance.

Year: 1973

Imdb Rating: 6,3/10 (October 2014)

Superflicks Rating: solid 9,2/10

memorable dialogue:

Brothel Madam: “Would you believe Ruby’s got a collage degree?”

Danny: “In what? Screwing?