On K List of Movie Reviews

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The Klansman (1974)

Rate: 3
Viewed: 10/26

10/26: I don't mind a Klansplotation film, but when it's done badly, my time is wasted.

The Klansman is notorious in Richard Burton's oeuvre, having been so drunk not to realize he had done the picture. In other words, his name sold it. How he took out a guy named Butt Cutt (is that really his name?) with a single hand has to be seen to believe. Young good-looking women throwing themselves over Richard Burton, who seems to be thirty years older than his actual age (39!), is also ridiculous.

Lee Marvin fares better by giving a serious performance and thus pretty much saves the film from turning into a total turkey. However, there's too much unrealized potential by failing to make any incident dramatic to grab my attention in a Mississippi Burning way although it's interesting to watch O.J. Simpson's behavior. At the time, that would've been antithetical based on how he normally acted in public for decades. But the murders of his wife and Ron Goldman completely changed everything. Besides, what's with O.J. Simpson's character running all over the county with nobody doing anything?

Making matters worse is the lack of redneckness among the characters and, most of all, the location. It's easily felt in various movies such as In the Heat of the Night, Deliverance, and Macon County Line. That's because The Klansman was wholly shot on location in Oroville, California. Whenever bad things happen, they're never in display but rather presumed.

All in all, you shouldn't be fooled by the names of big-time stars, Richard Burton and Lee Marvin, or the film title, The Klansman, as it's been anything but.

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