Detroit 9000
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''Detroit 9000'' is a
1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...
American
action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...
directed by
Arthur Marks Arthur Ronald Marks (August 2, 1927 – November 13, 2019) was an American film and television director, writer, producer and distributor best known for his work in the blaxploitation genre, directing films such as ''Bonnie's Kids'', ''Detroit 90 ...
from a screenplay by
Orville H. Hampton Orville H. Hampton (May 21, 1917 – August 8, 1997) was an American screenwriter who worked mostly in low-budget films, particularly for producers Robert E. Kent and Edward Small. A screenplay that he and Raphael Hayes wrote for ''One Potato, T ...
. Originally marketed as a
blaxploitation Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president o ...
film, it had a resurgence on video 25 years later.


Plot

Street-smart white detective Danny Bassett (
Alex Rocco Alex Rocco (born Alessandro Federico Petricone Jr.; February 29, 1936 – July 18, 2015) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive, gravelly voice, he was often cast as villains, including Moe Greene in ''The Godfather'' (1972) and his Pr ...
) teams with educated black detective Sgt. Jesse Williams (
Hari Rhodes Hari Rhodes (April 10, 1932 – January 15, 1992) was an American author and actor whose career spanned three decades beginning around 1960. He was sometimes billed as Harry Rhodes, and appeared in 66 films and television programs, such as ABC ...
) to investigate a theft of $400,000 at a fund-raiser for Representative Aubrey Hale Clayton (
Rudy Challenger Rudolph Michael Challenger (October 2, 1928 – August 22, 2012) was an African-American supporting actor who had roles in various projects over the course of his thirty-four year career in film and television in Hollywood. He appeared on such ...
).Van Gelder, Lawrence (October 9, 1998)
FILM REVIEW; Detective Buddies and Racial Boundaries.
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''


Cast

*
Hari Rhodes Hari Rhodes (April 10, 1932 – January 15, 1992) was an American author and actor whose career spanned three decades beginning around 1960. He was sometimes billed as Harry Rhodes, and appeared in 66 films and television programs, such as ABC ...
as Sergeant Jesse Williams *
Alex Rocco Alex Rocco (born Alessandro Federico Petricone Jr.; February 29, 1936 – July 18, 2015) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive, gravelly voice, he was often cast as villains, including Moe Greene in ''The Godfather'' (1972) and his Pr ...
as Lieutenant Danny Bassett *
Vonetta McGee Vonetta Lawrence McGee (January 14, 1945 – July 9, 2010) was an American actress. She debuted in the Spaghetti Western ''The Great Silence'' and went on to appear in blaxploitation films such as ''Hammer'', ''Melinda'', ''Blacula'', ''Shaft ...
as Ruby Harris * Ella Edwards as Helen Durbin *
Scatman Crothers Benjamin Sherman Crothers (May 23, 1910 – November 22, 1986), known professionally as Scatman Crothers, was an American actor and musician. He is known for playing Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show ''Chico and the Man'', and Dick Hallo ...
as Reverend Markham *
Herbert Jefferson Jr. {{BLP sources, date=March 2013 {{Infobox person , name = Herbert Jefferson, Jr. , image = Herbert Jefferson, Jr. by Gage Skidmore.jpg , caption = Herbert Jefferson, Jr., at the 2012 Phoenix Comicon , birth_date = {{birth date and age, mf=yes, 19 ...
as Ferdy * Robert Phillips as Captain Chalmers *
Rudy Challenger Rudolph Michael Challenger (October 2, 1928 – August 22, 2012) was an African-American supporting actor who had roles in various projects over the course of his thirty-four year career in film and television in Hollywood. He appeared on such ...
as Aubrey Hale Clayton *
Council Cargle Council Cargle (February 8, 1935 – January 2, 2013) was an American stage and film actor, whose career in theater spanned more than six decades. Based in Detroit, Cargle was described as one of the "best-known theater actors" in the U.S. state ...
as Drew Sheppard


Filming

Actor
Alex Rocco Alex Rocco (born Alessandro Federico Petricone Jr.; February 29, 1936 – July 18, 2015) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive, gravelly voice, he was often cast as villains, including Moe Greene in ''The Godfather'' (1972) and his Pr ...
was cast as a result of director Arthur Marks' positive experience working with him on their 1972 film ''
Bonnie's Kids ''Bonnie's Kids'' is a 1972 American neo-noir thriller film written and directed by Arthur Marks. Plot Sisters Myra and Ellie Thomas live in Glendora, California, with their abusive stepfather, Charley, who was married to their now-deceased mo ...
''. Unlike many films set in Detroit (such as ''
RoboCop ''RoboCop'' is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O'Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, and Miguel Ferre ...
'' and '' Bird on a Wire''), ''Detroit 9000'' was shot on location in downtown Detroit and close-in neighborhoods. A number of now demolished landmark buildings can be seen including the J.L. Hudson Company, and the Fort Street Terminal train station. Fort Street Station was already closed when filming was taking place and the approach tracks to the station were used for a chase scene. The now restored
Book Cadillac The Westin Book Cadillac Detroit is a historic skyscraper hotel in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, within the Washington Boulevard Historic District. Designed in the Neo-Renaissance style, and opened as the Book-Cadillac Hotel in 1924, the , 31-sto ...
Hotel was used in the reception scenes, including the hotel's famed crystal ballroom. Although the hotel closed in 1983 and sat dormant for over 20 years, it was restored and reopened by the Westin Hotel group in 2009. Although Detroit suffered from race rioting in July 1967, and the riots are referred to in the movie, the film avoided showing areas that still showed signs of heavy damage from the rioting. The final shootout takes place in historic Elmwood Cemetery. Sacred Heart Seminary stands in for the "Longview Sanitarium", where Bassett goes to visit his institutionalized wife. The hospital is Detroit Memorial Hospital on St. Antoine St. (The building was torn down in 1987.) Detroit Police headquarters at 1300 Beaubien Street (Re-located to the new Detroit Public Safety Headquarters building with the Detroit Fire Department on 1301 Third Street in 2013) is also shown. A number of local Detroit celebrities appeared in the film, such as disc jockey
Dick Purtan Paul Richard "Dick" Purtan (born July 11, 1936) is an American radio personality. His last radio job was as the morning radio show host on WOMC serving the Detroit, Michigan, radio market. Purtan was also a disc jockey at WKNR, WXYZ, CKLW, WCZY ...
, who plays the police detective who converses with Alex Rocco's character just prior to his boarding a police helicopter. Then-Detroit Police Chief John Nichols played himself in the TV station scene, and Detroit radio personality
Martha Jean "The Queen" Steinberg Martha Jean "The Queen" Steinberg (September 9, 1930 – January 29, 2000) was an influential African-American radio broadcaster and later was also the pastor of her own church. She was born Martha Jean Jones in Memphis, Tennessee. Her first radio ...
played the host. The Soul Train dancer
Pat Davis Pat "Madam Butterfly" Davis (b. c.1956) was an American dancer who performed on the television music show ''Soul Train'' during the 1970s. Biography Patricia Davis was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and was five years old when she moved to Los Ang ...
also made a cameo in the film. The title is a reference to the Detroit Police radio code "9000", which means "officer down".


Re-release

Championed by
Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...
, the film was given a limited re-release theatrically by his short-lived
Rolling Thunder Pictures Rolling Thunder Pictures was a short-lived film distribution company, set up under Miramax Films by Quentin Tarantino, that was headed by Jerry Martinez and Tarantino. It specialized on releasing independent, cult, or foreign films to theaters. Th ...
distribution company in October 1998.Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=detroit9000.htm Detroit 9000 (Re-issue). Retrieved May 16, 2012. It was subsequently released on video by
Miramax Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California. It was initially a leadi ...
in April 1999.Staff report (April 9, 1999)
New Video Releases.
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''
Tarantino also included a line of dialogue from the film into the soundtrack for his own film ''
Jackie Brown ''Jackie Brown'' is a 1997 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, based on Elmore Leonard's 1992 novel ''Rum Punch.'' It stars Pam Grier as Jackie Brown, a flight attendant who is caught smuggling money. Samuel L. Ja ...
''.


Reception

During the film's original theatrical run,
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' gave it two stars out of four and called it "a tough, cynical, big-city cop movie that occasionally tries to rise above its genre but doesn't quite make it. Maybe it would have worked better if it hadn't tried so hard."
Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his d ...
of the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' awarded an identical two-star grade and wrote that Alex Rocco "turns in another excellent performance", but the film needed "a strong rewrite of its script, a revision that would remove the tedious black-and-white insults that pepper its principal characters' speech." ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' stated, "Filming is generally good and the acting by the leads is better than adequate ... But editing and cutting is jerky and the one flashback, an important part of the denouement, is so abrupt that it takes several moments to realize that a dying girl didn't suddenly get up and start walking around in the street. And there such stilted bits of dialogue as, 'Those boys were real top pros,' laced through the picture." ''The Independent Film Journal'' wrote, "Give ''Detroit 9000'' one point for originality. It's the first black and/or cops and robbers film in a while that hasn't revolved completely about drugs. They, in fact, are hardly mentioned here, but it doesn't matter much. The rest of the film is much the same. A lot of corruption, a lot of running around and a lot of blood, particularly in the final reels ... Arthur Marks' direction is professional but uninteresting, only reinforcing the impression that you've seen all this before." The re-release met with generally favorable reviews. ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' critic
Lawrence Van Gelder Lawrence Ralph Van Gelder (February 17, 1933 – March 11, 2016) was an American journalist and instructor in journalism who worked at several different New York City-based newspapers in his long career. Until 2010, he was senior editor of the Ar ...
claimed "In general release, ''Detroit 9000'' illustrates the wisdom of the adage "better late than never", and praised the film's complex racial politics, while ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
''s
Nathan Rabin Nathan Rabin (; born April 24, 1976) is an American film and music critic. Rabin was the first head writer for '' The A.V. Club'', a position he held until he left the ''Onion'' organization in 2013.
opined that, while the film was flawed, it was also an "interesting, thoroughly watchable film, and considering its genre and origins, that's something of an achievement." Reviewing the film's 2013 re-issue by
Lionsgate Films Lionsgate Films (formerly known as Cinépix Film Properties) is an American film production and film distribution studio, headquartered in Santa Monica and founded in Canada, and is the flagship division of Lionsgate Entertainment. It is the larg ...
as part of a Rolling Thunder Picture triple-pack (with ''
The Mighty Peking Man ''The Mighty Peking Man'' (猩猩王) (Mandarin: ''Xīngxing Wáng'' – which translates to "Gorilla King" in English) is a 1977 giant monster film produced by Shaw Brothers Studio to capitalize on the craze surrounding the 1976 remake of '' ...
'' and ''
Switchblade Sisters ''Switchblade Sisters'' is a 1975 American exploitation action film detailing the lives of high school-aged female gang members. It was directed by Jack Hill and stars Joanne Nail, Robbie Lee and Monica Gayle. The film is also known as ''The J ...
''), DVD Talk's Ian Jane called it a "top notch cops and robbers urban crime thriller" which is "Not content to just titillate the audience with the more exploitative elements inherent in the genre... hefilm addresses head on the issues of racial tension, marital infidelity, and the difficulties of trying to make ends meet while still playing the part of an honest cop." The film holds a score of 25% on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
based on 8 reviews.


See also

*
List of American films of 1973 A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...


References


External links

* * {{Arthur Marks 1973 films 1973 action films Blaxploitation films American action films Films directed by Arthur Marks Films set in Michigan Films set in Detroit Films shot in Michigan Films shot in Detroit Fictional portrayals of the Detroit Police Department 1970s English-language films 1970s American films