Strong and Moving!

The acting in this movie is really good.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Putney Swope seemed edgy indeed once upon a time. But its absurdly crude stereotypes and racial caricatures are exceeded only by the lack of actual actors in this project, or for that matter a budget. The title character is so bad that he had to have all his lines dubbed by the director. It's as though someone had an notion of Mad Men on crack- -back in 1969. Suffice to say, the anti-white agenda rampant today in academia and film, was slithering along back then.

The outrageous humor that peppers this cheap dated B&W film enlivens the leaden cynical world view behind the plot. It is obscure to the nth degree, a serious flaw. For example: Putney is on the phone to "The President", who is a midget and a pawn. Why? Never explained.Mr. Swope fails to take the high road, which would have turned his surprise elevation to a position of power into a grand leap forward for his Brothers. Instead he improvises, day to day, in the end painting a picture of leadership that lacks any sense of responsibility to his racial group or to society as a whole. The word "opportunist" comes to mind.Meanwhile "The President" also lacks any sense of responsibility to the role he inhabits.The cynical, or should we say realist, view of those in power is as relevant today as it was forty years ago. The humor, erotic scenes, and gross vulgarity are enjoyable, if you're in the right mood.

Black and white satire of a Madison Avenue ad agency being taken over by blacks. They're headed by Putney Swope (Arnold Johnson) who is determined to change things. However he turns out to be even WORSE than his white predecessors. That's about as original as this gets.I'm sure this was considered daring and shocking in 1969 but it just seems silly today. The jokes are either unfunny (the president is a midget. HOW is this funny?), cruel or obvious and the film is full of unlikable characters. It's done in a very experimental way which makes it even harder to take...or understand. The movie just gets more bizarre and surreal as it goes along. The ending comes out of nowhere. To make it worse, with the sole exception of Johnson, ALL the acting is bad. Antonio Fargas (a regular in these types of films) is especially annoying as the Arab. This gets three stars because the commercial parodies (done in bright color) ARE amusing and there's a rare good line here and there. I heard this was a cult classic but this is more interesting than good. Skip it...unless you're in experimental 1960s films.

What more can I say - boring and pointless. Oh, I see that this doesn't constitute enough for a review. Well, maybe I should just waffle on like the movie itself. You fired!!! Why? Because you waffle on too much & I'm a grumpy old black man who makes a lot of nonsensical but aggressive remarks to people. Hey man, I'm a jive hep-cat who's going where I'm going and I'll go there without you anyway, man. F**k you! Yeah, well f**k you. Hey Putney there's people over here trying to make something like a plot line! I told you that I want this movie to be weird - no plot, just lots of strange things being said and lots of anti-establishment things to show that we're against that sort of thing. And THAT is a pretty good summation of the first 35 minutes of Putney Swope which is as much as I could stand. Now I'm no enemy to avant-garde movies, freeform movies, outre movies. I LOVE L'Annee Derniere a Marienbad. But this is just bad.