Amazon.com Customer Reviews
 Rated 3 out of 5
Enjoyable Ride With Cool Girls Under the Hot Sun
Though an entry of ’’Soul Cinema Collection,’’ "Black Mama, White Mama" does not belong to so-called blaxploitation films. "BMWM"’’s idea clearly comes from "The Defiant Ones" and here we see an incongruous pair chained to each other, on the run from the prison for women.Women’’s prison? Yes, as avid movie fans know, we have a minor genre dealing with women’’s prison. Its formula has been the same: cruel wardens, violence among the prisoners, the rigid rules that donimates them, etc., and before the hit of "Coffy," Pam Grier had to serve about two years in this genre. By the time of 1970s the genre has become famous (or notorious) for its violence and nudity, and both stars here also are thrown into women’’s prison on an unnamed island just after the opening credit. So you know what you see in the next shower room scene. Thankfully, the prison sequences are not long, and Pam & Margaret soon manage to escape, chained together by the hand, and run and run and ... well, the rest is, as you expect, lots of set-pieces: shootings between guards, gang, and revolutionary guerrillas (!) They are mildly entertaining, especially when Pam is on the screen, but as a whole too familiar to get excited. Still, several scenes are momorable: both stars disguised as nuns, and a very unique way of giving a false scent to a chasing dog by giving a pooch Margaret’’s underwear. And check out their clothes, especially Pam’’s (red one); they always look too clean for runaway prisoners! "Black Mama, White Mama" is worth a look for Pam Grier fans because it seems a miracle now that she survived those Grade-B films to finally be praised by her portraying Jackie Brown with her dynamite performance 24 years later. Another interesting thing about "BMWM" is that the story is co-wriiten by Jonathan Demme, who one year before "BMWH" produced and also co-wrote the same kind of film "The Hot Box," which incidentally features Margaret Markov. (For the record, in another film "Arena" Pam and Margaret both appear.) Demme himself is to direct another women-in-prison movie called "The Caged Heat," his first feature film, in 1974. A long way to "The Silence of the Lambs," isn’’t it? - Rated 3 out of 5
Steamy jungle saga with Pam!
Pam Grier is the black mama and Margaret Markov is the white mama in this "homage" (let us not say "rip-off") to the old 1958 Tony Curtis-Sidney Poitier classic The Defiant Ones, in which two escaping prison inmates are chained together, and must overcome their loathing for each other and work together in order to gain their freedom. In this version, director Eddie Romero (of the Blood Island trilogy) has, instead of a black guy and a prejudiced white guy, a black hooker and a revolutionist white girl, which allows for cat-fights and nude scenes, as well as the chase through the Philippine jungle. The two escapees are pursued by the cops, a drug lord, a bounty hunter, and a guerrilla leader, all with their own motives for catching the runaways. This is another bare-bones DVD from MGM which has only the movie trailer and a scene/language selector for bonus features. (Well, you do see Pam Grier’’s bare-bones, so that’’s not so bad!) The image quality is not the best, though. Still, it’’s worth its price for Romero/Grier/women-in-prison fans.
|
|
