My friends, in this trailer, the man behind the movie gives us a narration in character to sell us on this cheap blaxploitation thriller. And brothers, it is glorious.
This may rank as one of the best trailers in the history of film. And I’m not being ironic.
(This entry is definitely Not Safe For Work, by the way. So if you’re at work, wait ‘til you get home, foo’!)
Dolemite was the first film starring comedian Rudy Ray Moore. Moore was known for ‘Party Albums,’ underground records that specialized in smutty humor--in his case, a number of rowdy rhyming monologues, two of which he recites in the movie itself. When the blaxploitation craze spilled into the public consciousness, Moore decided he wanted a piece of that action. Thus began a parade of films with him at their center that made him into an icon of hip hop culture...and it all started here.
And Moore wants you to know that this picture ain’t playing. He’s front and center all the time. First he’s being fawned over by his women, then he’s proudly pronouncing that ‘fucking up muthafuckas is my game!’, then he’s mowing down a group of white killers. There is profanity four times in the first thirty seconds! Once he’s got our attention, Moore begins his narration, which is in rhyme like his stand-up routines...and for the most part, that narration is in character, as he boasts of how he ‘put his finger in the ground and turn the whole world around,’ and ‘had the elephants roosting in trees and all the ants wearing BVDs.’ Because it’s in rhyme, there’s a hypnotic quality to the pitch that sucks you in. You might not even realize that Moore is in practically every scene used, and when he’s not they’re either real brief or feature people talking about him. When he repeats the name of the film, there’s always a jump cut to his face before flashing the title. And the only other person who gets mentioned in the trailer is D’Urville Martin (since he directed the film, probably for peanuts judging on how cheap the production looks, I suspect being mentioned was in his contract). The results of Moore’s spiel and the succession of punching, shooting, kicking and otherwise Messing Shit Up is that yes, you want to Watch This Flick! In the last few days, I have watched this trailer repeatedly over the last few days, and I have yet to come away without feeling pumped about Dolemite....
This is how you do an effective trailer, people. And it is the kind of trailer that they literally don’t make any more--singular, full of personality and unique in and of itself. We will never see its like again.
Trailer courtesy of Xenon Pictures
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