Yaphet Kotto, Andrew Duggan and Joyce Van Patten star in Bone. Simply titled, this is Larry Cohen's first film, and Cohen is a director I'm beginning to realize is someone I should by all rights love. I mean, my intro to him was It's Alive, which is perhaps the most accessible, but for me the least likable of his work. I'm also not a fan of the supposed "blaxploitation" genre, and some of his work was in that form... let's face it, the guy had a career mostly in exploitation, and it's generally not top of my list in terms of what I wanna see.
We all have our genres that interest us, and for me it was always the offbeat, ambiguous, or strange feeling flicks. Of course, I am drawn in by dynamic and interesting actors, and that's what kept me in Bone for the whole film. Yaphet Kotto turns in an amazing performance, turning what could have been a straight blaxploitation into a legitimate social commentary.
Plot wise, Bill and Bernadette are a regular couple who get their home broken into by Yaphet Kotto as Bone. Bone is a on-edge virile man, and he threatens to rape Bernadette unless Bill go out and get him money. Bill goes out, only to realize he was sort of unhappy in the marriage anyways, and this is further cemented when a woman at the bank flirts with him and he considers going home with her. Meanwhile, Bone and Bernadette get their drink on, and realize they aren't as natural enemies as they may have thought, and that there may be a natural attraction there.
This is the type of film to take blaxploitation and turn it a bit on it's side. That's why I stuck with it. It paints the white people as fucked up, even more so than the supposed "bad guy black guy" that comes barging into their lives. There is no reason why the black guy should always be the villain anyways, and this movie focuses in a lot more on the faults in both Bill and Bernadette. However, the character of Bone is certainly still a ridiculous racist stereotype at times. Hey, it's a product of it's time, what can one really do? I guess?
If I'd started with this, I'd still be interested in the rest of Cohen's work. The comedy still works, the tone is mysterious and interesting, the actors are good or at least good enough, and the pace is really nice. It's different then most exploitation, it's clever....etc....
The ending of this movie is strong, and leaves some interesting questions and commentary. I liked this! Not for everyone sure, but a good "entry point" into Cohen, social commentary, and blaxploitation.
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