Movies

                         Coonskin

    A film by Ralph Bakshi, starring Barry White, Scatman Crothers, Charles Gordone, and others. At the Grand Circus Theatre.

     Director Ralph Bakshi (Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic has turned lo the rapidly-expanding black film audience for his box-office bucks this time, Unhappily has produced a cheap, offensive, patently racist movie which suffers even more severely from a vapid, boring story line (dead out of Uncle Remus), ugly camerawork, extremely unfunny dialogue, and ridiculous acting performances. (Harry White, for example, is even more ludicrous on film than as a musical performer, which is going some.)

    The only interesting aspects of the film were the well-executed animation (striking despite the abominable content of the cartoon) and the blending of animation with "real-life" film footage, but even the multi-media trickery was poorly conceived and depressing to observe, in effect. All in all, a bad choice for one's time and money, and even worse for laughs. No thank,. Mr. Bakshi.

                               ----JS