Image courtesy of impawards.com
The Film : I’m Gonna Git You Sucka
Notable Cast Members: Keenen Ivory Wayans, Jim Brown, Bernie Casey, Isaac Hayes, Steve James, John Vernon, Chris Rock, Damon Wayans, David Allen Grier, Tony Cox, Eve Plumb
DVD available on Amazon.com here
Film Synopsis :
Before the Wayans clan would descend upon multiplexes and DVD displays with such awful films like Little Man and White Chicks, they would make one of the greatest spoofs out there with 1988’s I’m Gonna Git You Sucka. While the clan would come to fame with “In Living Color” two years later, Sucka would establish Keenen Ivory Wayans as something more than just a writer for Eddie Murphy/generic black supporting actor.
The film focuses on Jack Spade (Wayans), a recently discharged soldier dealing with the death of his brother Junebug (Bobby Mardis) from something even worse than overdosing on drugs. He overdosed on gold chains, wearing them from head to toe. Investigating his death, he discovers that his death was no accidental overdose and that Mr. Big (John Vernon) and his syndicate are behind it. Determined to put an end to it, he recruits John Slade (Bernie Casey) and several other former heroes from times prior (Jim Brown, Isaac Hayes and Steve James) to take on the syndicate and bring his brother’s killers to an untimely end.
And normally this would be great fodder for an exploitative film, as it has all the elements of the 1970s blaxpoitation genre that would make legends out of men like Richard Roundtree. And Wayans, who also wrote and directed the film, takes this another direction and uses it to riff on every theme and plot device from the genre in spectacular fashion. From the big spectacular gun fights to specific moments in dialogue, Wayans rapid fires his jokes so quickly that some are missed while others are still being laughed at.
Wayans crams so many jokes in that sometimes it can be distracting, but at the same time he shows a cultured look at the blaxpoitation genre and dissects many moments and scenes from it like the apt pupil he must be. Certain moments like Spade confronting some henchmen in a restaurant and having an intense staredown, only to have his mother come in and single-handedly beat up everyone in the room, are set up and done disturbingly well. Wayans knows exactly what he wants to lace into in the genre and goes after plenty of stock scenes and dialogue, such as the big speeches by villains near the end as well as breaking the wall with the camera by making subtle winks and pokes towards the audience to let them in on the joke as well.
The other key of the film, besides the good natured jabs, is how the assembled cast works so well to spoof it. Actors like Casey and Brown helped refine the genre in its heyday and James was best known for being a sidekick in martial arts films, as well as Hayes writing the theme to Shaft, but combined they work as hard in the spoof as they did in the films that made them famous.
The Story Behind It :
A large portion of the reason why I love film so much was because I saw so many of them growing up with my father. Being a teacher, I can only imagine he thought summers with me and my brother were for other matters, but he kept us entertained cheaply with matinee films at the local theatres. And since we were little and my dad always felt insulted taking us to see films aimed for children, there were only two types of films to see: action movies and comedies. But the big thing that opened our eyes was when a local video store opened up with all sorts of movies he hadn’t seen for dirt cheap prices to rent, so this became the thing we did.
One of those movies turned out to be I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, I believe selected by me and my elder brother because it had a guy with a massive machine gun on the front. When you’re 9 and 13, respectively, machine guns ALWAYS indicate that a film is good. In college I had once speculated, and successfully argued, that When Harry Met Sally would’ve been a four star classic if only Billy Crystal used a machine gun sometime during the proceedings. My dad, God bless him, always let us watch whatever we wanted to (within reason) and sat through all of it with a smile. While years later he’d reveal much of it was through clenched teeth, we always used to surprise him with some great films and Sucka is one of those he still riffs on occasion to get a reaction out of us.
The film was watched then, as well as about 10 other times over the years, and enjoyed immensely by the three of us and still stands out as one of the films the three of us can still watch together repeatedly. I realize it’s odd for three short Jewish guys from the suburbs of Chicago to all love a marginally reviewed spoof that not a lot of people saw, but that’s the beauty of the film.
