Coonskin

Coonskin is a hot bloody mess. It's a Ralph Bakshi picture which explains alot. Yet, for all its misogyny and crassness, there beats a righteous heart of art, pain and hate. Which makes this a bloody mess that is worth watching.

Basically, this is retelling the tales of Brer'Rabbit for the Bakshi-verse. So here Rabbit becomes a gangster in New york and fights against the MAN (this IS the seventies bro), and the Mafia Don and his gay kids. Let's lay this straight baby, this ain't no Walt Disney. If you don't get that this is going to walk all over anything even vaguely political correct just from the title, then you are just a babe in the woods.

This is a film that wants to be honestly about black rage in the seventies. The trouble is that Bakshi is I swear an ADD candidate and just can't keep focused for any length of time. The film wanders, meanders, walks around in circles like chicken with a lobotomy. It's frustrating cause when it is on target it is red hot. Sporadically funny, sometimes on the mark, and demonically transgressive it is certainly a film for the brave and patient viewer. If you want extra points watch it with a bootleg of Disney's "Song of the South."

Below is Scatman Crothers singing the theme. Lord I wish that the whole film would have had this consistent energy.
Oh, and yes NOT SAFE FOR THE WORK PLACE.