Putney Swope

Putney Swope
1969
Directed by Robert Downey Sr.



SYNOPSIS
The head of a New York advertising firm drops dead and the board accidentally votes in the token black guy, Putney Swope (Arnold Johnson.) Swope fires most all the white board members and replaces them with militant blacks. He renames the company Truth and Soul, Inc. and creates some raw advertising campaigns that put the company on top.


MY THOUGHTS

I love bizarre films and this is one of the strangest I've ever seen. Director Robert Downey (Sr.) was a key filmmaker in the underground film scene in the 1960s, and the film leans that way rather than a conventional narrative film.

There is no doubt from the beginning that this film is a satire. The style of comedy doesn't lend itself to many laugh-out-loud moments but the script does deliver many tremendous one liners that do just that. Many of the laughs are of the "I can't believe they just said that" variety:

Mr Victrola Cola: I got this great window cleaner. Cleans good and doesn't streak. Smells bad, though. Cleans good, but smells bad.
Putney Swope: As a window cleaner, forget it. Put soybeans in it and market it as a soft drink in the ghetto. We'll put a picture of a rhythm and blues singer on the front and call it Victrola Cola.


Sometimes what is being satirized is way above my head and falls flat. I'm not sure if the film is hitting on dated period details that stayed back in 1969.
The racial satire is quite overt and some today may be offended, but you're supposed to be. There's a boldness to the offensiveness that would definitely keep it from being made today.

The performances are bizarre. All of Swope's dialogue was re-dubbed by director Downey. Many actors line reading sound like they're reading their dialogue and others repeat lines ad nauseum like parrots (Gotta Have Soul!) A viewer not expecting a film like this would be very oft-put and the film would likely be switched off in just a few minutes.
Look for future Huggy Bear Antonio Fargas as The Arab. He has a running gag through the film where he tries to get fired and fails.

The fake commercials (see video above) are funny but pale in comparison to those from Saturday Night Live (despite the language and nudity.) 1969 was still a time in the cinema where boobs and foul language were considered shocking. The ads lose their impact today because we are so desensitized.

Overall, Swope is definitely a unique film and anyone with adventurous taste should definitely check it out, brother.

Oh, and any movie that envisions the U.S. President as a German midget pothead who loves a good menage a trois can't be bad.