Tonight we had a viewing of a few shorts. Among them we put on this Iver films release of The Klansman, a 400 foot colour sound abridged version.
First of all the plot,(not hard to follow),
The Klansman recounts what happens to an African American man in a small town in the South after a young white woman is sexually assaulted and beaten, (not shown in this version),
Events spiral out of control when a sniper, ( O J Simpson), shoots a Ku Klux Klan member at a funeral in revenge for an attack and murder of his friend where O Js character escaped.
I have never seen the full length movie and it is of course a subject that people in the USA and Europe get all touchy about and everyone tries to be all PC by stating this is a racist film. Well it isn't, yes it does show racism at it's worst but also show's how the Sheriff of Atoka County,(Lee Marvin), and a rich landowner,(Richard Burton), team together to stop the KKK. It is the good Guys and O J Simpson who come out on top. Pretty much one of the most aggressive films to come out on super 8 along with Taxi Driver,(also previewed), and Coffy. A hard hitting fast action paced film that is rare to find with colour like this one still has.

Great pictures Tom, I still have mine, the filmstock has held up well, as with the rest of Ivers films, no
colour drop at all. This was a gritty film, didn't see it on its release, my mates did and thought it excellent. Cameron Mitchell is
a million miles from "Uncle Buck Cannon" from "High Chaparral" fame, although playing bad guys for a lot of his career, he eclipses
them in this performance. Some well known faces in the cast apart from Richard Burton, O.J.Simpson, there's David Huddleston as "The Goddamn exalted Cyclops!!", of the KKK. Some scenes do make you curl your toes, I think Iver thought, how can we top "Chain Saw", well
this is just as powerful, especially when Lee Marvin takes up the machine gun. A super duper film for the right audience.