The Klansman (1974)

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The Klansman (1974)

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A small southern town has just been rocked by a tragedy: a young woman has been violently raped. The white town fathers immediately declare that the attacker had to be black, and place the blame on Garth, a young black man. Assuming that the men in white sheets aren't intent on holding a fair and impartial trial, Garth takes to the woods as the Klansmen lynching party hunts him down.

The story is set in Atoka County, Alabama, where race relations are balanced on a knife edge. The rape of a white woman by a black man triggers off a campaign of Ku Klux Klan violence, including the castration of a black youth, which in turn leads to retaliation by black extremists such as O.J. Simpson. Thrown into the struggles are Lee Marvin (the town sherriff who knows that racism is bad but tolerates it in order to cling to a degree of order) and Richard Burton (a landowner who sympathises with blacks, but is haunted by memories of what the Klan did to his grand father).

The film contains at least one unwatchable rape scene and some tasteless dialogue. It also suffers because Burton is so clearly miscast as a southern sympathiser (his accent is dodgy and he seems disinterested in the story). However, it takes a highly charged theme and deals with it interestingly and provocatively. The violence jolts you out of your chair and forces you to think about the two sides of the argument. The climax is memorable and leaves you feeling empty and sick, especially at the waste of life caused by the single-minded, lethal actions of racist extremists.

IMDB

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The Klansman (1974)

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The Klansman (1974)

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The Klansman (1974)

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Cast:
Lee Marvin … Sheriff Track Bascomb
Richard Burton … Breck Stancill
Cameron Mitchell … Butt Cutt Cates
O.J. Simpson … Garth
Lola Falana … Loretta Sykes
David Huddleston … Mayor Hardy Riddle
Luciana Paluzzi … Trixie
Linda Evans … Nancy Poteet

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