{"id":7816,"date":"2020-06-14T06:59:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-14T03:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/the-final-comedown-offers-wisdom-bloodshed-and-angry-catharsis\/"},"modified":"2020-06-14T06:59:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-14T03:59:00","slug":"the-final-comedown-offers-wisdom-bloodshed-and-angry-catharsis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-final-comedown-offers-wisdom-bloodshed-and-angry-catharsis\/","title":{"rendered":"#\u2018The Final Comedown\u2019 Offers Wisdom, Bloodshed, and Angry Catharsis"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3f9c9ace9a8\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3f9c9ace9a8\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-final-comedown-offers-wisdom-bloodshed-and-angry-catharsis\/#Whats_it_about\" >What\u2019s it about?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-final-comedown-offers-wisdom-bloodshed-and-angry-catharsis\/#What_makes_it_sublime\" >What makes it sublime?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-final-comedown-offers-wisdom-bloodshed-and-angry-catharsis\/#And_in_conclusion%E2%80%A6\" >And in conclusion\u2026<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#\u2018The Final Comedown\u2019 Offers Wisdom, Bloodshed, and Angry Catharsis<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div><em>Welcome to\u00a0<strong>The Prime Sublime<\/strong>, a weekly column dedicated to the underseen and underloved films buried beneath page after page of far more popular fare on Amazon\u2019s Prime Video collection. We\u2019re not just cherry-picking obscure titles, though, as these are <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">movies<\/a> that we find beautiful in their own, often unique ways. You might even say we think they\u2019re sublime\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cSublime \/s\u0259\u02c8bl\u012bm\/: of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/hr>\n<p>The urge to watch movies that are entertaining and unchallenging in these grim times is overwhelming and normal, but I tend to go the opposite direction. I\u2019ve gotten better since the terror attack on the Parisian concert venue in 2015 sent me into a four-hour spiral of increasingly violent and grisly <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">YouTube<\/a> videos \u2014 look, we all deal in our own ways \u2014 but I still typically turn towards dark entertainment when trying to smother real-world horrors.<\/p>\n<p>All of which is to say that I\u2019m drawn toward movies like <strong><em>The Final Comedown<\/em><\/strong> (1972) in response to ubiquitous <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> stories and cell phone videos featuring acts of abuse by police officers, the overwhelming abundance of which are committed against Black Americans. This early 70s feature tackles the problem head on and highlights the sad truth making the film timeless for all the wrong reasons. Nearly fifty years later, and this \u201cgreat\u201d country of ours still hasn\u2019t gotten its shit together on a very simple premise \u2014 Black lives matter.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Whats_it_about\"><\/span>What\u2019s it about?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Johnny Johnson (<strong>Billy Dee Williams<\/strong>) is a young man pushed to action by a country unwilling to grow up and do better by its citizens. He\u2019s harassed by cops on the streets, he loses jobs due to racist bosses, and the only way he sees to survive is through fighting. Together with friends and like-minded associates he forms a radical group along the lines of the Black Panthers \u2014 they\u2019re never named, but the idea is familiar \u2014 and as the film opens they\u2019re embroiled in a running gun battle with hundreds of the city\u2019s police officers. Johnny\u2019s shot leaving the others to fend of the cops and secure medical attention for him, and as all of it unfolds the film moves into flashbacks from the perspective of various characters.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re made privy to the conversations and police transgressions that led Johnny to this life, we see how a group of young, White liberals attached themselves to the cause even as they fail to comprehend the cost, and we watch older generations \u2014 both Black and White \u2014 argue for complacency over action. Each time we return to the gun battle, more bodies fall on both sides, and by the time the credits roll the streets are running red with the blood of Blacks, Whites, and boys in blue.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_makes_it_sublime\"><\/span>What makes it sublime?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Poster The Final Comedown\" height=\"534\"  src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/poster-the-final-comedown.jpg\"  width=\"350\"><\/img>Posters of Angela Davis and Huey P. Newton hang on Johnny\u2019s wall in a brief opening montage that also includes a rat running around in a little girl\u2019s bedroom, cops gunning down a Black man, Black people heading off to work for White business owners, and more. The contrasts and core argument are clear from the start of writer\/director <strong>Oscar Williams<\/strong>\u2018 debut feature. As a director he would follow it with <em>Five on the Black Hand Side<\/em> (1973), <em>Hot Potato<\/em> (1976), and <em>Death Drug<\/em> (1978), but he\u2019s probably best known for writing <em>Black Belt Jones<\/em> (1974) and <em>Truck Turner<\/em> (1974). For all their varied success and genre-hopping, though, none of those films can touch the raw anger and seething emotion of <em>The Final Comedown<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Williams\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">script<\/a> is inspired by Jimmy Garrett\u2019s play, <em>We Own the Night<\/em>, but while there\u2019s evidence of an origin on the stage to be found here in some of the main setups and character interactions, the film finds its cinematic footing in various violent set-pieces. Dozens of cops and radicals alike are shot to death with several falling off roof tops or out windows, and the action is all done on a no-frills budget \u2014 some with squibs, some without, it doesn\u2019t matter \u2014 propelled by an electrifying jazz-funk score from composer Wade Marcus and musician Grant Green.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an ultra-low budget exploitation movie \u2014 Roger Corman himself reportedly contributed a whopping $15k towards the production \u2014 as evidenced by the poster (showcasing the film\u2019s alternate title, <em>Blast<\/em>) working hard to get butts into seats, and it\u2019s arguably an early entry in the so-called blaxploitation genre. It feels more in line with something like <em>The Spook Who Sat By the Door<\/em> (1973), though, as it\u2019s a call to arms rather than entertainment with romanticized, heightened, or exaggerated anti-heroes as lead characters. These are everyday Black Americans, and Williams reminds viewers of that each time his film pulls away from the action. Johnny\u2019s antics seem extreme to some including his mother and some White friends\u2019 parents, but his litany of frustrations and growing hopelessness is laid bare through glimpses of the racist world he\u2019s a part of.<\/p>\n<p>The film\u2019s main target is the police, obviously, and Williams\u2019 script pulls no punches on that front as we witness abuses both minor and murderous at the hands of the cops. Their transgressions are the key instigation leading to the central gun fight of the film, and Williams doesn\u2019t shy away from showing them brutalized and gunned down too. The end is inevitable, but getting there is a long, drawn-out fight with massive casualties on both sides, but if it\u2019s somehow unclear where Williams\u2019 allegiance sits look no further than the scene of a cop being shot through a window causing his face to slide down the glass leaving his nose resembling that of a certain barnyard animal.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Final Comedown\" height=\"500\"  src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/The-Final-Comedown-3.jpg\"  width=\"700\"><\/img><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we have to die,\u201d says Johnny, \u201cthen let it be so that the language of the young brothers and sisters behind us can be the dialogue of living men.\u201d He\u2019s as sincere in the belief that things can be better as he is that getting there requires bloodshed, and it adds an additional layer of tragedy into the film\u2019s theme as this isn\u2019t a war he chose to fight \u2014 it\u2019s a war he has to fight. Not everyone agrees with his methods as some within his community suggest \u201cIt\u2019ll work out, just give it time,\u201d while a young, well-meaning White woman offers that he could just drop out of society to avoid its expectations. \u201cWe can\u2019t drop into nothing because we never had nothing to drop out of,\u201d he replies, adding that her only hope at understanding would be if she could wake up Black on Monday morning.<\/p>\n<p>No mere action movie, this is a film fueled by emotion and rage with themes that in a better world would be seen as historical instead of evergreen. It acknowledges that no group (outside of the cops) is a monolith \u2014 some Blacks disagree with Johnny, some Whites support his cause \u2014 while insisting that it\u2019s a problem that can\u2019t be solved without unity, understanding, and support from all directions. The film\u2019s ending isn\u2019t very optimistic in that regard, but recent events in the real world suggest that the tide might actually be turning.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"And_in_conclusion%E2%80%A6\"><\/span>And in conclusion\u2026<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>\u201cMy dad died fighting Nazis,\u201d says one of Johnny\u2019s friends, \u201cbut he died fighting the wrong ones.\u201d It\u2019s an insanely powerful and sadly prescient line as half a century later the fight against racially fueled police brutality and the abuses of a system that devalues Black lives continues on a daily basis. As raw and clunky as the film is at times, as clear as its low budget is, there are moments, dialogue, and sequences of absolute beauty and power. One example sees armed Black men and women reciting lines from the Declaration of Independence. \u201cWe hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal,\u201d they say in unison, and it\u2019s a reminder that no matter how eloquent the words, it\u2019s ultimately action that gives them power.<\/p>\n<p>Want more sublime Prime finds? Of course you do.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/best-amazon-prime-the-final-comedown-1972\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>if you want to watch Movies or Tv Shows go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/dizi.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dizi.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a> <\/span> for forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#\u2018The Final Comedown\u2019 Offers Wisdom, Bloodshed, and Angry Catharsis&#8221; Welcome to\u00a0The Prime Sublime, a weekly column dedicated to the underseen and underloved films buried beneath page after page of far more popular fare on Amazon\u2019s Prime Video collection. We\u2019re not just cherry-picking obscure titles, though, as these are movies that we find beautiful in their&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[15951,15954,1394,15953,15952,1354,1361,1372,1396],"class_list":["post-7816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-the-final-comedown-offers-wisdom","tag-a-film-fueled-by-emotion-and-rage-with-themes-that-in-a-better-world-would-be-seen-as-historical-instead-of-evergreen","tag-amazon-prime","tag-and-angry-catharsis","tag-bloodshed","tag-columns","tag-movies","tag-streaming","tag-the-prime-sublime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}