Rating: 
Summary: An outrageous spoof of '60's stereotypes-with SOUL!!!
Review: Putney says its got to have soul. These are the words of one Putney Swope, inadvertant advertising executive, CEO, CFO, etc. From token African American on the board to his lordship, Swope (the movie) follows the meteoric career of Swope (the man) and, along the way, gores as many self-righteous oxes as it can find on the political spectrum of 1960's America. Racists are portrayed as buffoons, even black ones. In the end, ordinary human weeknesses, not "the system", threaten to bring Putney down. END
Rating: 
Summary: A sweeping, mordant indictment.
Review: Race relations, corporate greed, and advertising are the targets of this sharp, but drolly despairing film. The expansiveness of its cynicism is well beyond what having seen Spike Lee's films prepares one for.
Rating:
Summary: They don't make 'em like this anymore
Review: Raw, funny, and original, Robert Downey's masterpiece just leaves every other attempt at clever comedic film coughing violently in its hip dust. If you liked this one, check out Greaser's Palace and, to an extent, The Knack...and How to Get It.
Rating:
Summary: Remember when film was interesting?
Review: Robert Downey's greatest success. This film was originally described as a 'metaphor for everything' when it first came out. It is an irreverent, unpredictable, relentlessly hilarious, almost dadaist black and white opus dei that was inspired by the directors work in an advertising firm.It focuses on a 'token' black man on the board of directors for a upscale advertising agency, whom ends up running the entire organiztion when his constituents vote for him thinking no one else would while electing a new leader. The actors were all part of a very peculiar clique and appear en masse in a wide spectrum of subculture films from the era. Anyone with an even passing interest in non-conventional cinema should watch this movie religiously. Its been a huge influence on my own tastes, and this sentiment if shared by virtually everyone Ive ever met who has seen it.
Rating:
Summary: An old friend....
Review: That NEVER shows on television!! Not even cable!
This has got to be the most outrageous comedy about blacks to come down the pike ever, until Keenan Ivory Wayan's "I'm Gonna Get You Sucka" came out. The movie centers around a token black guy who sits on the board of an ad agency, and, due to the death of the chairman of the board during a meeting he is present at, gets voted chairman simply because all the voters thought nobody ELSE would vote for him!
You might think that Putney, being the token black guy on an all-white ad agency board of directors, would be a dyed-in-the-wool Uncle Tom...far from it! His redo of the agency, renamed "Truth & Soul, Inc.", turns it into the media equivalent of the Symbionese Liberation Army, with militants, "Shaft"-like bodyguards, Antonio Vargas dressed as a black muslim, complete with burnoose, and a staff FULL of major attitude. The insane, slapdash themes and staging of commercials the agency does are viewed as inconoclastic by the effete clients they take on, and their ads actually increase sales for some companies!
This is the kind of film which ITSELF is made so crudely and sincerely, that it works on that level with a heavy dose of cheeky cleverness. It's the kind of crude, but savvy cleverness that only existed in the sixties, too. "A Thousand Clowns" had the same sort of feel to it.
The movie is done mostly in black and white, photographed WAY too dark in some spots, with some color scenes for featured commercials...and you'll be surprised to see a young Shelly Plimpton singing a jingle with a VERY negroid young man named Ronny Dyson who had once been a habitué of the 60s Merv Griffin Show. You'll also recognize "Dr. Sidney Greenbaum" from the "M*A*S*H" TV show and Laura Greene, one of those nameless character/commercial actresses that were all over TV and movies in the 70s...
The treatment of the white characters in the film is, to be polite, gruesome...they're ridiculed, pushed around, mistreated and disdained. Blacks are lampooned mercilessly too, as when a white delivery boy finally snaps after being constantly told to use the freight elevator. He breaks into the board room during a meeting, brandishing a gun, and a black bodyguard, who previously had made a point of whipping out HIS gun whenever someone wouldn't cooperate, keeps searching his pockets and waistband for the gun when it's NEEDED in Stepin Fetchit-style; not to mention the "Birth of a Nation" way the black run agency is portrayed and the outrageous behavior of the black characters themselves...this movie barbeques EVERYBODY....
Anarchic, smart-assed, angry, funny, crude...words to describe this late-60s specimen. It's worth every penny and if you're a boomer, funnier than (hades)! It also might be pointed out that this movie is directed by Robert Downey Jr.'s dad, Robert Downey SENIOR...!
I'm not making any comments beyond that.
Rating:
Summary: An old friend....
Review: That NEVER shows on television!! Not even cable! This has got to be the most outrageous comedy about blacks to come down the pike ever, until Keenan Ivory Wayan's "I'm Gonna Get You Sucka" came out. The movie centers around a token black guy who sits on the board of an ad agency, and, due to the death of the chairman of the board during a meeting he is present at, gets voted chairman simply because all the voters thought nobody ELSE would vote for him! You might think that Putney, being the token black guy on an all-white ad agency board of directors, would be a dyed-in-the-wool Uncle Tom...far from it! His redo of the agency, renamed "Truth & Soul, Inc.", turns it into the media equivalent of the Symbionese Liberation Army, with militants, "Shaft"-like bodyguards, Antontio Vargas dressed as a black muslim, complete with burnoose, and a staff FULL of major attitude. The insane, slapdash themes and staging of commercials the agency does are viewed as inconoclastic by the effete clients they take on, and their ads actually increase sales for some companies! This is the kind of film which ITSELF is made so crudely and sincerely, that it works on that level with a heavy dose of cheeky cleverness. It's mostly in black and white, photographed WAY too dark in some spots, with some color spots for featured commercials...and you'll be surprised to see a young Shelly Plimpton singing a jingle with a VERY negroid young man named Ronny Dyson who had once been a habitué of the 60s Merv Griffin Show. You'll also recognize "Dr. Sidney Greenbaum" from "M*A*S*H" and Laura Greene, one of those nameless character/commercial actresses that were all over TV and movies in the 70s... The treatment of the white characters in the film is, to be polite, gruesome...they're ridiculed, pushed around, mistreated and disdained. Blacks are lampooned mercilessly too, as when a white delivery boy finally snaps after being constantly told to use the freight elevator. He breaks into the board room during a meeting, brandishing a gun, and a black bodyguard, who previously had made a point of whipping out HIS gun whenever someone wouldn't cooperate, keeps searching his pockets and waistband for the gun when it's NEEDED Stepin Fetchit-style; not to mention the "Birth of a Nation" way the black run agency is portrayed...this movie barbeques EVERYBODY.... Anarchic, smart-assed, angry, funny, crude...words to describe this late-60s specimen. It's worth every penny and if you're a boomer, funnier than (hades)!
Rating: 
Summary: People, nobody will vote for him, so....
Review: thats the logic behind this movie. A single man makes a busiess for the people and by the people One man single handedly turns big business civic minded. Putney, a hep cat, makes the business grow. Not bad, a little heavy handed at times, but not bad
Rating:
Summary: People, nobody will vote for him, so....
Review: thats the logic behind this movie. A single man makes a busiess for the people and by the people One man single handedly turns big business civic minded. Putney, a hep cat, makes the business grow. Not bad, a little heavy handed at times, but not bad
Rating:
Summary: Flawed but sometimes brilliant lampoon.
Review: The "token Black" in a Madison Avenue advertising agency in '69 manages to become Chairman of the Board and strives to bring more humanity, more "Truth and Soul", to the advertising world. His only problem is that he is a terrible businessman, and the company is doomed.
A powerful statement about the destructive way we (still) sell destructive products unfortunately has alot of dated, "period" humour, with ethnic references that can only offend viewers today.
[Students of comedy should note the presence of writer-"media prankster" Alan Abel, in the role of Mr. Lucky].
Rating:
Summary: How many syllables Mario?!
Review: The above line is just one of many that you will be quoting for days after watching this great, great movie. I'm probably not smart enough to write the review this movie deserves, as it touches on themes I am unaware of. I laughed a lot, though. If you like movies that emerged from the countercultural America of the 1960's and you haven't seen this you are in for a rare treat. After I first viewed it around ten years ago I watched it over and over. I am so glad to finally have this gem on DVD.
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