- Year
- 1973
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 110 min
- Director
- Michael Campus
- Updated
- 9 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (54/100)
- Also known as
- The Mack and His Pack
The Mack
Half drama, half documentary of 1970s Oakland. The real players are in it.
Half crime drama, half documentary of 1970s Oakland. A man out of prison rises through the pimp hierarchy while his militant brother pushes him toward the community instead, and the film's real texture comes from shooting on real streets with real local figures, including the actual Players' Ball.
It is rougher and more ambivalent than the studio blaxploitation films, conflicted about the life it depicts, and it became hugely influential on hip-hop decades later. Richard Pryor provides manic energy as the sidekick.
More sociological document than genre film, and richer for it.
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Written about
- Blaxploitation, 1971 to 1975
Melvin Van Peebles caught gonorrhea on his own set, filed a workers' comp claim, and bought more film stock with the settlement. Four years later the studios had mined the audience out and moved on.
Filed alongside
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