Tribute to The Film Foundation 2021 / Putney Swope / USA 1969
The most popular film by the rabble-rouser American cult filmmaker is an acerbic satire about a black man in an advertising agency who accidently gets elected as chairman by its white board. Made at the height of the Black Power movement, Putney Swope is a scathing attack on mainstream media’s racist treatment of African-Americans.
The most popular film by the rabble-rouser American cult filmmaker is an acerbic satire about a black man in an advertising agency who accidentally gets elected as chairman by its white board. Initially adopting a militant approach by replacing the admen with a staff of black employees and rejecting business from alcohol and tobacco companies, the titular hero gradually loses himself in the corporate grind. Made at the height of the Black Power movement, the film is a send-up of advertising culture, a scathing attack on mainstream media’s racist treatment of African Americans, and a self-reflexive look at white fears. Putney Swope was ahead of its time, subsequently influencing the likes of Spike Lee’s Bamboozled and Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You.
Joseph Fahim
84 min / Color, Black & White, DCP
Director Robert Downey Sr.
/ Screenplay Robert Downey Sr.
/ Dir. of Photography Gerald Cotts
/ Music Charley Cuva
/ Editor Bud S. Smith
/ Art Director Gary Weist
/ Producer Robert Downey Sr., Henri Pachard
/ Production Herald Productions
/ Cast Arnold Johnson, Laura Greene, Buddy Butler, Antonio Fargas
/ Sales American Genre Film Archive
Robert Downey Sr. (b. 1936, New York – 2021, New York). Selected filmography: Balls Bluff (1961, short), Babo 73 (1964), Chafed Elbows (1966), No More Excuses (1968), Putney Swope (1969), Pound (1970), Sticks and Bones (1973, TV), Rented Lips (1988), Too Much Sun (1991), Hugo Pool (1997), Rittenhouse Square (2005, doc.).
American Genre Film Archive
3908 Avenue B Austin, TX, 78751, Austin
United States of America
E-mail: [email protected]
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