Arrow Review - Putney Swope (1969)

Having never previously seen, or heard of, Putney Swope, by the time it was all over I wish I hadn’t bothered, it’s infuriating and definitely an acquired taste.

I’m not saying I missed the point; pretty sure the point was driven into my brain like a nine-inch nail.

Everything from big business corporate issues, race reverberations, ideas of friendship and truth behind advertising, just to name a few obscure so called plot points of disenchanted people and political beliefs are thrown into a heavy mix.

Filmed in glorious black and white besides randomly slotted in satiric commercials, the immediate elevation of a coloured man into the CEO role of an advertising agency voted in by default sends the place into furore.
The one-time agency’s musical director, Putney Swope (Arnold Johnson) sarcastically says he’ll make minimal changes, this extends to extremes throughout causing chaos the further time goes on. The board is replaced with people of colour with and without professional experience, followed by rebranding as, Truth & Soul.

Supposed comical situations occur in a blaze of uncomfortable moments featuring an array of gender, colours, sizes and walks of life are represented as the punchline.

More recently, Sorry to Bother You (2018) covered similar ground in a modern world with somewhat fewer annoying semantics and situations. Putney Swope is dated, noisy, unfunny and mind challenging, easily one of the worst movies I’ve ever endured.

Like all movies, it is an accumulated taste of the individual and this Robert Downey Sr directed cult favourite, has its fans. Just because I thought it was dreadful and a shotgun to my sanity does not mean it is not worth seeking out this restoration, hardcore film scholars may appreciate the 1960s experimental aspects.

Although still irritating to the limit of exhaustion, Alan Garfield and Antonio Fargas are the best actors on show here in a shouty cast.

Also providing the voice, dubbing over lead actor Johnson, the filmmaking father of Robert Downey jr has a long career of weird features including above average, Hugo Pool (1997).

Don’t expect high art and just because I thought Putney Swope was dreadful doesn’t mean you will, however you have been warned.