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A Hero Ain't Nothin' But A Sandwich

1977, Movie, PG, 107 mins

A Hero Ain't Nothin' But A Sandwich: Review

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A cityside drug story, A HERO AIN'T NOTHIN' BUT A SANDWICH is about young Scott, who hates his foster father, Winfield, and takes up with friend Green and neophyte narcotics supplier Blunt. As may well be imagined, Scott cannot escape the seduction of the drugs and is soon addicted as he relies more and more on Hooks, the head honcho in the area, for his supplies. This causes alienation from Winfield as well as from his grandmother (Martin, in the film's best performance), and the remainder of the picture depicts Scott's recovery. Brennen is good playing a social worker--so is Turman--but Groh, one of the teachers at Scott's school, is as bland as the script. Producer Radnitz has long prided himself on making sort-of wholesome pictures for family audiences. He even teamed with the Mattel toy company to back this one. In the past, Radnitz has been involved with several G or PG films that managed to have some excitement about them, including ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS (1964); SOUNDER (1, 1972 and 2, 1976); BIRCH INTERVAL (1977); and many others. But until this one, they've all had some sort of internal action to them--not car chases and people yelling "freeze" but a compelling force that drove the picture from start to finish. Unfortunately, that is not the case here; the film soon disintegrates into what feels like hours of dialog, philosophy, and street cant, with no locomotive to push it across the 107 minutes it takes. Based on Childress' novel and slowly directed by veteran Nelson (LILLIES OF THE FIELD; CHARLY; many others), this movie takes an intrinsically interesting topic (young city black hooked on drugs and saved from total ruin) and manages to make us yawn. The twist is that, in his attempt to keep from going too far with the subject, Radnitz has gone too far in the other direction. leave a comment
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