Dingy, sad, and understated. The blaxploitation equivalent of The Friends of Eddie Coyle.

"Quietly influential and a minor classic."

Hardly a masterpiece of mystery or complex plotting, but it skates by on account of its raw style and grit and unrelenting violence. You can feel the heat and dirt of Harlem in every scene. Also interesting because it shares a couple actors (Yaphet Kotto and Gloria Hendry) with Live and Let Die, the "blaxploitation" Bond movie that came out the next year.

110!

The grimy 70's atmosphere, lack of a real main character, sense of realism, pervasive feelings of anger... what a fantastic combination. Even though the story isn't all that special, everything surrounding it worked wonderfully. Sudden but great ending too.