ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Uriah43 "Willie Dynamite" (Roscoe Orman) is a pimp who has a stable of 7 prostitutes who earn him a very lucrative living. Life is good. However, one day a rival pimp by the name of "Bell" (Roger Robinson) decides to call a meeting to discuss organizing into a collective group and allocating territories for each of them to conduct their business in. Willie is the only one who doesn't care for the idea and incurs the wrath of Bell in the process. Not only that, but a social worker named "Cora Williams" (Diana Sands) becomes concerned about one of his prostitutes by the name of "Pashon" (Joyce Walker) and decides to put Willie out of business. The fact that she is sleeping with the Assistant District Attorney makes her much more dangerous than Willie realizes. Suddenly things mysteriously start going wrong for him. Big time. Anyway, rather than divulge the entire story, I will just say that this was an interesting film depicting the life of a pimp from his point of view. The problem with that scenario is that in order to be realistic it had to show the ugliness within him. As a result, it became difficult to sympathize with him or develop any concern with his plight. On the other hand, because of the arrogant and illegal tactics the police used it was also difficult to side with them either. Likewise, the ending wasn't well-developed and seemed to leave the story hanging. In any case, in spite of all of the challenges and flaws this was still an entertaining film for the most part. Not great by any means, but for a blaxploitation film dealing with this particular subject matter I suppose it deserves a rating of slightly better than average.

Scarecrow-88 What is uncanny about Willie Dynamite is that the film is able to take this despicable, self-absorbed, sadistic pimp and humanize him. How director Gilbert Moses and actor Roscoe Orman(as Dynamite)pull this off is worthy of applause. The destruction left by his devious activities are of focus in this blaxploitation effort. Cora(Diana Sands, in a solid performance), a social worker, attempts to pry a lovely young prostitute, Pashen(Joyce Walker)from the clutches of Dynamite's powerful influence. Willie Dynamite decides to take his pimping solo, splitting from his colleagues, securing wealthy clientèle for his girls. Dynamite lives it up lavishly, while his girls are treated to second hand "glamor" wardrobe they believe is high-class. Meanwhile, Dynamite's fellow pimps are seeking after him, not appreciative of his decision to separate from their network which brought forth quite an enterprise. The police are after Willie, hoping to pin the right crime on him that'll stick, forcing him off the streets. Dynamite has a reputation for getting his girls hooked on narcotics, when their worth is depleted and value diminished sending them away to fall into destitution. Cora, understanding his dangerous nature, wishes to see Willie taken down, soon recognizing that despite his corrupt ways, he's still a human being in need of guidance.The film starts out as almost a comedy where these pimps, with their pomp and attitude, driving their colorful cars and wearing their vibrant custom suits, fur coats, and flashy hats, are almost caricatures, over-the-top creations broadly performed by the African-American cast. But, as the film progresses, it gets dead serious and we see how the life style of a pimp can, in fact, lead to tragedies of severe magnitude. Preshen almost succeeds in getting away from the whoring business, but through Willi's commanding dominating personality, he's able to convince her to stay, with the consequences of her brief imprisonment leading to a devastating abuse threatening a potential modeling career. Dynamite's mother(..and their family)have always been told that he was an important music producer, explaining the gifts and other extravagances he could give her..the truth revealed and the possible incarceration of her son yields a terrible reaction. And, as competition arises, one of Willie's top girls is killed by a throat slash during an altercation over rich clients. It's a domino effect that leads to Willie's downward spiral, everything that happens contributed to his bad behavior, repercussions deriving from his mistakes and avarice. It's a hoot seeing Orman, a fixture on Sesame Street, in the role of a lecherous pimp! Shooting on the streets in many cases adds a grit and grime providing an authenticity that gives the material presented extra punch. Orman, at times, can be pretty electrifying, and his character, for most of the running time, is easy to root against for he's not very likable at all. Great chase scene as Willie attempts to break free from two detectives on his tail, while hoping to recover hidden drugs stashed away for safe keeping.

MartinHafer This film is brought to you by the letter "P". Kids, let's think of some words that start with "P",...In probably the weirdest case of casting I can think of, Roscoe Orman plays the title character--who is a pimp! Years later, Orman would achieve some notoriety playing "Gordon" on SESAME STREET--now THAT'S interesting casting!! Seeing this 70s "super-pimp" all decked out in furs and pimp costume is very, very surreal--especially with the amazingly over-the-top style and language and crazy pimp-mobiles! Now, although Willie is on top of his game, his world begins to crumble when an ex-hooker turned social worker decides that enough is enough. She encourages the prostitutes to dump this jerk and either go into business for themselves or try something legitimate. Willie responds by threatening the lady. She decides to declare war on Willie and things look really, really bad for the pimp-meister.However, when things go worst for Willie, the movie takes a very, very strange twist with the social worker--one that rather blindsided me. While not at all believable, it was certainly an interesting twist.While this is a so-called "blaxploitation" film in many ways (especially due to the lead being a pimp), the film is much different than you'd expect. First, it's story is stronger than the genre--with some complexity. Second, the film isn't all "black and white" with cartoon-like characters and silly stereotypes. The cop who hates Willie the most is a Black cop who's a Muslim. Third, the film lacks the nudity and hard edge you'd normally see. And finally, the story doesn't seem either anti-White or glorify evil by the time it's finished--and as such, is a much more three dimensional film that's worth a look.Needless to say, this film that, at times, glamorizes pimps may seem like the ultimate misogynistic film, but stick with it. Rabid feminists probably should not watch this film or they'll suffer a stroke, but if they'd bear with it, by the end it does have a positive message and is not a "pro-pimp" film like THE MACK!!!

movieman_kev Roscoe Orman is Willie D, a sad sack of a pimp who embodies the Godfather of WWF(E)'s saying "Pimpin' ain't easy". His pimp-mobile is constantly getting towed, his hoes get busted, he's getting audited, and to top it off some uppity knee-jerk liberal activist wants his bitches to unionize. It would be among the best Pimpsploitation movies, if it didn't get so damn melodramatic towards the end. Willie's pimping clothes are, in a word, Dynamite (especially this one hilarious huge hat he wears at one point). By the way, this isn't the last of Willie, oh no it ain't. He got his ass together, changed his name to Gordon R. and now he can show you how to get, how to get to Sesame Street. Hope he wasn't the one to pimp Ernie out to Bert.Best Line: (Willie in a line-up shouting about his coat) "It's Lamb!! IT'S LAMB!!!"My Grade: C Where i saw it: Black Stars