What It’s About: In the 60s two brothers and their closest friend-Raymond Moffat (former Washington Redskin Roy Jefferson), Junior Moffat (Haskell V. Anderson III) and Ned Tiese (Le Tari)-are tired of living under the thumb of the KKK in the deep south. They join the Army so they can use military training to protect themselves. The trio meets up with an officer who trains his men to think and fight like the Viet Cong and beat them at their own game.  Upon returning to their hometown the Moffats and Tiese decide they aren’t going to take it anymore.  They organize voters, enlist the aid of churches to get the word out and try to vote the creeps who won’t do anything about the rape out of office. Unfortunately, the county government and the KKK leadership are one and the same, and they immediately strike back-first shutting down the voter registration office, then killing a man and trying to pin it on Raymond. With no options left, an all out war between the Klan and the trio is on….

Why Watch it Today?: Nathan Bedford Forest, who founded the KKK, was born today in 1821.  I can think of no better way to “honor” his memory than with this rough, gritty, independent Blaxploitation film which features one KKK branch being thoroughly outmaneuvered and out fought by African-American army vets.  Brotherhood of Death suffers from many of the downsides of later period, lower budget independent Blaxploitation films.  The film sometimes has to tell rather than show, looks cheap, the acting is very uneven and the Vietnam scenes are overly ambitious (clearly shot in the southern U.S. and using WWII surplus with few actors) but if you can get past these downsides it’s a decent action/revenge film. The final confrontation is clever and makes the Klan look both despicable and ridiculous.  The leads aren’t great actors but get the job done with enough panache that you don’t mind, while the actors playing  the Klan are the strangest looking bunch of mutants I’ve seen in a film like this.

Where to Get It:  Amazon