| Gordon's War | |
| Starring: | Paul Winfield |
| Director: | Ossie Davis |
| Producer: | Robert Schaffel |
| Studio: | Palomar Pictures |
| Distributor: | 20th Century Fox |
| Runtime: | 90 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Music: | Angelo Badalamenti (as Andy Badale), Al Elias |
| Cinematography: | Victor J. Kemper |
| Budget: | $1.6 million[1] |
| Gross: | $1,250,000 (US/ Canada rentals)[2] |
Gordon's War is a 1973 action film written by Howard Friedlander and Ed Spielman, and directed by Ossie Davis. It stars Paul Winfield as Gordon Hudson.
A Vietnam veteran returns home to find drug dealers and addicts now rule his old neighborhood, and that even his own wife has fallen victim to drugs. Together with three of his buddies from Vietnam, he fights back.
Using tactics borrowed from war that involve them not using the cops, they find that the culprit to all of the trouble is a couple of white salesmen.
The music heard throughout the film has become a well-respected album in its own right, performed by Badder Than Evil, Barbara Mason, New Birth and Sister Goose And The Ducklings.
The most of songs were composed and performed by Badder Than Evil, a funk / R&B project of Albert Sahley Elias (credited as Al Elias) and Angelo Badalamenti (credited as Andy Badale). Their track Hot Wheels (the chase) has been sampled by scores of artists including Public Enemy, Coldcut and Blade.
The New York Times called it an inconclusive film, one that had a "format and substance—a black theme dramatized, for practical, constructive purposes—remain exceeded by its goal."[3] Jacob Knight of Birth.Movies.Death called it "one of the most valuable works to come out of '70s Blaxploitation."[4]