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Top of the Heap (1972)'s comments
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Siskoid
George Lattimer (Top of the Heap's writer, director and star Christopher St. John) is a cop who gets no respect at work, at home, or on the street, and he's going to crack. This a movie that uses blaxploitation tropes to covertly deliver a piece of literary naturalism where, despite the character's ambitions, he can't get anywhere. What makes it less heavy than the later (but possibly indebted) Bad Lieutenant is George's surreal day dreams of being the first black man on the moon. But this streak of afrofuturism, while initially a contrast to his real life, may well just be ironic. All exploitation aside, Top of the Heap is a strong portrait of the cognitive dissonance that comes with protecting a system that puts you and people like you down, and the depressing pointlessness of trying to change things from the inside - not that George ever claims he's trying to... he's already a disappointed man on the edge by the time we meet him.