Bustin' Loose (1981)
Review by Cosette
Film:
DVD:

Screenplay by Roger L. Simon, adapted by Lonne Elder III from a story by Richard Pryor
Directed by Oz Scott
Starring Richard Pryor, Cicely Tyson, Ángel Ramírez, Jimmy Hughes, Edwin DeLeon

Released by: Universal.
Rating: R.
Region: 1
Anamorphic: Yes.

My Advice: Avoid it.

Joe Braxton (Pryor) is a lifetime criminal who, in order to deal himself out of jail, agrees to drive eight special needs children and their ladylike caretaker, Vivian Perry (Tyson), from Philadelphia to their new home on a farm outside of Seattle. The kids are a motley assortment of hoodlums, including a blind boy who keeps trying to drive the bus, a pyromaniac, and a girl who was forced into prostitution from the age of nine and keeps hitting on Braxton.

The kids do their best to make Braxton’s life miserable while Perry continually chastises his crass language and crude behavior, threatening him with a call to his parole officer. Braxton tries to connect with the kids by teaching them to play strip poker (a game which he loses) and various other educational activities as they travel across the country. Despite bus breakdowns, run-ins with the Ku Klux Klan, and surprise financial trouble with the farm, Braxton becomes a stand-up guy who would do anything to help the children and their guardian, and they love him in return.

Ah, Richard Pryor in 1981. Definitely after his peak in the 70s, but not quite as messed up as the later strung-out Pryor. Although you wouldn’t think of him fitting into a movie with kids, it actually works okay for a while. Sure, you get all of the standard foul language and racially based humor as any other of his films, but there’s also a kindler, gentler side to his character as well. Which is actually why the film doesn’t work. Although the movie is very funny at times, it gets a bit more serious as it deals with the more somber and tragic backgrounds of the kids.

As Braxton tries to help the kids with their problems, it gets less and less believable. My favorite bit is when he screams and curses at the kids while telling them they’re not losers, hitting one child in the process. The balance between humor and drama does not work at all as the film progresses. By the end of the film, the names and problems of most of the kids are still very unclear, and there’s really no reason for the plot to resolve as it does. Thank goodness the names of the kids’ characters are listed with the actors’ names at the end, because I would not have known them otherwise.

The plot ends up rather stilted at the end, too, with a nearly deus ex machina save and love has to be in the air. None of which makes a bit of sense. The music echoes this theme of not doing well with the non-funny bits of the film. Most of the music is very typical late 70s scary wah-wah pedal guitar (which is kind of fun, actually), and Roberta Flack created original music for the film, which is quite pleasant. That is, up until the song “Love is Everywhere,” which is repetitious and unfortunately played multiple times during the film.

There are no features, unless you want to watch it in Spanish or with subtitles. It’s a shame that no one could put together something either about how Pryor developed the story or how Roberta Flack was brought in to do music, but perhaps it’s for the best that no one wasted their time creating features for a film that seems so obviously a flop. Perhaps the film could have been saved with a cleaner ending, and less unnecessary touchy-feely stuff from Pryor. It’s worth watching if you have seen every other Pryor film and this one would complete your canon. Otherwise, I would advise staying away.