I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Truly Dreadful Film

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

What would happen to an ad agency circa 1969 that became appropriated by a cell of black radicals led by a gravel-voiced man with an affection for Fidel Castro duds? Watching "Putney Swope" doesn't offer much of an answer, but its quicksilver style and dark humor makes for a fascinating if frustrating experience.A Manhattan agency struggles with loser clients, less than a million a day in gross earnings, and a CEO splayed dead in the boardroom. To replace him, the board members (proscribed from voting for themselves) all cast their secret-ballot votes for the board's token black, Putney Swope (Arnold Johnson) knowing he won't win. Guess what? After taking control, Swope decides he'd rather sink the boat than rock it, replacing the white guys with various "brothers" and filling the airwaves with tasteless but surprisingly effective commercials.A counterculture sleeper hit when it came out in 1969, "Putney Swope" is not a story so much as a loose collection of blackout sketches tied to the strange title character, who has moral qualms about marketing booze, tobacco, and war toys but treats both staff and clients with naked contempt.Confronting a group of ingratiating clients, Swope (whose voice is dubbed throughout the film very gratingly by writer-director Robert Downey Sr.) demands a million each in cash, no please or thank you."Give us the name of your product, what its supposed to do, then take a walk," he says. "We don't need lames in the hallway.""Putney Swope" starts strong, opening with the white board members and Swope taking a meeting from a strange guy in jackboots, Nazi regalia, and a motorcycle jacket emblazoned with the words: "MENSA Chapter." He turns out to be a consultant who gives a four-sentence speech about beer and is gone. Then they get to arguing. One objects to Swope's recommendation about dropping war toys: "Deny a young boy the right to have a toy gun, and you'll suppress his destructive urges and he'll turn out to be a homosexual, or worse."Soon after the takeover occurs, however, the film loses its way. Downey seems at a loss as to what to do with Swope, and shifts the story into a series of vignettes about black radicalism and commercial parodies. The parodies run on too long and often misfire. The race angle is more interestingly presented, not so much because Downey is really exploring it so much as using it as a handy third- rail for his politically incorrect comedy. It's bold and daring but more than a little gormless, too.One worker suggests replacing coffee breaks with watermelon breaks. As two black men drag out a white client, he exclaims that he feels like an Oreo cookie. As he makes love to a woman in her bedroom, Swope pulls down her Sidney Poitier poster."Every single account pulled out!""I wish I pulled out! Too many dependents, baby!"Johnson seems lost in the central role, which I blame on Downey taking away his voice. Downey claimed he had to do this because Johnson kept forgetting his lines. If so, why didn't Downey let Johnson dub himself?Downey also spends too much time on Antonio Fargas, who wears Arab get-up (Swope: "Who do you think you are? Lawrence of Nigeria?") and talks a blue streak in what Downey says in his DVD commentary was largely improvisation. Fargas has the right in-your-face tone for this film, but his talking for effect becomes more wearying than funny.The best things about "Putney Swope" are the way it moves (credit editor Bud S. Smith and Downey) and the score by Charley Cuva, which is often brilliant. As a time capsule, it's fascinating, and you will laugh more than once. But it leaves an empty feeling.

Black and white satire of a Madison Avenue ad agency being taken over by blacks. They're headed by Putney Swope (Arnold Johnson) who is determined to change things. However he turns out to be even WORSE than his white predecessors. That's about as original as this gets.I'm sure this was considered daring and shocking in 1969 but it just seems silly today. The jokes are either unfunny (the president is a midget. HOW is this funny?), cruel or obvious and the film is full of unlikable characters. It's done in a very experimental way which makes it even harder to take...or understand. The movie just gets more bizarre and surreal as it goes along. The ending comes out of nowhere. To make it worse, with the sole exception of Johnson, ALL the acting is bad. Antonio Fargas (a regular in these types of films) is especially annoying as the Arab. This gets three stars because the commercial parodies (done in bright color) ARE amusing and there's a rare good line here and there. I heard this was a cult classic but this is more interesting than good. Skip it...unless you're in experimental 1960s films.

This film had about everything one could wish when viewing it originally, at the end of the 1960's decade. It was immensely entertaining, and provided a contemporary view of the many changes which had occurred during that period - and were still ongoing - in terms of the Black Power movement, Vietnam, and the volatile movement which followed the quieter, preceding postwar 1950's.All of this and one of the funniest films, then or now.Viewing it for the second time recently, I was surprised to find it as engrossing as when seen originally. Its humor is as funny, and its message as strong.And in viewing it now, you get all of this, while at the same time gaining the added enjoyment of its being a "period piece," and a superb chronicling of its this historic, turbulent time.

This movie shows that the free enterprise system and the quest for the almighty buck transcends all racial and ethnic barriers. Ultimately the market place determines the message that is sent to the public. This movie dramatizes that point. A conservative white-collar advertising company is taken over by a group of street-wise African Americans chaired by a no-nonsense black man who wants to make a buck and believes he can sell products by telling the the truth. But the movie shows that no matter how hard he tries to do something different, the market place and the political system demands that he conform, rendering him no different than his predecessors. Interesting, off-beat movie.