Product Details

• Actors: Joe Don Baker, Angela Bassett, Bobby Brown, Marcus Chong, Richard A. Dysart
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Polygram Video
• VHS Release Date: July 16, 1996
• Run Time: 123 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303620264
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,100 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
This simple-minded account of the Black Panther Party is insulting to anybody who ever admired the positive qualities of the organization or at the very least took their militancy seriously. Melvin Van Peebles wrote the thin script, and son Mario directs it with little of the penetrating and expansive sensibility necessary to understand the subject in its broadest context. The presence of a big cast with a lot of familiar names and faces--including real-life Panther contemporaries Jerry Rubin and Dick Gregory--give the project a false air of importance. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Essential Film, January 17, 2000

By	Mr. Kev Hill (Brentwood, Essex, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panther (DVD)

Directed by Mario Van Peebles (also responsible for "New Jack City" and "Posse") comes the story of the inevitable birth of the Black Panthers who the FBI categorised as Public Enemy Number One. But behind all The Man's propaganda lies the truth, another chapter in the Afro-American's struggle for emancipation, superbly summed up by the adopted slogan "if you ain't part of the solution, then you're part of the problem". Make no mistake, the Panthers led by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale weren't formed as a Black Supremist organisation but rather to look after the Black Community and to exercise their Constitutionally protected human rights. Look, listen and learn from this film - why the Panthers were formed, their prime reason for existence, the Community Programmes they instigated and also the response from the Authorities, both public and subversive. Although told from a potentially biased viewpoint, the film does not shy away from recognising the Ghetto had its own share of low-lifes and which the Panthers tried to do something about. Such was their success in mobilising and inspiring the Black community as never before it's no wonder the Authorities ran scared. Their ultimate contingency plan however was not only morally abhorrent but also backfired big time. A superb dramatisation of the humble beginnings of a local movement in Oakland, California illustrating just how it grew into such a political tour-de-force. Like I said, look, listen and learn. An essential film. The Mad Ferret, London, England.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXTREMLY UNDERRATED!!!!, March 6, 2005

By	Jason G. Smith - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Panther (DVD)

ANYBODY WHO'S OPEN-MINDED,DOWN WITH CULTURE,AND UNDERSTAND THE PERSPECTIVE OF THIS MOVIE WILL ENJOY IT!! PEOPLE LIKE TOM KEOGH WHO GAVE IT A BAD SUMMARY AND OTHER REVIEWS THAT DIDN'T GIVE IT 5 STARS DOESN'T HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THEIR TALKING ABOUT, TRUST ME!! MOVIES LIKE THIS,MALCOLM X,HIGHER LEARNING,BOYZ IN THE HOOD,MENACE 2 SOCIETY,DO THE RIGHT THING,HE GOT GAME ETC,ETC, WILL NEVER WIN ANY AWARDS BECAUSE IT'S BASE ON AFRICAN AMERICAN EVENTS AND CERTAIN PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO SEE OUR HISTORY THAT EXPLAINS WHY THE MEDIA SAID IT WAS A 2 HOUR LIE BACK IN '95,AND THIS MOVIE WAS DISCONTINUED,BUT WE CAN SEE TOP GUN,GODFATHER,STAR WARS AND QUETIN TAROTINO'S OVERRATEED MOVIES IN BEING THE BEST MOVIES EVER AND GETTING OSCARS!(DON'T CARE IF I MISSPELLED HIS NAME!) BUT I DON'T BELIEVE IN OSCARS ANYWAYS,WE HAVE TO SELL OUT AND PLAY ROLES LIKE CATWOMAN OR THE STUPID OVERRATED KILL BILL JUST TO WIN. BLACK OR WHITE EVERYBODY SHOULD WATCH THIS MOVIE! IT WOULD OF BEEN A WISE CHOICE IF THE STUDIO WOULD RELEASE A SPECIAL EDITION DIGITAL REMASTERED IN SOUND AND PICTURE AND HAVE BONUS FEATURES LIKE THE PANTHER VIDEO THEME IN '95 AND IT WOULD HAVE MADE SENSE IF WAS RELEAESD IN FEBURARY SINCE THIS IS THE 10TH YEAR AND BLACK HISTORY MONTH,BUT IT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We shall not be moved., December 15, 1999

By	JOE G (A long way from Oakland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panther (DVD)

A must see for anyone who ever had to stand up to oppression in there life. Hughie, Bobby, Tyrone, Judge, Cy, Reverend Sloaken.....its all there from start to finish. From the first minute brother Hughie called a pig "a pig" the movie put chills through my body. Let me keep it real for all those reviews that are sleeping on Panther... you see, Panther wasn't about shooting cop's, no no, it was about getting a mans attention. That's what Mario Van Pebbles does, he grabs you and leads you into a story, a place where people have no choice but to put aside their fears and do what they feel in their heart is right. You do not have to wear a dasheeky to be proud of what those young brothers in Panther accomplish. The Panthers set the stage for some control on authorities who are out of control. Police brutality has not ceased, nor will it ever cease, however the more people stand up for themselves as a communinity the more humanity we will all have. Hats off to Mario Van Pebbles who is not afraid to portray to the masses what most other medians of communication are afraid to say. That the government tried to contain the Black Panthers by pumping cheap dope into the gettos. Little did the government know that the dope was gonna spread like wild fire right into the arms of some of their own children. From start to finish Panther beautifully spins a story of people who overcome the overseers and rise as one to accomplish justice. A must buy to watch over and over again. To all the people who gave this prolific movie a bad rating I have one final thing to say, "Like crabs in a barrell trying to bring each other down" ALL POWER to the PEOPLE