Truck Turner is a 1974

1974 in film

The year 1974 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 7 - Blazing Saddles is released in the USA.*August 7 - Peter Wolf, lead singer of The J...

 blaxploitation

Blaxploitation

Blaxploitation or blacksploitation is a film genre which emerged in the United States circa 1970. It is considered an ethnic sub-genre of the general category of exploitation films. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, although the genre's audience...

 film, starring Isaac Hayes

Isaac Hayes

Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...

 and Yaphet Kotto

Yaphet Kotto

Yaphet Frederick Kotto is an African-American actor, known for numerous film roles , and his starring role in the NBC television series Homicide: Life on the Street .-Early life:Kotto was born in New York City, the son of Gladys Marie, a...

, and directed by Jonathan Kaplan

Jonathan Kaplan

Jonathan Kaplan is an American film producer and director.Kaplan was born in Paris, France. He is the son of film composer Sol Kaplan and actress Frances Heflin; the nephew of actor Van Heflin. He is the brother of actresses Nora Heflin and Mady Kaplan...

. The screenplay was written by Michael Allin, Jerry Wilkes and Oscar Williams. Isaac Hayes

Isaac Hayes

Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...

 also scored the music for the soundtrack.

Synopsis

Truck Turner (portrayed by Isaac Hayes) is a former professional football

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

 player who becomes a bounty hunter

Bounty hunter

A bounty hunter captures fugitives for a monetary reward . Other names, mainly used in the United States, include bail enforcement agent and fugitive recovery agent.-Laws in the U.S.:...

 (along with his partner Jerry) in search of a bail-jumping pimp in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

. After a shootout where Truck has to use deadly force to kill the pimp, Turner becomes a marked man and is targeted by hired assassins.

Cast

• Isaac Hayes
  Isaac Hayes
  Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...
  
   — Mack Truck Turner
• Yaphet Kotto
  Yaphet Kotto
  Yaphet Frederick Kotto is an African-American actor, known for numerous film roles , and his starring role in the NBC television series Homicide: Life on the Street .-Early life:Kotto was born in New York City, the son of Gladys Marie, a...
  
   — Harvard Blue
• Alan Weeks — Jerry
• Annazette Chase — Annie
• Nichelle Nichols
  Nichelle Nichols
  Nichelle Nichols is an American actress, singer and voice artist. She sang with Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton before turning to acting...
  
   — Dorinda
• Sam Laws — Nate
• Paul Harris — Richard Leroy Johnson
• Charles Cyphers
  Charles Cyphers
  Charles Cyphers is an American actor who has starred in many films and on television. He is known in the horror movie community for his work in the films of John Carpenter, especially his role as Sheriff Leigh Brackett in Carpenter's 1978 hit horror movie Halloween. He reprised this role in the...
  
   — Drunk
• John Kramer — Desmond
• Scatman Crothers
  Scatman Crothers
  Benjamin Sherman "Scatman" Crothers was an American actor, singer, dancer and musician known for his work as Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show Chico and the Man, and as Dick Hallorann in The Shining in 1980...
  
   — Duke
• Dick Miller
  Dick Miller
  Richard "Dick" Miller is an American character actor who has appeared in over 100 films, particularly those produced by Roger Corman, and later in films of directors who started their careers with Corman, including James Cameron and Joe Dante, with the distinction of appearing in every film made...
  
   — Fogarty
• Bob Harris — Snow
• Jac Emil — Reno
• Stan Shaw — Fontana
• Wendell Tucker — Wendell
• Earl Maynard
  Earl Maynard
  Earl Maynard is a bodybuilder and professional wrestler as well as a film actor, producer and director from Barbados.-Bodybuilding:Maynard won the 1964 Universe - Pro - NABBA bodybuilding competition - part of the Universe Championships, the 1965 Universe - IFBB - now the World Amateur Bodybuilding...
  
   — Panama
• Tara Strohmeier
  Tara Strohmeier
  Tara Strohmeier is an actress from the seventies who appeared in a number of memorable B-movies, many of them made for big drive-in theater business and have since acquired large cult followings....
  
   — Turnpike

Release on DVD & HD

• In 2001 it was released on DVD.
• In 2010 it was digitized in High Definition (1080i) and broadcast on MGM HD
  MGM HD
  MGM HD is an all high-definition television channel. It features commercial-free movies from MGM's library of approximately 1,200 movies mastered in a high-definition-compatible format as well as feature films from their library of 4,100 theatrical titles...
  
  .

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Truck Turner was composed by Isaac Hayes. Although many regard it as Shaft's equal composition-wise, the soundtrack never managed to reach the mass popularity of the Shaft soundtrack, mainly due to the financial decline of stax records and was originally released on a double record album on vinyl which are mostly found in the "bargain bins." However, in 1993, it was released in a double-CD album alongside Hayes' other lesser-known soundtrack for the movie "Three Tough Guys" and again released on its own CD in 2002.

Tracklist:

1. "Main Title Truck Turner"
2. "House Of Beauty"
3. "Blues Crib"
4. "Driving In The Sun"
5. "Breakthrough"
6. "Now We're One"
7. "The Duke"
8. "Dorindas Party"
9. "Pursuit Of The Pimpmobile"
10. "We Need Each Other Girl"
11. "A House Full Of Girls"
12. "Hospital Shoutout"
13. "You're In My Arms Again"
14. "Give It To Me"
15. "Drinking"
16. "The Insurance Company"
17. "End Theme"