...and in fact, Hit! is an ambitious mixture of action and character study. At 134 minutes, one might suspect the director of overweening pride, but in fact there's little in the way of flab here. Billy Dee Williams proves that he should have been a major star and Richard Pryor is, as always, brilliant. Add a terrific supporting cast (Warren Kemmerling, Paul 'They Came From Within' Hampton, Sid Munson), a host of slimy French drug dealers, and a heaping dollop of revenge for a thoroughly satisfying blast of 70s-style crime dramatics.

This film essentially begins in Washington D. C. with a high school girl named "Jeannie Allen" (Tina Andrews) dying after injecting some heroine provided by her boyfriend. Meanwhile, in France, the small group of people responsible for exporting the drugs to America are living the life of luxury with not a care in the world. At least, they don't have much to worry about at the present time. What they don't know, however, is that a rogue federal agent by the name of "Nick Allen" (Billy Dee Williams) has begun recruiting certain people in an effort to not only locate where the drugs that killed his daughter came from-but to kill everyone involved as well. Now rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a decent film for the most part based largely on the solid performance of Billy Dee Williams. Admittedly, the film tends to run a bit long (134 minutes) and has a few rather slow scenes here and there. But even so, I found it to be entertaining enough for the time spent and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Starring Billy Dee Williams and Richard Pryor. With a title called Hit! This has all the hallmarks of a 1970s Blaxploitation movie but that is a deception.

Nick Allen (Billy Dee Williams) is a federal agent who goes rogue when his teenage daughter dies of a heroin overdose.

Realising that getting the pushers is not enough and the US government not interested in the big fish who live a life of luxury France.

Allen organises his own team in secret. People who have suffered loss because of drugs. He trains them and takes them to Marseilles and they are at first unaware that this is not an official government sanctioned mission.

This is a revenge thriller with a black lead. Dee Williams is suave and smooth, cunning and resourceful. He uses devious tricks to recruit his team. Pryor has a straight role as Mike Wilmer, a welder whose wife was killed.

The film was influenced by The French Connection but also has elements of The Dirty Dozen. The finale reminded me of The Godfather. This was released by Paramount Pictures and at one point, a victim of a hit is in the cinema watching the French version of The Godfather.

Sidney J Furie directs without much panache although there are a few good setpieces. It is at times illogical and overlong. The film could easily had been 30 minutes shorter.

John Alonzo lends some distinctive cinematography and gives the film some style. Hit! has become an obscure film but it does have a good performance from Pryor who apparently ad libbed some of his lines. It also is an important movie in 1970s black cinema because it was not a blaxploitation movie but a revenge movie with two black actors.