Rent Across 110th Street (1972)

A Brutally Honest Film - Across 110th Street review by griggs

I expected a blunt “racist cop vs Black gang” Blaxploitation story, but this hit harder and deeper—messier, more human, and far more interesting. It’s less about crime than about survival in a system designed to chew people up. Harlem’s being torn apart by mob control on one side and a mostly white police force on the other, with Black lives caught in the middle of a war that’s never really about them.

No one’s clean. Mattelli’s a crooked cop, but you can feel the wear and regret in him. Pope plays it straight, but his hands are tied by a system that doesn’t reward integrity. Harris is terrifying and tragic all at once—a man shaped by brutality. The film doesn’t judge, and neither does the city—it just lays out the human wreckage.

And Harlem itself? A central character to the film itself. Collapsing, one brick at a time. Sirens, sweat, Womack’s funk—it all seeps in. A brutal and honest film.