I, Dolemite Part IV: The Disco Godfather (2016 Video) User Reviews

Moore's Fall and Comeback

[Michael_Elliott · 5 December 2017]

I, Dolemite Part IV: The Disco Godfather (2016)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

The fourth and final look at the film career of Rudy Ray Moore centers in on THE DISCO GODFATHER, the 1979 film that pretty much ruined his career due to it trying to do more preaching rather than going for laughs. Through archival interviews we get to hear from Moore who talks about what went wrong with the picture as we also get an interview with his biographer Mark Jason Murray who adds in more details about the various issues with the film. Also interviewed are Ernie Hudson, Jimmy Lynch, Nicholas von Sternberg, Arledge Armenaki and Ronald Raschke. If you're a fan of the film in question then you'll certainly enjoy this 25-minute featurette that goes over its production but we also get stories about how Moore's career pretty much went away after this movie and how the rap generation helped give him some new life, which led to more work and a new Dolemite movie. This final film in the series certainly does a good job at filling in various details leading up to Moore's death and it is a nice little tribute.

Nifty retrospective doc

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 3 June 2020]

This 25-minute retrospective doc covers a good deal of interesting and informative ground on the making of the film "Disco Godfather" as well as the life and career of Rudy Ray Moore in the wake of the movie's commercial failure. Moore openly admits that "Disco Godfather" destroyed his film career because the drug use theme killed the picture's appeal to audiences. Cinematographer Arledge Armenaki and assistant cameraman Ronald Raschke relate some fun stories about their experiences as white crew members on a blaxploitation film. Moore's official biographer Mark Jason Murray points out that Moore was his own greatest PR agent, but alas also this own worst manager. Moreover, we also learn that while Moore's career floundered in the 1980's, he made a hugely successful comeback in the 1990's thanks to rap artists sampling his work and citing him as a major influence on hip-hop music. Worth a watch for fans of both the movie and Rudy Ray Moore alike.