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‘Top of the Heap’ is a film that practically screams the 60s, then samples the tenets of the 70s to create a singular auditory aesthetic. It is a captivating work – through repeated temporal shifts, imagination, and dreams – that reveals the life of a Washington D.C. police officer battling his own demons.
Such is life for officer George Lattimer, with Lattimer’s character being played by Christopher St. John, who captures the essence of confusion paired with anger remarkably well (he also wrote, produced, and directed the film). In addition to being overworked, Lattimer also has a wife Viola who constantly complains, a girlfriend by the name of ‘Black Chick’ who behaves like a parasite, and a boss Captain Walsh who does not recognize his existence or potential. As a result, all Lattimer possesses that is uplifting are far-flung and colorful pride-centric fantasies that play out in a world he created.
The centerpiece of the movie is Lattimer’s extravagant fantasies. These fantasies are so wild and intense that they single handedly reveal his most private desires along with the deepest fears of his consciousness.
In a 1973 interview with Los Angeles Times, John St. Paul recalls, “Fanfare [the film company that distributed it] cut it brutally taking almost all the fantasy segments out, and I guess they thought black people don’t have fantasies.”
In Top of the Heap; though, fantasies are undoubtedly evident. One scene features a couple, in an African jungle setting, who are Lattimer and his girlfriend playing nude hide and seek. What unfolds next has people wowing, as the pair finds a picnic table and at the center of attention is their favorite, flawlessly sliced watermelon. They pick it up, shred it into pieces, and in a fit of complete madness, smear the juicy remnants all over their bare limbs.
While serving with NASA, Lattimer achieves victory, being the first African American in space, only to discover one of his fellow astronauts carelessly tossing litter out of the spaceship. At this point, the camera zooms out revealing the set for the moonwalk. Lattimer is getting ready to depart for the moon, this multi-fantasy film culminates here.
Lattimer, in one of his dreams or fantasies, strolls through a lonely mid-century Western-styled town and just like that, he spots his elderly mother, who just passed away, but this time young and full of life. She sits in a chair placed on the corner of the street. After a break dance, he turns the corner, completely stunning the crowd at the ‘welcome home’ ticker tape parade. There is something quite strange about it though, an event maybe ruined with the appearance of a shotgun’s nozzle hiding behind an old lace curtain.
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