Bonnie Banfield

In contrast to most of the violence-laden "blaxploitation" films of the period, this low-budget effort eschews exploitation for humanity and domestic drama. Leonard Jackson plays a barber who is also the domineering head of a middle-class African American family. Jackson is forced to rethink his values when his previously docile wife joins their three children in rebelling against her husband's retrogressive behavior.

Gladys and John Henry Brooks (Clarice Taylor and Leonard Jackson) try to keep their family together in the midst of the changing social, political and sexual mores of the 1970s. Produced in response to the violent blaxploitation films that dominated the period, Five takes a more light-hearted look at African-American domestic life, providing a time capsule of mid-'70s attitudes and fashions along the way.

In contrast to most of the violence-laden "blaxploitation" films of the period, this low-budget effort eschews exploitation for humanity and domestic drama. Leonard Jackson plays a barber who is also the domineering head of a middle-class African American family. Jackson is forced to rethink his values when his previously docile wife joins their three children in rebelling against her husband's retrogressive behavior.

In contrast to most of the violence-laden "blaxploitation" films of the period, this low-budget effort eschews exploitation for humanity and domestic drama. Leonard Jackson plays a barber who is also the domineering head of a middle-class African American family. Jackson is forced to rethink his values when his previously docile wife joins their three children in rebelling against her husband's retrogressive behavior.