In a more enlightened age when interracial relationships are widely accepted, films like HONKY are pretty much abandoned by relevance and exist primarily as a time capsule. This is, nonetheless, a fairly decent 20th century American love story wherein the all-American blond-haired white boy finds himself quite happy in the loving arms of a spirited young ebony goddess. Predictable tensions ensue, and culminate in a surprisingly bitter resolve.

Being that this film was made in a time of social tumult and radical change in America, it probably had a fair amount of appeal to younger audiences(there is quite a bit of a “flower child” element here…in one scene, a boy on a bridge pelts swimming ducks with rocks. Our leading lady touches him softly, saying “you’d better learn how to love, boy-child”. We then see him tossing picked flowers into the water- LOL!)

This is not at all a “blaxploitation” item, as its title and time-period might lead some to believe. Still, HONKY is a fairly worthy low-budget romance/drama, and though it is(or at least…*was*) a rather exploitive picture, it approaches its subject matter with at least some degree of sensitivity and purpose.

4.5/10…see also the largely neglected but groundbreaking 60s picture “ONE POTATO, TWO POTATO” which demonstrates a far more proficient handling of similar issues.