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Black Dynamite

Miguel Nunez, Obba Babatunde, Kevin Chapman

I was sitting next to Pastor Scott at a meeting in Atlanta, where the bishop of his church was speaking. Now everyone in the room had probably heard this man’s speech twenty or thirty times and he seemed to draw from the same small batch of stories. One of his favorites involved him going through the security line at the airport and how he forgot to remove the cross around his neck, setting off the alarm . The bishop always told the story in such a fashion that it appeared to have happened just the other day. As he launched into his tale of airport security, the audience got a bored look because the power of the story had gone as flat as two week old, opened champagne. Pastor Scott leaned over and whispered in my ear, “You would think he would have learned to have that thing off from around his neck after four or five trips to the airport.” Moral: You need to know your audience.

I like to think of myself as somewhat educated, but there are times while watching Dennis Miller’s old HBO show when he would go into a rant with references that were so obtuse and convoluted that I would be left scratching my head and having to consult an encyclopedia to get the joke. For a long time, I thought it was just me, but eventually I realized that almost everyone else was in my boat. When you have to explain your joke, you have failed. It is why I worried when I saw there was going to be another parody of blaxploitation cinema. The field has been mined in recent years by films like The Hebrew Hammer, Pootie Tang, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, and Undercover Brother and decades earlier by Rudy Ray Moore’s Dolemite series and Ralph Bakshi’s Coonskin.

The problem is, that except for Quentin Tarantino and losers like me, most of the audience was not even born until long after the genre had died. While rappers have picked up many of the costumes and colorful flares found in these films, most young people could not even name the two Presidents of the United States who were in office when the genre was at its height let alone one film of the genre like Shaft, Superfly, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Blacula, Cleopatra Jones, Coffy, Foxy Brown, or Mandingo or the major stars like Pam Grier, Isaac Hayes, Richard Roundtree, Fred Williamson and Jim Brown. Blaxploitation films are basically low budget films made by black filmmakers, staring black actors, geared towards innercity, urban audiences. The characters were flamboyant versions of stereotypes found in the community and the musical soundtrack usually had a funky, soul beat to it. Filled with violence, profanity and nudity, the heroes were often drug dealers, pimps or hit men who faced a corrupt white power structure of mobsters, cops, and politicians. Starting with either Shaft or Sweet Sweetback’s…, the genre was seen as an embarrassment by the NAACP, the Urban League and other organizations for its glorification of less than savory poor urban characters. What these organizations did not understand was that the protagonists would not let their circumstances defeat them. They took control of their lives. These were black power films. The character that died in the first reel was the antihero of these films. In contemporary terms, they were the black Stone Cold Steve Austins of their time. Today, only the clothes and hairdos of the hustlers are remembered. Blaxploitation was ultimately a victim of its own success. The quality of storytelling degenerated as less talented filmmakers entered the genre. Under constant social pressure and criticism, white studios abandoned these films.

While the heyday of the genre was only five years, its legacy is huge, especially when it comes to music. Hip hop culture cannot be understood without watching films like Willie Dynamite, The Mack, and Super Fly. The language, the fashions, the jewelry, the women, the glorification of violence and the iconic images are all there. Yet, when our current President of the United States was not even old enough to purchase a ticket to one of these films when the genre died, is it realistic to do another parody?

Mike Myers’ Austin Powers franchise was a parody of the old Matt Helm, Derek Flint, Jason King, and James Bond franchises and except for Bond, I doubt the average kid has seen any of those old films on late night television. Several of the jokes might have gone past younger viewers but Myers understood his audience and filled the movie with enough body humor and sex jokes so anyone could enjoy it. Michael Jai White, similar to Myers, is the star and creator of this parody. Unlike Myers who had an extensive comedy background from his time on “Saturday Night Live” and the Wayne’s World films, White is mainly a martial artist who has appeared as the muscle bound henchman in major Hollywood productions and in several minor films, the most notable being as Mike Tyson in the HBO movie and as Spawn in that superhero film.

Here he is Black Dynamite, a Vietnam veteran, kung fu fighting, former CIA badass who discovers that the “The Man has flooded the ghetto with malt liquor, pumped heroin into orphanages, and murdered his brother. Of course, there is campy dialogue, scantily clad women, velvet hats and capes. The film is not as over the top as I’m Gonna Git You Sucka and is missing the A grade humor of Austin Powers, but it works. White is able to get some of the aspects missing from most parodies of the genre, the raw masculinity, coolness and power found in them. Jim Kelly, Fred Williamson, and Jim Brown were genuine bad asses. White has the potential to be real action star. The movie is silly, even stupid at times, but a person can tell that White has a great love for these old films and tries to get even the minor details right. It opens at the beginning of the school year, where Hollywood traditionally buries films they do not believe in, so almost no one will see this film compared to the mediocre, high priced fare this summer. It is good, not great, but the ticket price is worth it just to see the ghost of Abraham Lincoln fighting along side of Black Dynamite. Still, you have got to know your audience, and it is clear that Hollywood has no clue who that is for this film.

Verdict: A Good Parody of A Forgotten Genre