BLACK DYNAMITE
US, 2009, 84 minutes, Colour.
Michael Jai White, Sally Richardson- Whitfield, Tommy Davidson, Arsenio Hall, James Mc Manus, Nicole Ari Parker, Mykelti Williamson, Bokeem Woodbine.
Directed by Scott Sanders.
Looking at the poster, one might be thinking that this is a Blaxploitation film of the 1970s. But, it was made in 2009 a 22-episode animated version of Black Dynamite, continuing his ex-CIA exploits.
The film is both a homage to the Blaxploitation films of the time, films with Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, Isaac Hayes (with echoes of themes from Shaft and music by Curtis Mayfield) as a po-faced parody of the characters, themes and exploits of those films.
The film has a lot of dialogue that might have been essential to those films of the 70s, but it is spoken here with enormous seriousness, almost declaimed with rhetorical tones. While the points are being made, there is also the invitation to laugh at the ultra-seriousness of the dialogue. Which means then that this film is taking itself seriously and not taking itself seriously at the same time.
Martial arts expert, Michael Jai White is black dynamite (with some flashbacks to his role as a child, promising his mother to take care of his brother, upset with his brother seeming to take drugs, his life in an orphanage). The film opens with a typical street scene, a gang confrontation, the Mr Big shaded in his car, confronting his agents and accusing one of betrayal, and the accused being gunned down – Black Dynamite’s brother.
Black Dynamite is approached by the CIA, with memories of service in Vietnam, again with a tribute to as well as parody of the war in Vietnam itself, American participation as well as the films about the war. Later, the CIA chief will be revealed as the villain, but working for a super-villain, Chinese/Vietnamese lords who are selling drugs which have the effect of reducing in size the penis of a black man.
Black Dynamite calls on his friends, associates from the past, is challenged by a woman who works at the orphanage (Sally Richardson- Whitfield) who spurns him and then, of course, instantly falls for him (and the sex scenes elaborated in visual cartoons of Karma Sutra like positions). There are all kinds of confrontations, shootouts, the elimination of a lot of local bosses. Black Dynamite has been horrified in talking with the young orphans at the institution and their drugtaking and checking with him about dealers.
Then, everything is at peace. However, there is a final confrontation between Black Dynamite and the Chinese dealers – and, most of his friends and allies being killed off spectacularly and indiscriminately.
The guest appearances from African- American stars include Mykelti Williamson, Bokeem Woodbine, Arsenio Hall, Tommy Davidson.
One presumes that an African- American audience would particularly enjoy the story, the familiar themes about gangs in the neighbourhoods, drug dealing, the Mr Bigs, in the way that this this is all played seriously but also tongue-in-cheek.
