#271: Black Dynamite
Release Date: October 16th, 2009
Format: Streaming (Tubi)
Written by: Byron Minns, Scott Sanders, and Michael Jai White
Directed by: Scott Sanders
4 Stars
Black Dynamite is a love letter to ‘70s blaxploitation films, and it really is that sense of love that makes it so special. Shot quickly and cheaply by director Scott Sanders in just 20 days on 16mm, Black Dynamite is about a Vietnam vet and Kung Fu expert, the titular Black Dynamite, who hits the streets in the 1970s to find the drug pusher who killed his younger brother. Along the way Black Dynamite will have to partner with hustlers in stylish polyester suits and hos with hearts-of-gold, all while kicking ass and taking it to the man (and maybe even finding love).
It turns out that the drugs and corruption lead all the way to the White House, where Black Dynamite must Kung Fu fight the film’s final boss, President Richard Nixon (with an assist from the ghost of Abraham Lincoln).
The film looks overly saturated and cheap, the actors sometimes flub their lines, and there are a thousand silly sight gags (my favorite is a cutaway shot to a pimp that looks like Captain Kangaroo).
The movie is a great time, and very funny, but kudos to Sanders and his screenwriting partners Byron Minns and star Michael Jai White for never indulging mean-spiritedness. This is a movie that loves all of the textures and endearing flaws of those low-budgeted blaxploitation movies they remember from their childhoods, and they choose to celebrate the genre, rather than simply parody and mock it.
As Black Dynamitelearns, love conquers all. Can you dig it?
Postscript: Black Dynamite came out two years after Robert Rodriguez’s and Quentin Tarantino’s grindhouse double-feature, Planet Terror and Death Proof. Although Tarantino/Rodriguez share the same love of exploitation movies as the filmmakers of Black Dynamite, it seems like they were too scared to commit to the bit when it came to making their own parodies. Rodriguez shot Planet Terror with expensive digital cameras and edited in film grain to make it look authentically low-budgeted, and although Tarantino shot Death Proof on 35mm and physically damaged the print to give it a grindhouse effect, he still utilized a $30 million budget and all of his technically wizardry when making it, to the point where it doesn’t really feel like an exploitation movie at all. It just feels like a Tarantino movie. In contrast, with its sub-$3 million budget, 20-day shooting schedule, public domain stock footage, and inexpensive Super 16mm film, Black Dynamite was a bold artistic gamble that paid off big time. It’s got more heart and integrity than those other two films combined.
