Black Dynamite

Film

Black Dynamite is a 2009 film starring Michael Jai White, Salli Richardson, Arsenio Hall, Kevin Chapman and Tommy Davidson. It is a spoof of blaxploitation films of the 1970s. The film is directed by Scott Sanders and co-written by White, Sanders, and Byron Minns, who also co-stars. Former CIA agent Black Dynamite must avenge his brother's death while cleaning the streets of a new drug which is ravaging the community.

The film had a trailer and funding even before a script was written. Black Dynamite was shot in a twenty day schedule in Super 16 film. The film was released on October 16, 2009 in the United States for only two weeks. Despite being well received by critics, Black Dynamite only grossed $242,578 in the United States. Black Dynamite was released for home video on February 16, 2010.

Plot

Black Dynamite, a former CIA agent, vows to clean up the streets after his brother is killed by a shady organization. O'Leary, Black Dynamite's old CIA partner, reinstates Black Dynamite back into the agency because they do not want him seeking vengeance by himself. Trying to get to the bottom of his brother's murder he finds out that his brother was actually working for the CIA. Black Dynamite also finds out the shady organization is filling the black orphanages with heroin. He declares war on local drug dealers and successfully cleans up the streats.

After discovering the government's involvement in the drug ring, Black Dynamite steals the ledger belonging to the corrupt Congressman James. Dynamite and his team must storm the warehouse to capture a big shipment. They learn of code Kansas but find no drugs in the warehouse, only Anaconda malt liquor. In a diner they decipher code Kansas to be a plan to use Anaconda malt liquor to shrink black men's penises. Back at the warehouse Black Dynamite finds O'Leary is part of the evil plan but is just following orders.

Black Dynamite heads to Kung Fu Island, where he discovers that the Fiendish Dr. Wu created the secret formula put in Anaconda malt liquor. After defeating him in battle, Black Dynamite discovers from Dr. Wu the true mastermind of the entire operation

Black Dynamite then travels to the White House and confronts President Richard Nixon, who has been giving the orders from the beginning. After Black Dynamite defeats Nixon in a kung fu battle, he begs for his life and his plan is foiled.

Cast

• Michael Jai White as Black Dynamite
• Arsenio Hall as Tasty Freeze: White sent Hall the script and "when he read that there's a Captain Kangaroo pimp in this thing" he accepted the role.
• Tommy Davidson as Cream Corn
• Obba Babatunde as Osiris
• Kevin Chapman as O'Leary
• Richard Edson as Dino
• Darrel Heath as Militant 2
• Buddy Lewis as Gunsmoke
• Brian McKnight as Sweetmeat
• Byron Minns as Bullhorn
• James McManus as Richard Nixon
• Phil Morris as Saheed
• Miguel A. Núñez Jr. as Mo Bitches
• Salli Richardson as Gloria
• Tucker Smallwood as Congressman James
• John Salley as Kotex
• Chris Spencer as Militant 1
• Mike Starr as Rafelli
• Nicole Sullivan as Patricia Nixon
• Kym Whitley as Honeybee
• Mykelti Williamson as Chicago Wind
• Bokeem Woodbine as Black Hand Jack
• Cedric Yarbrough as Chocolate Giddy-Up
• Roger Yuan as Fiendish Dr. Wu
• Justine Joli, Charlotte Stokely, Charmane Star, Erika Vuitton, and Stacey Adams as Ladies of Leisure

Production

White originally thought of the idea around April 2006 for Black Dynamite while listening to James Brown's Super Bad. White had also held blaxploitation movie parties where he picked up the "funny inconsistencies" in the films. White rented costumes, photographed himself, and showed it to Sanders who was attracted to the idea.

The original trailer was recorded even before the film went into production in order to raise money. It incorporated scenes from old blaxploitation movies with old voice overs from Adolph Caesar. The trailer was shot on Super 8 mm film for around $500. White and Sanders showed it to Jon Steingart who told them "Oh my God. Okay, we can raise the money for this."

After they were financed the writing of the script took about three weeks. They worked independently until they realized Sanders' script was on the wrong track, he was able to help more in the rewrite. During the writing process Minns' almost "encyclopedic knowledge" of blaxploitation helped them write the script faster.

Filming

The cinematographer Shawn Maurer shot the film in Super 16 Color Reversal Kodak film stock to get the high contrast and saturated look. The film was then converted to digital for editing. The filmmakers supplemented their shoot with period stock footage from Sony Pictures Stock Footage. Using films such as Missing in Action, Charlie's Angels, and Police Woman. Black Dynamite was shot over twenty days in Los Angeles with several green screen days and one re-shoot day. The film had such a low-budget that they had to "think in the same ways that they had to think" in the older blaxploitation movies. Sanders and White had a difficult time keeping the modern world out of the movie. Sanders was worried about anything modern that could destroy "the whole illusion" while White worked individually with actors to keep their tone correct.

Score

Adrian Younge plays all instruments on the soundtrack and wrote the lyrics on every song except "Shine", "Cleaning Up The Streets", and "Gloria". His influences on the score were Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes, Ennio Morricone, and Wu-Tang Clan. Mooricone greatly influenced Younge from the classical European funk music while Wu-Tang helped him focus on making music they would want to sample. Sanders gave Younge almost 100% leeway but he still had to work hard to impress others working on the film.

Release

Black Dynamite premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, where Sony Worldwide Acquisitions picked it up for distribution for "nearly $2 million". On June 14, the film went on to win the Golden Space Needle Audience Award for Best Film at the Seattle International Film Festival, beating The Hurt Locker among other films. On August 25, 2009, it was announced that Apparition, a new distributor headed by Bill Pohlad and Bob Berney, would handle the film's domestic release.

Critical reception

The film received positive reviews and now holds an 84% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 44 reviews, the general consensus being the film is "A loving and meticulous send-up of 1970s blaxsploitation movies, Black Dynamite is funny enough for the frat house and clever enough for film buffs". On Metacritic Black Dynamite has a 65/100 falling in the generally favorable reviews.

Entertainment Weekly's critic Owen Gleiberman wrote, "Black Dynamite blends satire, nostalgia, and cinema deconstruction..." noting Sanders captured the language and feel of blaxploitation. Roger Ebert awarded the film three stars out of four, and said, "Black Dynamite gets it mostly right, and when it's wrong, it's wrong on purpose and knows just what it's doing." He went on further to say that the film meticulously reproduces a 1970s blaxploitation and brings back much-needed gratuitous nudity.

Critic A. O. Scott of The New York Times considered Black Dynamite would be a better "five-minute clip on YouTube" then a feature film. Scott thought the acting was "stiff" and the dialogue to be "painfully self-conscious." James Greenberg writing for The Hollywood Reporter believed the film would not hold audience's attention because among all the detail there was no real story.

Box office

Black Dynamite had a limited release to only 70 theaters and a run time of two weeks. The film's opening weekend grossed $131,862 for a two-week total of $242,578. This placed it at number 264 for all films released in 2009.

Home media

Black Dynamite was released on February 16, 2010 on DVD and Blu-ray. Both releases contain deleted scenes, a "making-of" featurette and a ComicCon Q&A panel but the Blu-ray has an extra featurette and trivia track.

External links

Wikiquote: Black Dynamite – Zitate

• Official site
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