black dynamite (2009)

Black Dynamite is a Vietnam war veteran, ex-CIA agent and the baddest mutha on the planet. When his younger brother is gunned down by a shady Mr. Big, he vows to clean up the streets and find the killers, no matter what the cost.

“Black Dynamite” is a 2009 spoof of 70s blaxploitation cinema that is so expertly crafted and carefully realised that it could easily pass as a genuine forgotten classic. The film stock is grainy and washed out while the direction is intentionally flat; a camera struggling to keep up in the small boxy rooms that pass for sets, with the occasional fit of ludicrously low-fi and outdated camera trickery adding to the authentic feel.

The soundtrack (courtesy of hip-hop producer Adrian Younge) adds to the faithful period ambience, as dark basslines, jazzy flutes and funky guitars float through scenes like cigarette smoke filling a dive bar, while recurring motifs bookend moments of significance in a gloriously unsubtle fashion. The affection of all involved is obvious; this is less a mocking pastiche and more a “warts and all” love letter to a long neglected and much derided genre.

Michael Jai White, who also co-wrote the film, absolutely nails the lead role, perfect in every aspect from his look to his attitude. He kicks ass, growls one liners and dispenses street wisdom with equal panache in a thunderous gut-punch of a comedic performance. It is quite simply a wonderful display of knowing ham acting couched in effortless cool and barbaric badassery. There is also real depth to his “performance within a performance”, expertly conveying the air of a man who believes himself far better than his low-rent surroundings. His eyes angrily dart to a boom mic that has dipped into shot and he briefly glares at the director when a supporting player starts reading out his stage directions (“Sarcastically i’m in charge”). There is so much fun to be had just watching him and enjoying the comedic nuances that the film almost deserves a second watch to do just that.

Although white is outstanding, this is a film where everyone embraced the concept and all of the cast are absolutely pitch perfect in their delivery. Actors in small roles deliver stilted performances that would have the director yelling cut on a porn set, while slightly bigger roles expertly recall the over-the-top jive talking and contextually inappropriate wannabe preaching of so many blaxploitation actors.

The writing is also spot-on, perfectly sending up the conventions of blaxploitation cinema. The main revenge plot is deliciously hokey and contrived while the twists are knowingly outlandish and ridiculous. Much of the dialogue is a precise approximation of 70s movie jive talk cranked all the way up to 11 (“I said split, shake the scene you turkeys”) while the completely nonsensical grand speeches characters occasionally lurch into perfectly skewer the half baked cod-philosophising that trash cinema all too often descends into. There is still room for more conventional humour amid the lampoon, with plenty of fun visual gags and precise wordplay among the nonstop barrage of jokes, delivering far more hits than misses.

At first glance “Black Dynamite” seems like an unsustainable idea for a feature film, but thanks to clever writing and perfect execution it never loses steam, wringing every last ounce of potential from it’s one-joke premise. This is a film chock full of quotable lines and memorable moments, a perfect confection crafted with love and care that deserves to be cherished by it’s audience as much as it clearly was by those who made it.