Black Dynamite

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Movie
German title Black Dynamite
Original title Black Dynamite
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2009
length 84 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Scott Sanders
script Michael Jai White ,
Scott Sanders ,
Byron Minns
production Jon Steingart ,
Jenny Wiener Steingart
music Adrian Younge
camera Shawn Mason
cut Adrian Younge
occupation
synchronization

Black Dynamite is an American Blaxploitation - action comedy from 2009 with Michael Jai White , Tommy Davidson and Salli Richardson in the leading roles. Directed by Scott Sanders ; the script was written by White, Sanders and Byron Minns , who also starred. The plot revolves around the former CIA agent Black Dynamite, who avenges the death of his brother and clears the streets of a new drug. The film, which is a parody of the blaxploitation genre, had a trailer before the script was written. Black Dynamite was shot in Super 16 format in just 20 days . The film was released in the United States on October 16, 2009 (the official premiere took place at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival); it only ran in theaters for two weeks but was well received by the critics.

action

The film is set in the 1970s. Black Dynamite, a Vietnam veteran and former CIA agent , set out to clear the streets of drug dealers and criminals after his younger brother Jimmy was murdered by an underworld organization. O'Leary, a friend from his military and CIA days, turns him back into an agent as he tries to prevent Black Dynamite from vigilante justice. While investigating his brother's death, Black Dynamite learns that he was also an undercover agent for the CIA. Black Dynamite discovers that the criminal organization responsible for his brother's death also supplies heroin to orphanages, which are primarily used for African American children . He declares war on local drug traffickers, earning him the affection of Gloria, a Black Power activist who works in one of these orphanages.

After killing one of the masterminds of the drug trade, Rafelli, and discovering that the government is involved in the drug ring, Black Dynamite steals corrupt Congressman James' records , which contain details of illegal shipments, trade routes and warehouses. Black Dynamite storms two warehouses with his friend Bullhorn, the petty criminal Cream Corn, the Black Power leader Saheed, Gunsmoke and two other activists to intercept a large drug shipment. You won't find any drugs, but information about the secret operation "Code Kansas" and a large amount of "Anaconda" brand malt liquor . This government-made brand is known for its advertising slogan, "Gives You Ooooooo!" In a snack bar they decipher the advertising slogan and uncover the plan of the operation “Code Kansas”: African-American men are to be literally “emasculated” because the consumption of this malt liquor is supposed to shrink the penis - “Anaconda Malt Liquor gives you a little dick ". Gunsmoke, one of the activists who has already fallen victim to the plan, is killed by his friends to relieve him of his "suffering". The group returns to the warehouse where O'Leary is found to be part of Operation Code Kansas. Black Dynamite kills him and finds another clue to the secret operation.

Black Dynamite goes to Kung Fu Island, where he discovers that his old nemesis, Dr. Wu is responsible for developing the secret formula of "Anaconda Malt Liquor". After an uphill battle in which Saheed, the two activists, and Bullhorn die, Black Dynamite kills Dr. Wu and uncover the real mastermind behind the plan: the White House .

Black Dynamite travels by helicopter to the White House, where Cream Corn is killed by agents of the United States Secret Service . He confronts President Richard Nixon , who pulled the strings in the secret operation from the start. Black Dynamite defeats Nixon in a kung fu fight and threatens to expose Nixon with bondage and cross-dressing photos. Nixon asks Black Dynamite to kill him better; But the latter refuses and instead asks him to take care of "his people". The film ends with a monologue by Black Dynamite about his campaign for justice, while Gloria and Pat Nixon lie at his feet and watch him languidly.

production

“It's just a little too badass. That's the tone of the movie. Our humor comes from the fact that the movie is just a little too badass. "

- Scott Sanders, Director and Screenwriter : Interview with The AV Club website
Michael Jai White at the launch of the film at the 2009 American Film Festival in Deauville

Michael Jai White had the idea for the film Black Dynamite in April 2006, when he was listening to James Brown's "Super Bad"; Initially, the film and the main character should be named like that. White, who also organized themed parties on the subject of "Blaxploitation", rented costumes typical of the genre and took photos in them. He showed these pictures to Sanders, who was enthusiastic about the idea. One of these costumes can also be seen in the final scene of the film.

The original trailer was shot before the film went into production to raise funds for it. It contained scenes from old Blaxploitation films, which were backed with voice-over recordings by Adolph Caesar . The trailer was shot on Super 8 film on a budget of around $ 500 . Various pop culture references suggest that the film is set in the 1970s. The " running back of the Baltimore Colts " is named as the star of the film ; the team moved to Indianapolis between 1983 and 1984 . White and Sanders showed the trailer to Jon Steingart, who believed he could actually raise money for the production.

After funding was secured, the script was written, which took about three weeks to complete. During this time, the almost “encyclopedic knowledge” Byron Minns possessed of the blaxploitation genre proved helpful in completing the script more quickly.

Filming

Cinematographer Shawn Maurer used 16mm film from Kodak to shoot Black Dynamite in order to produce the high-contrast and oversaturated images typical of low-budget films of the 1970s. Then the raw material was digitized for editing. The recordings were supplemented with older footage from Sony Pictures ; so were other scenes of Missing in Action , Charlie's Angels and Police Woman used. Filming lasted 22 days. The budget of the film was so low at 2.9 million dollars that the production was similar to that of classic blaxploitation films. Sanders and White also found it difficult to avoid anachronisms . Sanders was concerned that any modern influence would destroy the "illusion" (of a classic film). White worked with the actors on a one-to-one basis to make sure the correct tone of voice was used.

As a tribute to the low production quality and the habit of only recording one take per shot for cost reasons , which was often the case in blaxploitation films, some film errors were intentionally built into the production. For example, in a scene in which Black Dynamite suddenly gets up from his desk, a red microphone attached to a boom protrudes into the picture. Some actors play the stage directions like their actual text (in one scene the actor playing an activist says "The militants turn startled" before speaking his actual dialogue, "How did you get in here?").

During the casting process , White sent a copy of the script to Arsenio Hall ; when he read that a "pimp in the style of the main character of Captain Kangaroo " was planned, he took on his role.

music

Adrian Younge played all the instruments and wrote the lyrics for all songs except "Shine", "Cleaning Up The Streets" and "Gloria". He named Curtis Mayfield , Isaac Hayes , Ennio Morricone and the Wu-Tang Clan as influences for the soundtrack . From Morricone, Younge mainly took up the classical European influence, while he valued the Wu-Tang Clan because of the use of older samples and wanted to make music that they wanted to sample.

Sanders gave Younge, who until then had little experience with film music, largely free hand in designing the soundtrack. Younge used old tape recorders for the recordings ; the tape recordings were only digitized afterwards.

The theme music for the film is the song "Dynomite" by Sir Charles Hughes; the chorus sounds almost every time Black Dynamite performs or a punch line is made.

synchronization

The German dubbing of the film was done by Neue Tonfilm GmbH in Munich. The dialogue director was Joachim Kunzendorf , who also wrote the dialogue book.

role Actor / original speaker Voice actor
Black Dynamite Michael Jai White Oliver Siebeck
Cream Corn Tommy Davidson Claudio Maniscalco
Gloria Gray Salli Richardson Claudia Urbschat-Mingues
O'Leary Kevin Chapman Lutz Schnell
Honey bee Kym Whitley Martina Treger
Saheed Phil Morris Erich Rauker
Bullhorn Byron Minns Michael Iwannek
Rafelli Mike Starr Axel Lutter
Congressman James Tucker Smallwood Bodo Wolf
Osiris Obba Babatundé Engelbert von Nordhausen
Gunsmoke Buddy Lewis Olaf Reichmann
Dr. Wu Ron Yuan Johannes Berenz
Richard Nixon James McManus Stefan Gossler
Pat Nixon Nicole Sullivan Denise Gorzelanny

publication

Black Dynamite was shown for the first time at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival , where Sony Worldwide Acquisitions purchased the rights to it for approximately two million dollars. On June 14, the film won the Audience Award Golden Space Needle of Seattle International Film Festival . On August 25, it was announced that Apparition, a distribution company founded by Bill Pohlad and Bob Berney, would distribute the film in the United States. The film opened in 70 American cinemas on October 16 and ran for a total of two weeks. The film grossed approximately $ 242,000 in North America and approximately $ 300,000 worldwide.

On February 16, 2010, Black Dynamite was released on DVD and Blu-ray . Both contain an audio commentary , removed scenes, a making-of and a recording of a panel from Comic-Con . The Blu-ray also contains a sound track with trivia . The German version was published on July 2, 2010.

marketing

A viral marketing campaign was launched prior to the film's release ; its core was the fictional non-profit organization Fight Smack in the Orphanage (FSITO) .

criticism

Black Dynamite received mostly positive reviews from the critics; at Rotten Tomatoes which is based on 61 Reviews rating is 7.2, the positive reviews make it 84% off. The summary review reads: “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” (“As a loving and meticulous implementation of the genre of blaxploitation films of the 1970s Black Dynamite funny enough for the fraternity house and smart enough for cinema fans ”). On Metacritic, Black Dynamite has a rating of 65/100 out of 14 reviews, suggesting "generally positive reviews." Chris Hardwick said on his Nerdist Podcast that the film was one of the best comedies he had ever seen.

Owen Gleiberman wrote in Entertainment Weekly that Black Dynamite merged satire, nostalgia and the cinematic deconstruction of the genre into a unique comedy highlight, with Sanders capturing the language and feel of the blaxploitation genre well. Roger Ebert rated the film three stars out of four, saying that Black Dynamite gets most of it right, and if the film does something wrong it is on purpose and with awareness of what it is doing. Ebert added that the film carefully reproduces the blaxploitation genre of the 1970s and also brings back the sorely missed redundant nude scenes.

AO Scott of the New York Times suggested that Black Dynamite would be more suitable as a "five-minute YouTube clip" than as a feature film. Scott continued: “A boom comes into the picture; an actor recites stage directions with his text. The camera zooms in, pans and changes focus as if being guided on cocaine by an optometrist . The drama is stiff, the dialogues painfully inhibited, the action sequences are choreographed and edited in an extremely cartoon-like manner. It's all fun for a while, in an academic way. "In 2012, character Black Dynamite replied in an interview," Well, obviously AO stands for 'asshole's opinion', 'cause we here talking about it right now. Damn movie's been tweeted about every two minutes since 2009. ” ("Well, obviously AO stands for an asshole's opinion because we're talking about the movie here and now. The damn movie has been tweeted about every two minutes since 2009.")

James Greenberg, who writes for the Hollywood Reporter , said the film couldn't hold the audience's attention because there was no real story hidden among all the details.

Aftermath

cartoon

An animation spin-off of the film was produced for the evening program Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network television channel . Behind this implementation is the same team that also adapted the comic strip The Boondocks as an animation series.

Web series

In 2013, Chris Hardwick's YouTube channel Nerdist released a series of short videos entitled Black Dynamite Teaches a Hard Way! released. The series parodies Japanese game shows; a Japanese-speaking mannequin disguised as Black Dynamite teaches former WWE wrestlers , MMA fighters and participants in the American Gladiators TV show . Guest actors on this series have included Roddy Piper , Chavo Guerrero, Jr. , Chris Masters , Daniel Puder , John Hennigan , Tank Abbott, Josh Barnett and Kimo Leopoldo .

continuation

Sanders said he and White had ideas for a sequel if the film was a success. White hinted during an interview in the show Attack of the Show of the TV channel G4 that will written on a sequel. In an interview in April 2012, he stated that filming - he hoped - would begin by the end of the year.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Black Dynamite . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , April 2010 (PDF; test number: 122 543 V).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Nathan Rabin: Michael Jai White and Scott Sanders. The AV Club, October 23, 2009, accessed May 3, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Kevin Kelly: Michael Jai White and Scott Sanders Interview, Black Dynamite, Sundance 2009. spoutblog.com, archived from the original on December 27, 2009 ; Retrieved May 3, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e Nunziata, Nick: Interview: Michael Jai White & Scott Sanders (Black Dynamite). chud.com, October 14, 2009, accessed May 3, 2017 .
  5. ↑ a b Christopher Boyle: Interview With Black Dynamite Composer / Editor Adrian Younge. In: newsli.com. November 17, 2009, accessed March 15, 2010 .
  6. ^ Fred Topel: Scott Sanders directs Black Dynamite. craveonline.com, October 14, 2009, archived from the original on October 17, 2012 ; accessed on May 4, 2017 .
  7. ↑ a b Jonah Weiner: A '70s Flashback, Replete With Flaws. New York Times , October 11, 2009, accessed May 5, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Sir Charles Hughes at Discogs (English)
  9. ^ Black Dynamite. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on May 9, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Rob Nelson: Review: 'Black Dynamite'. Variety , January 20, 2009, accessed May 5, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Golden Space Needle History 2000–2009. Seattle International Film Festival website , accessed May 5, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Peter Knegt: Apparition Takes “Dynamite”. IndieWIRE, August 25, 2009, accessed May 5, 2017 .
  13. ^ Black Dynamite (2009). Box Office Mojo, accessed May 5, 2017 .
  14. ↑ Strowbridge, CS: DVD and Blu-ray Releases for February 16th, 2010 . In: The Numbers . February 16, 2010. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
  15. ^ Black Dynamite. filmstarts.de, accessed on May 2, 2017 .
  16. ↑ fightsmackintheorphanage.org. Archived from the original on June 23, 2015 ; Retrieved May 5, 2017 .
  17. ↑ Black Dynamite at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed on May 5, 2017.
  18. ↑ Black Dynamite at Metacritic , accessed May 5, 2017.
  19. ↑ Nerdist Podcast # 77: BLACK DYNAMITE! (No longer available online.) The Nerdist Podcast, archived from the original on February 6, 2015 ; Retrieved May 5, 2017 .
  20. ^ Owen Gleiberman: Black Dynamite. Entertainment Weekly , October 14, 2009, accessed May 8, 2017 .
  21. ^ Roger Ebert : Black Dynamite. October 14, 2009, accessed May 8, 2017 .
  22. ^ AO Scott : Movie Review - Black Dynamite. The New York Times , October 16, 2009, accessed May 8, 2017 .
  23. ↑ Black Dynamite Finds Hisself. blackbookmedia.com, July 19, 2012, accessed May 8, 2017 .
  24. ↑ James Greenberg: Film Review: Black Dynamite. The Hollywood Reporter , January 22, 2009, accessed May 8, 2017 .
  25. ↑ a b Latino Review - Exclusive: Black Dynamite Cartoon Coming Soon to Cartoon Network. latinoreview.com, October 1, 2009, archived from the original January 4, 2010 ; accessed on May 8, 2017 .
  26. ^ Perry Michael Simon: Life Lessons from Black Dynamite. Nerdist News, February 8, 2013, accessed August 27, 2019 .
  27. ↑ Gabe Toro: Tribeca: 'Freaky Deaky' Star Michael Jai White Says 'Black Dynamite 2' Will Shoot At The End of The Year. (No longer available online.) IndieWIRE, April 23, 2012, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on May 9, 2017 .