Poing d'acier

Richard Lawson has done most of his work for TV, which is too bad. In "Black Fist", Lawson is the diamond-in-the-rough that saves this movie from its low-budget woes. His performance is excellent, and keeps us watching just to see his character unfold.

Another reviewer complained that the surviving print of this film, available on video, is a hatchet job for re-release, possibly to television. That explains frequent continuity gaffs that comprise the film's worst failings.

Some of the other actors are pretty limp; the low-budget cinematography clearly shows effort, but can't get around the fact that the director's ambitions outpaced his available technology. The script gets trite on occasion, although there are also some very strong lines of dialog, and the story is pretty good.

But what truly deserves to be remembered here is Lawsons performance. It's a shame that Hollywood has wasted the potential of men and women of real talent just because of their skin color or ethnicity.

I bought this as a clearance video for $3. This movie certainly has a certain charm about it. Richard Lawson's portrayal of Fisk reminds me a lot of Samuel L. Jackson's character Jules in Pulp Fiction. Dabney Coleman is also excellent as the scummy, corrupt cop. Some of the violent scenes are rather realistic and unsettling without resorting to gore. Production values are a little weak in spots but if you're a fan of 'blaxploitation' films or the '70's you'll enjoy this flick.

Black Fist (1975) is a movie I recently watched on Amazon Prime. The storyline is about a man who has survived in the streets and believes he can make the money he deserves and start his own business by becoming a street fighter. He thinks once he has enough money to start his own business it will be easy to get out of the street fighter business...he's wrong. This movie was directed by Timothy Galfas (Sunnyside) and stars Richard Lawson (Poltergeist), Denise Gordy (Toy Soldiers), Philip Michael Thomas (Miami Vice) and Annazette Chase (The Mack). There's some good elements to this choppy film. I really liked his messaging and side bar conversations to make it on his own without the white man's help. I thought it was interesting throughout the movie how his wife's desire was to survive and his was to succeed. The slang and soundtrack was also entertaining and fun. The storyline was inconsistent but I enjoyed waiting to see what's going to happen next to Lawson's character, who was awesome in this. I would score this a 6-6/5/10.

Leeroy Fisk is a hard case street fighter with a mighty afro, a pregnant wife, a mistress and no money at all. What's a brother who doesn't want to work for the white man to do? Except work for the white man as a street fighter. Leeroy starts working for mid-level gangster Logan, and after a quick training montage is out dealing knuckle suppers to other street fighters in return for a load of the green, which he either gives to his wife or his mistress if his wife isn't talking to him. I also thought he had a kid but then I'm not sure because to be honest the editing in this film is a bit choppy to say the least.

Anyway, Leeroy's finally getting some cash, so of course a crooked (white) cop turns up to put the squeeze on him. This guy was named after a brand of beer so that was cool. Leeroy's not cool with this, especially when he discovers that the cop is giving the money back to Logan. Working for the white man is a compromise Leeroy's had to make, but discovering that the white man he's working for is getting more money from the white cop that's taking the other white man's money off of Leeroy is too much, so he plots to get the once over on the lot of them, involving blackmail, fedora hats, funk and afros.

This doesn't work out too well for Leeroy, because the mob go all Tony Arzenta on his arse. Scratch one pregnant wife and finally the film takes off a bit as Leeroy goes nuts and decides to take down the mob and everyone involved with them.

Filled with so many uses of the N word you'd swear Tarantino wrote the script and sent it back in time, Black Fist is an ultra low budget film that kind of ticks along for a while before the revenge plot takes off. Although it looks as if it cost about twelve dollars to make, this is one of those films where every white guy is evil, all the women get slapped around or killed, and the soundrack is totally funky and enjoyable (probably the best part to be honest). As I said the editing is choppy as hell, the sound varies depending on where the characters are (one scene takes place in a toilet and the reverb makes it hard as hell to understand what's being said), and one main character kind of just disappears towards the end.

It was slow to get going, but it was good enough.

I actually bested an earlier writer's bargain by buying this brand new in a shrink wrap for $1 at a dollar store. I regret that the cover art is a close up face pic that is generic and close up to where he looks like anybody else with an Afro and full mustache. I much more prefer the super hero pic that is sported on this page. The movie was middling, not as stellar as Shaft, Truck Turner and Superfly, but certainly above Fred Williamson's Joashua AKA Black Rider, which had it's potential retarded by one of the most inept music scores of all time. Black Fist has a competent soundtrack moving from a Liza Minelli/ Barbara Streisand sound alike crooning an opening homage to the lead character then moving to lush instrumentals with violins that would have made Barry White proud. The lead star looks familiar. In my case, I recently saw him in Burt Reynold's Stick, but I was surprised to find that he has only treaded on notoriety playing in many TV shows. He is somewhat similar to the guy who played on WXRP in Cinncinatti as well as The Brother from the Love Boat, which also makes him seem familiar. I thought his hero was decent with the exception of an opening scene that seemed out of character in which he stuttered when first confronted but then nonsensibly and unexplainably he was confident and confrontational seconds later ( a blooper perhaps). Speaking of bloopers, there is a scene early on when the Gerald Levert looking henchman pulls a gun on Leroy and behind him and clearly in site you see a second yes man who has a gun pointed at the Levert lookalike. It is subtle, but makes no sense 1 henchman pointing a gun at his partner. Perhaps improvised by an overzealous actor who wanted to extend his limited screen time. The actress who plays the love interest is more than adequate for an overall good film.