Just call him Superbad.
Or not. Actor/writer Michael Jai White was going to use the name for the title character of his movie “Black Dynamite.” White stars as the karate-kicking fighter, and lover, in this spoof of ’70s blaxploitation cinema.
“I used to look at these old blaxploitation movies and I always thought they were funny in their execution. They reflected their time,” said the champion martial artist-turned-actor.
“It was listening to James Brown’s ‘Super Bad,’ I got the whole idea and became obsessed with it.”
White, 41, was ready to be called Superbad. “But that other movie beat me,” he said. “They registered that name a month before I did - and that name didn’t even fit that Judd Apatow movie”
So he became Black Dynamite, battling drug dealers in the ghetto in an era when The Man was code for white corruption and when kicking butt meant eliminating a dozen armed men at once.
What about today’s kids who don’t know blaxploitation from exploitation?
“I have teenagers,” said White, the father of five. “When I watched one of these movies they enjoyed it. Look at ‘That ’70s Show.’ It’s just a very interesting era, the fashion, the sexuality, the political quotient. All of these things are absolutely entertaining if you grew up with it or not.”
“Unfortunately,” he continued, “blaxploitation has a negative connotation but there were tremendous films of that era that embodied the spirit of the ’70s. It was the first time black people saw themselves in heroic roles in movies. It was a few years after Vietnam and there was mistrust of government and a lot of corruption.”
White appreciates the era’s black stars like Jim Brown and Fred “The Hammer” Williamson.
“It was machismo and it reflected the world at the time. It seems our more dominant alpha males today are imports: Eric Bana, Russell Crowe. You can’t point to an action star who’s not from England or Australia. Back in the day we had Charles Bronsons and Steve McQueens. They don’t make men like they used to.”
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