Since last I blogged, Donald Trump became the 45th President, white supremacist groups proliferated exponentially, global saber-rattling abounded, a cavalcade of natural disasters was unleashed, COVID-19  has killed more than 800,000 Americans, a bunch of Black mascots on popular household products lost their jobs, and Kamala Harris became the first female Vice President as well as the first Vice President of color.

All along the way, Black television proliferated, got cancelled, was re-imagined and is again flourishing on television in a major way. In 2021 alone, 31 shows with ensemble Black casts and/or lead protagonists continued production, released another season, or made a debut. And that was in addition to a plethora of Black television and films dating back to 1910 being made available on digital streaming and network platforms. All incredibly exciting given that I’ve had to be inside to avoid catching the Covid. After remembering how much I love Black television as well as the password for this blog, I decided to restart the conversation on Black television and filmmaking.

On this chance weekend in December while sorting through movie offerings on my various streaming apps, I stumbled upon a 1974/75 Blaxploitation film I’d never heard of featuring a very youthful Philip Michael Thomas. Black Fist stars a baby-faced Richard Lawson, the same chap who played Ryan in Poltergeist and is now married to Beyonce’s momma. Just three years into his fledgling acting career, Lawson portrayed the character Leroy Fisk, a poorly educated, uncultured Black Los Angeleno boxer who decides to provide for his pregnant wife Bea (Denise Gordy), son and mistress Florence (Annazette Chase) by brawling as a member of an illegal street fighting gang run by ruthless white gangster Logan (Robert Burr).

The year this movie was released, fighting or hustling in general to make ends meet would not have been far-fetched at all. The median income for Black families was $8780, a whopping $5500 less than that of white families. Between 1973 and 1975, an oil crisis, the flattening of the American dollar, and President Richard Nixon’s other economic decisions plunged the country into a three-year recession which resulted in a stock market crash and the loss of 2.3 million jobs. Still Black resilience and determination by any means prevailed. 

Florynce “Flo” Kennedy and Margaret Sloan-Hunter formed the National Black Feminist Organization. Civil rights activist Marian Wright Edelman established The Children’s Defense Fund. Thomas Bradley, Maynard H. Jackson Jr, and Coleman Young respectively became the first Black mayors of Los Angeles, Atlanta and Detroit. Black sports heroes like Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson and Arthur Ashe dominated. And a new film genre emerged in Hollywood to center African-Americans as heroes while leveraging exploitative Black stereotypes to discuss racism, sexism, drug addiction and economic strife.

In Black Fist, Leroy is pure street with lots of heart and a hell of a physique. After being trained by a veteran streetfighter, Leroy dominates the bloodsport and rakes in hella dough in no time. But as the late Notorious B.I.G. reminded us, with more money, comes more problems. 

A lowdown dirty, gum chomping, asshole racist cop named Heineken (Dabney Coleman), who is into mob boss Ingo (Charles L. Hamilton) for a pretty penny decides to shake down Leroy for a cut of his fighting purse.  When Leroy loses good friend Fletch (Philip Michael Thomas)  and decides to opt out of the fight game to pursue legitimate business ownership, Logan forces Leroy to take one more fight for one last big payday. Leroy, of course, beats his opponent’s ass and walks away with a $25,000 cash prize to purchase a night club and live the high life. But of course “the Man” just can’t let a brutha be great. Logan, Heineken and the other hoods conspire to kill Leroy but end up murdering Leroy’s pregnant wife and brother-in-law instead. What follows is cold, cold, angry-Black-man-administered vengeance.

Though many of the scenes were poorly lit and the camera work was strange at times, the film presents an intimate and sometimes sentimental portrait of an embattled Black man in early 1970s America and the toll the experience takes on his mental health. He has feelings, pressures. He wants to provide and win. But he’s not willing to do so at the expense of being some white man’s stooge or prize horse.

My favorite lines from the film are:

“All I ever wanted to do in life was to not to have to kiss whitey’s ass.”

“Your skin is a cage.”

“There’s a Black lion walking in your jungle.”

I enjoyed the film as it was thrilling to watch a bearded fit Black man literally kick, beat and ignite so much ass. Still, I had questions.

Why is Florence barely dressed in the majority of the scenes in which she appears?

Is it me or does Dabney Coleman as Heineken love uttering every racist line he has in the film?

Are any people who were born after 2000 and happen to watch this film going to know what a payphone is or why the characters in the film were using it?

The film producers really couldn’t find an actual Latinx person to play the role of Boom Boom?

Feel free to watch and tell me what you think in the comments. Black Fist, as of this publication, is currently streaming on Paramount+, Tubi, PlutoTV and Brown Sugar.