I was reminded earlier today about the passing of one Jim Kelly a few days ago. When ever a movie star passes, one that I particularly enjoy, it makes me go back and rewatch a few the films that made me enjoy their work. While it is an obvious choice to talk about Enter the Dragon, I wanted to touch on his feature film that he starred in after working with Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon. Hot on the heels of the blaxploitation movement, get ready for some Black Belt Jones.
RIP Jim Kelly.
Robert Clouse, director of Enter the Dragon, returned with this blaxploitation actioner starring Jim Kelly as an instructor at a martial-arts school in the Watts section of Los Angeles. Teaming with former Bond girl Gloria Hendry, Kelly saves the school and Hendry’s dad (Scatman Crothers) from the Mob. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
Black Belt Jones fell into line with a lot of the martial arts explosions that you saw in blaxploitation films. Black Belt Jones was a way to embrace the action genre in a more physical way with the hero being a disciplined member of society, determines and focused on a task at hand, being a take action individual. Here in Black Belt Jones, the marital arts aspect of the hero is pushed more as you see Jim Kelly leading groups of students and showcasing his skills as a fighter. Blaxploitation movies like to include martial arts into their flicks and this is more of a by product of the culture at the time in the 70s. Hell I remember watching The Warriors and seeing The Griffs practicing martial arts, steely and confident with their abilities.
Black Belt Jones really in my mind, made him into one of the more iconic blaxploitation stars. This spawned a sequel, it led to Black Samurai and even into Three The Hard Way which has two of the biggest blaxplitation stars of Jim Brown and Fred Williamson. This movie is the typical groundwork for a lot of blaxploitation movies, namely the plot centers around some mob action and leads the hero to clean up the streets for his neighborhood to thrive or exacting some vendetta. This movie is really heavy on the action, which has a climatic battle scene taking place in a car wash, and a lot of style to go along with the movie. Like most of the blaxploitation movies, the soundtrack is killer and the humor is a bit cheesy but welcomed in the more situational aspects along with some snark thrown in by the hero.
I would say that Black Belt Jones is really one of the crowning moments for Jim Kelly as he finally comes into his own, even though he was in several movies earlier in his career and will be most recognized for his role in Enter the Dragon. Black Belt Jones made him into the lead and it is easy to see why. He has the chops to pull off some great action scenes, skilled fighters and he has that charisma that makes him recognizable by his look and bravado. I enjoy watching him in his later films, although his career sort of dried up when the blaxploitation phase went out. This movie really does showcase the best of blaxploitation, cementing Kelly’s role as an action star and leading man. It’s a fun movie with a certain style that you can’t deny is infectious, even if the movie is short on a rigid storyline instead of the usual mob this and street gang that. Well worth a watch if you haven’t seen it before.
