Ladies, you are all going to have to control yourselves as I realize that the leading men in today’s post are pure machismo. I mean you got Jim Brown, former football star and Fireball from The Running Man, Jim Kelly who rocked it in Enter The Dragon and Fred Williamson who was the star of Boss Nigger, which is fucking amazing. These gentlemen of the blaxploitation film era all teamed up for what could be considered The Expendables cast of the mid 70s. Get ready for Three The Hard Way.
The “three” alluded to in the title are played by Jim Brown, Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly. Letting their fists do all the talking, the hard-nosed trio takes on a neofascist organization. It is the avowed purpose of this all-white hate group to “cleanse” Los Angeles, Detroit and Washington DC of all blacks. To do this, they plan to poison the drinking water with a secret formula that affects only African Americans. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
The plot of this movie was sort of the basis for Undercover Brother and to a lesser extent, Black Dynamite. It’s pretty much just a movie about the three best that the city has to offer going up against the man. The man being in this movie, a neo-fascist organization with the goal to wiping out the black in only three cities apparently. I guess they have to start somewhere with their plan before going after the whole country. So with a plot to take out the African Americans through tainted water, you know that the Three are going to be shotgunning and karate chopping a shit ton of white guys. It is glorious and an absolute pillar of Blaxploitation movies.
Having the three leads in this film is what blaxploitation is all about. It was about putting forth on the screen, their vision of the action star, their vision of who represents the soul, style, machismo and power of the race. Each actor is successful in their own right, either through sports or starring in some pinnacle movies. But getting them together is the dream team of sort for the Blaxploitation movement. An opportunity to showcase the talent of the genre and it certainly does not disappoint. Each actor brings their particular style and acting to the screen, each making their individual character unique, but bonded with each other. It’s fantastic to watch something like this and see that this was the coming together of the best talent out there. It would have been even better if they managed to get Shaft himself, Richard Roundtree into the mix…oh wait they did! They all came together again with Roundtree two years later in the movie One Down, Two to Go.
Anyways, Three The Hard Way is really just a slam bang action flick where the best of the best of blaxploitation get to take down the man in the best way possible. Dudes are shotgunned by the dozen, Jim Kelly just decimates his opponents with ferocious karate and they are do this while looking fucking fly as shit. It is pure machismo translated to the screen, a movie that knows what it wants to accomplish and gets it done in style. Kelly, Williamson and Brown flat out kill in this movie and I for one love the action that takes place in the flick. I mean who doesn’t love watching those neo-fascists get what’s coming to them?
