Black Fist

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.

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.

...when film distributors get their hands on someone else's creation, and take a hatchet to it, you get "Black Fist." Even the title was changed. Originally called "Bogard," this was a hard hitting character study of a desperate man who turns to bare knuckle fighting matches to survive in a world that had no use for an uneducated and poor black man. Actor Richard Lawson radiates a certain sex appeal and a strong screen presence as Leroy Fisk, the guy that can't be knocked down by anyone or anything. His fighting skills soon get him noticed by a corrupt, mafia-like syndicate of bad guys, determined to make money off of him, and the harder he tries to break free of them, the tighter their hold on him becomes. The boxing business has always been a shady one, and the fact that bare knuckle street fighting is completely illegal, make the situation even worse. The plot has been described in other reviews, so I will just comment on the quality of this Grindhouse gem, which offers everything you would want from the genre. Violent, gritty, sordid and sexed up movie that has no shortage of action as well as drama. "Black Fist" also has this atmospheric quality that is similar to a film called "Penitentiary," another Grindhouse gem that deals with similar subject matter. But what happened to the original print of this film? "Bogard" played briefly in select theaters in 1975, and almost immediately vanished from the face of the Earth soon after. The few people who were lucky enough to catch it in the theaters, seem to remember the movie fondly. Indeed this is a hard one to forget, even in it's altered form. Several years later the movie resurfaced, only with a new name, and minus a lot of scenes that were both controversial and essential to the plot. There were even some new scenes added that were NOT in the original cut, as apparently the producers were trying to create a product that was more commercial, hoping to make some money off the now vandalized "Bogard." Not surprisingly, It didn't work. So the movie once again receded into obscurity. These days it can be found on very poor quality dvd's from disreputable distributors who are unconcerned with quality and just want to make a dollar. This disgraceful practice has been utilized before, and after "Bogard." Another fantastic art house/blaxploitation masterpiece by the name of "Ganja & Hess," was apparently too "art house" and not enough "blaxploitation" for it's distributors, so the movie was cut and the plot was changed, and, basically ruined because of greed. And in the 90's a film called "54" suffered a similar fate, when the distributors at Miramax thought that film was too sleazy and sordid, not considering the fact that a film about the notorious nightclub 'Studio 54' could be anything other than sleazy and sordid. so they cut half the movie out and forced the director to re -shoot the other half. The reworked film was a complete failure as well. Thankfully movie fans are now getting the opportunity to see these ruined films in their original form, with the advent of Blu Ray technology. And fans of "Bogard" should be thrilled to know that, as of this writing, one such Blu Ray label is working on the restoration of "Bogard." Recently the missing reels have been found and it is only a matter of time before we can see "Bogard" in it's original glory. Apparently the entire subplot that dealt with an interracial relationship was cut out, as that subject was still considered too controversial for audiences of the time. The sex scenes were surprisingly graphic as well, enough to earn the film the 'X' rating. Another scene resembling a modern day "slave auction" was cut, among some other scenes. Anyway this fan will be among the first in line to pick up that Blu Ray whenever it hits the shelves. As the standards of Hollywood continue to decline, and the quality of new releases gets worse with every passing year, I think it will become a trend for people to look to forgotten movies of the past, for their entertainment. This explains the new trend of restoring and releasing forgotten or lost films from decades past. There is a growing interest in movies of the past, and "Bogard" is one film that is due for rediscovery..

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.

A black guy from L.A. becomes a prize fighter for the mob. After an initial good working relationship, he becomes unhappy when he learns they are exploiting him. He leaves their organisation but the gangsters kill his wife in retaliation, resulting in him seeking violent revenge.

This Blaxploitation movie seems to have two different versions. The original version, entitled Bogard, was seemingly so ram packed with sex and violence that it attained an X rating, however, the version most readily available nowadays goes under the Black Fist moniker and this one was re-edited down to an R rating and does not seem to contain overly much salacious material. This is the one I myself saw. It seems only fair to say that the original must be the more entertaining of the two versions, as Black Fist is fairly underwhelming stuff on the whole. The story-line is strictly by-the-by and certainly could have done with an injection of more sex and violence! It does have a certain period charm though and will no doubt still be of interest to Blaxploitation aficionados but it's certainly limited stuff. It does have a somewhat unusual and rushed ending too, which posed more questions than it answered but was at the very least distinctive. Of additional note this film featured a bent cop played by Dabney Coleman, who would later become quite well known for playing the nefarious boss in the comedy film 9 to 5 (1980).