This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Three the Hard Way | |
---|---|
Directed by | Gordon Parks Jr. |
Written by |
|
Starring | |
Music by | The Impressions |
Distributed by | Allied Artists Pictures Corporation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 89 minutes (DVD); 105 minutes (TV version); 93 minutes (theatrical release) |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Three the Hard Way is a 1974 action film directed by Gordon Parks Jr., written by Eric Bercovici and Jerrold L. Ludwig, and starring Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, and Jim Kelly.
Jimmy Lait (Brown) and his girlfriend, Wendy, come across Jimmy's friend, House, wounded and dying. Lait learns from House that he had escaped from a secret medical experimentation facility. Later in the hospital, a delirious House tells Lait that there is someone who aims to "kill us all" and that they have a way of doing it. However, Lait has to return to the studio to supervise a recording session with a group he is producing, The Impressions. He leaves Wendy in the hospital.
While Wendy talks to Jimmy on the phone outside of the room, two men climb through the window, murder House and kidnap Wendy. After finding out about her kidnapping, Jimmy begins a quest to find the whereabouts of his girlfriend, but a group of attackers ambush him. Lait survives with the help of his friend, Jagger Daniels (Williamson). Lait and Daniels join up with Mister Keyes (Kelly, named "Mister" by his mother so people would be forced to show him respect) after he wins a fist fight with several police officers attempting to plant drugs in his car.
Lait is shot as they capture a member of Feather's gang, but are unable to force him to give up his secrets. Jagger calls three dominatrixes: The Countess (Pamela Serpe), The Empress (Irene Tsu), and The Princess (Marie O'Henry). The eager women ask Jagger if they can go all the way, meaning, torturing the captured man to death. Jagger tells them, only after the prisoner gives him the information he seeks. They agree and proceed to go upstairs to torture the tied up man. The three women at first excite the captive by baring their breasts, but they torture him while Keyes and Daniels wait. After some time the women emerge, and say the captive is ready to talk. He informs them of Feather's plot and dies from his torture.
There is a secret plot of black genocide concocted by the nefarious Monroe Feather (Jay Robinson), the leader of a secret Neo-Nazi, white supremacist organization. Their chief scientist, Dr. Fortrero (Richard Angarola), has developed a lethal poison that only affects African Americans. They plan to deploy the serum into the water systems of Washington, D.C., Detroit, and Los Angeles, in order to wipe out their black populations.
The three heroes reunite as Lait is leaving the hospital, and decide to stop the poisoning of the water supplies. "Three the hard way, three cities, the three of us."
Lait returns to Los Angeles. Mister Keyes stops the poisoning in Washington, D.C., as Jagger does in Detroit. They reunite again to stop Feather and arm themselves to the teeth. They raid Feather's compound and rescue Wendy after a huge shootout, leaving Dr. Fortrero burned alive, and Feather and many white supremacists dead.
The plot of Three The Hard Way has been copied and parodied.[ citation needed ] I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) includes a gag where Jim Brown, in a supporting role, never reloads his gun, same as the characters he and Williamson play in Three the Hard Way. In Undercover Brother (2002), Eddie Griffin portrays a soulful crime-fighting vigilante who must stop the white-run "Man" before he destroys the black population of the United States through an ingested toxin. Also, the Man's second in command (Chris Kattan) is named Mr. Feathers after Monroe Feather from Three The Hard Way. [1]
The Beastie Boys reference the title of this film in the song 3 The Hard Way on their 2004 album To the 5 Boroughs.
Performed by Curtis Mayfield's former group The Impressions, the soundtrack featured the songs "That's What Love Can Do" and "Three the Hard Way" plus "Make a Resolution". [2]
Patricia Campbell Hearst is a member of the Hearst family and granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. She first became known for the events following her 1974 kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army. She was found and arrested 19 months after being abducted, by which time she was a fugitive wanted for serious crimes committed with members of the group. She was held in custody, and there was speculation before trial that her family's resources would enable her to avoid time in prison.
"Fourth World" is a metaseries of connected comic book titles written and drawn by Jack Kirby and published by DC Comics from 1970 to 1973. Although they were not marketed under this title until the August–September 1971 issues of New Gods and Forever People, the terms Fourth World and Jack Kirby's Fourth World have gained usage in the years since. Kirby created the Fourth World concept in the 1970s. The series is a science-fiction based mythology that revolves around ancient space deities known as the New Gods. The New Gods are similar to the gods of Earth lore.
Escapology is the practice of escaping from restraints or other traps. Escapologists escape from handcuffs, straitjackets, cages, coffins, steel boxes, barrels, bags, burning buildings, fish-tanks, and other perils, often in combination.
Mister Miracle is the name of three fictional superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics.
Brotherhood of Death is a low-budget 1976 action film in the blaxploitation genre, directed by Richard F. Barker and Bill Berry, and starring Roy Jefferson, Le Tari, and Haskell Anderson. The film featured appearances by several members, including Jefferson, of the Washington Redskins professional football team of the National Football League.
Frederick Robert Williamson, nicknamed "the Hammer", is an American actor, filmmaker, and former professional football defensive back who played mainly in the American Football League (AFL) during the 1960's. He was a top sports star during the decade, and become a leading man in blaxploitation and action films beginning in the 1970's.
Undercover Brother is a 2002 American satirical spy action comedy blaxploitation film directed by Malcolm D. Lee and starring Eddie Griffin. The screenplay by John Ridley and Michael McCullers is based on the Internet animated series created by Ridley. It spoofs blaxploitation films of the 1970s as well as a number of other films, most notably the James Bond franchise. The film also stars former Saturday Night Live cast member Chris Kattan and comedian Dave Chappelle as well as Aunjanue Ellis, Neil Patrick Harris, Denise Richards, and Billy Dee Williams, and features a cameo by James Brown.
James Milton Kelly was an American athlete, martial artist, and actor. After winning several karate championships, Kelly rose to fame in the early 1970s appearing in various action films within the martial arts and blaxploitation genres. Kelly played opposite Bruce Lee in 1973's Enter the Dragon, and had lead roles in 1974's Black Belt Jones as the title character and Three the Hard Way as Mister Keyes.
Jay Robinson was an American actor specializing in character roles. He achieved his greatest fame playing Emperor Caligula in the film The Robe (1953) and its sequel Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954), and years later portraying the boss of the character played by Warren Beatty in Shampoo (1975).
Hammer is a 1972 blaxploitation film directed by Bruce D. Clark. The film was released following the successes of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song and Shaft, notable 1971 films that popularized black cinema. It starred Fred Williamson as B.J. Hammer. Williamson went on to become a staple of the genre.
Hot Potato is a 1976 American action film written and directed by Oscar Williams. The film was a Fred Weintraub and Paul Heller production starring Jim Kelly, who also arranged his own fight scenes. Hot Potato was filmed on location in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It is a follow-up to Black Belt Jones. The film was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s, when the combined momentum of the civil rights movement, the black power movement, and the Black Panthers spurred African-American artists to reclaim the power of depiction of their ethnicity, and institutions like UCLA to provide financial assistance for African-American students to study filmmaking. This combined with Hollywood adopting a less restrictive rating system in 1968. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president of the Beverly Hills–Hollywood NAACP branch. He claimed the genre was "proliferating offenses" to the black community in its perpetuation of stereotypes often involved in crime. After the race films of the 1940s and 1960s, the genre emerged as one of the first in which black characters and communities were protagonists, rather than sidekicks, supportive characters, or victims of brutality. The genre's inception coincides with the rethinking of race relations in the 1970s.
Black Dynamite is a 2009 American blaxploitation action comedy film starring Michael Jai White, Tommy Davidson, and Salli Richardson. The film was directed by Scott Sanders and co-written by White, Sanders, and Byron Minns, who also co-stars.
James Iglehart is a former American actor who appeared in six films during the 1970s and was the leading actor in the 1973 blaxploitation film Savage!.
Devil Face, Angel Heart is a 2002 thriller film directed by Billy Chung.
No Way Back is a 1976 blaxploitation film written and directed by Fred Williamson, who also stars as Jesse Crowder, a private detective who once used to belong to a police force, but that now finds himself taking odd jobs for a little extra money.
Slaughter's Big Rip-Off is a 1973 blaxploitation film directed by Gordon Douglas and written by Charles Eric Johnson. The film stars Jim Brown, Ed McMahon, Don Stroud, Brock Peters, Gloria Hendry and Dick Anthony Williams. The film was released on August 31, 1973, by American International Pictures. It is the sequel to the 1972 film Slaughter.
The Mind Poisoners is the 18th novel in the long-running Nick Carter-Killmaster series of spy novels. Carter is a US secret agent, code-named N-3, with the rank of Killmaster. He works for AXE – a secret arm of the US intelligence services.
One Down, Two to Go is a 1982 American blaxploitation action drama film written and directed by Fred Williamson and starring Williamson, Jim Brown, Richard Roundtree and Jim Kelly. This is the third film to star Williamson, Brown, and Kelly, following Three the Hard Way and Take a Hard Ride. Williamson, Brown, and Roundtree would reunite nearly fifteen years later in Original Gangstas.
The Universal Aryan Brotherhood (UAB), also known as the Universal Family, are an active neo-Nazi white supremacist prison gang in the United States. Primarily based out of Oklahoma, the gang also has members in federal custody, as well as in several states across the country.