Black Dynamite: The Original Trailer and "Fight Smack In The Orphanage"

Without a doubt one of the best movies of the past few years has been Black Dynamite. Where Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez fell flat on their faces with their Grindhouse project -- which despite being so slavish to the grindhouse films of yore suffered a huge error by being set in the present -- Michael Jai White and director Scott Sanders scored a perfect hundred. Everything about Black Dynamite works perfectly.

I loved the film so much I got the Blu Ray disc, which I've watched several times already. But even though the disc is stuffed with making-of documentaries and around 30 minutes of cut/extended footage, there's still a plethora of material not included.

First and foremost, there's the "original trailer" White and Sanders created over a few days to get funding for the movie. Both men discuss this trailer at length in the Blu Ray commentary track, but it's not included. No doubt this is because the studio wouldn't pay for the rights, because the original trailer is comprised of clips taken from various Blaxploitation movies, with a few shots of Michael Jai White inserted amid the chaos. But everything else is vintage, from the narration to the music. Luckily this trailer was leaked onto the internet:



Once the actual film was produced, White and Sanders went further and created some viral marketing to promote it. A series of four fake public service announcements, featuring Black Dynamite and supporting characters from the film, asking people to help "Fight Smack In The Orphanage." A tie-in with the movie, and wonderfully done...in fact, these four PSAs are some of the best viral marketing I've ever seen.

But due to studio indifference (which resulted in Black Dynamite itself bombing in the theaters) and an idiotic marketing department that didn't know what to do with such clever little pieces of viral marketing, these fake PSAs weren't allowed to achieve their full potential...the Man strikes again.