Fred Williamson is Fully Bonded for Globe-Spanning Action
DIRECTED BY HENRY LEVIN, DAVID LOWELL RICH/1973
BLU-RAY STREET DATE: FEBRUARY 7, 2023/KL STUDIO CLASSICS
In the bizarre times of the early 1970s, as certain cultural fascinations often tipped into degrees of appropriation, it might be said that That Man Bolt is to blaxploitation as Enter the Dragon is to the martial arts film craze. Both pluck major stars from their respective niches (respectively, Fred “The Hammer” Williamson and Bruce Lee) and allow them to successfully hold their own in big-budget action spectacles backed by major studios. Both span the globe with solid supporting players backing up the dynamic leads. Both arrive in 1973, and both feature funky-cool Lalo Schifren-esque scores. (Enter the Dragon being the one with music actually by Lalo Schifren; That Man Bolt is scored by Charles Bernstein, who’d do alright for himself in television and would score A Nightmare on Elm Street for Wes Craven). Most importantly, both are top-to-bottom, beginning-to-end terrifically entertaining.
Beyond all that, we arrive at the inevitable differences- the biggest (aside from sub-genre) perhaps being long term recognizability. While Enter the Dragon remains an indispensable cross-cultural fixture (See: the lavish 4K edition that the belt-tightening Warner Home Video is releasing for the film’s fiftieth anniversary), That Man Bolt is long since an obscurity. Perhaps part of the reason is steeped in morbidity- Bruce Lee tragically died around the time that Enter the Dragon opened, thus instantly solidifying a gone-too-soon legacy. In contrast, Fred Williamson is still alive and kicking, even appearing in a brief, new video interview as a supplement on this Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
In said interview, Williamson, unlit prop cigar in hand, goes on about his on-screen history as well as his own self-ascribed rules for casting him:
- The Hammer can never be killed.
- He wins every fight.
- He gets the girl in the end… if he wants her.
Well, gee… with such a cloud of self-importance and such rigid creative restrictions, is it any wonder that he, like That Man Bolt (aka Operation Hong Kong), is no longer kickin’ it in the collective memory the way he once did? Don’t get me wrong- Williamson is nothing if not warm and personable in his interview, and even verging on self-deprecating a time or two. Personally, I rank him at the top of my list of favorite blaxploitation stars and am always happy when he turns up on screen. But a list of rules like that all but guarantees a certain sameness from one film to the next. And predictability gets dull fast, baby.
All of that said, That Man Bolt is some real early ‘70s movie action on a stick. Closely and knowingly emulating the vibe and expanse of James Bond pictures, Williamson plays Jefferson Bolt, a lethal real estate ace who’s made his fortune as a personal courier for high-stakes deliveries. After accepting a job to internationally transfer $10 million in cash, Bolt becomes caught up in a much larger hustle for the fortune. But is the whole load counterfeit? Like 007, we never doubt Bolt’s prowess when it comes to cunning, survival, and expertise in whatever matters.
Williamson, like Roger Moore, the then brand-new James Bond who also debuted in 1973 with Live and Let Die, radiates natural ease and charm even in the tightest of tight spots. There are those who say that Live and Let Die is a blaxploitation film. While that is inherently not true (it appropriates tropes if the form, but is, rather uncomfortably, the story of a white man saving a white girl from the sexual servitude of a big bad Black man), Bolt is the real deal, friend.
Thankfully, That Man Bolt’s formidable prowess is unaffected by a change in directors between the film’s U.S. locales (Las Vegas, in particularly) and Hong Kong. While we don’t get to learn the reasoning behind the swap, or even who directed which portions, Henry Levin (Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die, Murderers’ Row) and David Lowell Rich (A Lovely Way to Die, The Concorde… Airport ’79) serve the film and serve The Hammer well.
That new interview with Williamson is the only bonus feature on the disc, aside from the usual KL fistful of related trailers. The new 2K master, though, has got it where it counts. All those remarkable Harlem fashions of the time pop as they should while the movie maintains its circa-1973 film grain patina. The slipcover packaging is the icing on this cake.
It’s too bad that Bolt never returned for further adventures. According to Williamson today, that was his choice, as he opted to focus on starring in projects for his own production company. By the time he’d made That Man Bolt, the football player-turned-actor had already pivoted away from anything other than Bond-ian roles for himself. (Although Bolt is rated R, it’s hard to see why). This film, however, continues to hammer away as a high-water mark in blaxploitation-as-accomplished action.