The Last Dragon
Encyclopedia
The Last Dragon is a 1985 martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....

 musical film produced by Rupert Hitzig for Berry Gordy
Berry Gordy
Berry Gordy, Jr. is an American record producer, and the founder of the Motown record label, as well as its many subsidiaries.-Early years:...

 and directed by Michael Schultz
Michael Schultz
Michael Schultz is an American director and producer of film and television.-Life and career:Schultz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Katherine Frances , a factory worker, and Leo Schultz, an insurance salesman...

. The film was a critical disappointment but a financial success, The Last Dragon is now considered a cult classic
Cult Classic
Cult Classic is a Blue Öyster Cult studio recording released in 1994, containing remakes of many of the band's previous hits.-Track listing:# " The Reaper" - 5:05# "E.T.I...

. The film stars Taimak
Taimak
Taimak Guarriello is a martial arts actor and stuntman, best known as Leroy Green in the 1985 martial arts film The Last Dragon...

, Vanity
Vanity (performer)
Denise Katrina Matthews , better known as Vanity, but sometimes credited as Denise Matthews-Smith or D.D. Winters, is a Canadian-born former singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and model from the 1980s until the early mid-90s...

, Julius Carry
Julius Carry
Julius J. Carry III was an American actor. Carry appeared primarily in numerous television roles, including Dr. Abraham Butterfield on Doctor, Doctor and the bounty hunter Lord Bowler in the The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. He also portrayed the main villain Sho'nuff in the cult classic film...

, Christopher Murney
Christopher Murney
Christopher Murney is an American actor and vocal artist. He is the father of singer and actress Julia Murney.Murney attended several universities before picking up several undergraduate degrees , and one graduate level degree .Murney has worked on...

, and Faith Prince
Faith Prince
Faith Prince is an American actress and singer known primarily for her work on Broadway. Prince has won the Tony Award as Best Actress in a Musical and received three Tony nominations.-Life and career:...

. Choreography was done by Lester Wilson
Lester Wilson
Lester Wilson was an American dancer and choreographer. Wilson attended the Juilliard School. Bob Fosse cast him in a 1963 revival of Pal Joey at the New York City Center. Wilson toured London with Sammy Davis, Jr. in "Golden Boy". Lester's best known choreography was the 1977 movie Saturday...

, and Lawrence Leritz
Lawrence Leritz
Lawrence Leritz is an American dancer, singer, actor, producer, fitness expert and choreographer.-Life and career:...

. The film was released in theatres by TriStar Pictures
TriStar Pictures
TriStar Pictures, Inc. is an American film production/distribution studio and subsidiary of Columbia Pictures, itself a subdivision of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, which is owned by Sony Pictures...

 on March 22, 1985.

Plot

Set in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, the plot follows a teenage martial arts student named Leroy Green (often referred to as "Bruce Leroy", although he never calls himself that) with dreams of becoming a great martial artist like his idol Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee was a Chinese American, Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement...

. Leroy goes on a quest to achieve the highest level of martial arts accomplishment, known as "The Final Level". Martial artists who reach this "Final Level" are said to possess "The Glow", a mystical energy that can only be attained by a true martial arts master. When a fighter's hands glow, he is one of the best in the world and when his entire body glows, he is the greatest fighter alive. On his journey to becoming the "Last Dragon" and wielding the power of "The Glow," Leroy must confront villains such as a crooked arcade mogul Eddie Arkadian (Murney) and the evil Sho'nuff, the Shogun
Shogun
A was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...

 of Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...

, from whom he must also protect his younger brother Richie (Leo O'Brien) and his love interest, TV music video host Laura Charles (Vanity
Vanity (performer)
Denise Katrina Matthews , better known as Vanity, but sometimes credited as Denise Matthews-Smith or D.D. Winters, is a Canadian-born former singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and model from the 1980s until the early mid-90s...

).

Cast

This was the first acting role for Taimak
Taimak
Taimak Guarriello is a martial arts actor and stuntman, best known as Leroy Green in the 1985 martial arts film The Last Dragon...

, a then-20-year-old black belt
Black belt (martial arts)
In martial arts, the black belt is a way to describe a graduate of a field where a practitioner's level is often marked by the color of the belt. The black belt is commonly the highest belt color used and denotes a degree of competence. It is often associated with a teaching grade though...

 who learned to act on the set of this picture. Leroy and Richie's younger sister Sophie is portrayed by Cosby Show
The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992...

actress, Keshia Knight Pulliam
Keshia Knight Pulliam
Keshia Knight Pulliam is an American actress. She is most recognized for her childhood role as Rudy Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show. Currently, she appears as reformed con artist Miranda Lucas-Payne on the TBS comedy-drama Tyler Perry's House of Payne.-Personal life:Keshia...

. Ernie Reyes, Jr.
Ernie Reyes, Jr.
Ernie Reyes, Jr. , is an American actor, martial artist, action choreographer, director, producer, filmmaker, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer.-Early life:...

, martial artist and actor, made his film debut at the age of twelve in this film. Leo O'Brien, the actor portraying Bruce Leroy's younger brother Richie, is the younger brother of Guy O'Brien, better known as "Master Gee" from the hip-hop group The Sugarhill Gang
The Sugarhill Gang
The Sugarhill Gang is an American hip hop group, known mostly for their 1979 hit, "Rapper's Delight", the first hip hop single to become a Top 40 hit. The song uses the instrumental track from the classic hit "Good Times" by Chic as its foundation....

, as well as television host London Reyes a.k.a "B-Boy London" of the New York City Breakers. Veteran actor William H. Macy
William H. Macy
William Hall Macy, Jr. is an American actor and writer. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo. He is also a teacher and director in theater, film and television. His film career has been built mostly on his appearances in small, independent films, though...

 makes a brief appearance as "JJ", and Chazz Palminteri
Chazz Palminteri
Calogero Lorenzo "Chazz" Palminteri is an American actor and writer, best known for his performances in The Usual Suspects, A Bronx Tale, and his Academy Award nominated role for Best Supporting Actor in Bullets Over Broadway....

 makes a brief appearance as "Hood #2". Carl Anthony Payne II
Carl Anthony Payne II
Carl Anthony Payne II is an American actor. He studied at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, New York and Howard University, Washington DC...

, who appears in a small role as a kid in the family-owned pizza shop, went on to co-star in The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992...

and Martin
Martin (TV series)
Martin is an American sitcom produced by HBO Independent Productions that aired for five seasons, from August 27, 1992 to May 1, 1997 on Fox...

.

Julius J. Carry III, in the role of Sho'nuff, appeared in numerous television roles: Dr. Abraham Butterfield on Doctor, Doctor and the bounty hunter Lord Bowler in the The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. He was also a supporting actor in the R. Ray Moore film Disco Godfather, and also appeared in The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, on shows such as Murphy Brown, Family Matters, A Different World, Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place, and Boy Meets World. Carry died August 19th, 2008 of pancreatic cancer.

Music

The film is known for its soundtrack, featuring a bevvy of talent and highlighting the best of what hip-hop offered in the West in that time integrated with references to martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....

 from the East. The music was supervised by Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records
Motown Records
Motown is a record label originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit...

.
Featured in this film is a DeBarge
DeBarge
DeBarge was a sibling music group of American origin whose repertoire included R&B, soul, funk, and later gospel. Active as a professional recording group from 1979 and 1989, the group was one of the few recording acts to bring success to the Motown label during the 1980s.-Background:Hailing from...

 song, "Rhythm of the Night", written by Diane Warren
Diane Warren
Diane Eve Warren , is a US songwriter. Her songs have received six Academy Award nominations, five Golden Globe nominations, including one win and seven Grammy Award nominations, including one win. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001...

. The song reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 and #1 on the Billboard R&B charts. The film's Richard Perry
Richard Perry
Richard Perry is an American music producer. Perry began as a performer in his adolescence, but shifted gears after graduating college and rose through the late 1960s and early 1970s to become a highly successful and popular record producer with over a dozen gold records to his credit by 1982...

-produced title theme was nominated for Worst "Original" Song at the 1985 Golden Raspberry Awards
1985 Golden Raspberry Awards
The 6th Golden Raspberry Awards were held on March 23, 1986 at the Morgan-Wixon Theatre in Santa Monica, California to recognize the worst the movie industry had to offer in 1985. Though Rambo: First Blood Part II won Worst Picture, Rocky IV received the greatest number of nominations and "wins"...

, as was Vanity's song "7th Heaven". A song that was not featured but still benefited from critical acclaim was "Upset Stomach", written and performed by Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

.

In 1997 rapper Busta Rhymes
Busta Rhymes
Trevor Tahiem Smith, Jr., better known by his stage name Busta Rhymes ,Smith is an American rapper, producer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the alias Busta Rhymes after NFL wide receiver George "Buster" Rhymes...

 released the song Dangerous
Dangerous (Busta Rhymes song)
"Dangerous" is a hip hop song written by Lawrence Dermer, Trevor Smith, Rashad Smith, Henry Stone and Freddy Stonewall for Busta Rhymes second album When Disaster Strikes. The song is the album's fifteenth track, and was released as its second single, peaking at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100...

. In the music video he dressed as Sho'Nuff for one scene, repeating lines from the film.

Remake

In 2008, a remake of the film was announced, with Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...

 assuming the role of Sho'nuff. John Davis of Davis Entertainment
Davis Entertainment
Davis Entertainment is an American independent film production company, founded by John Davis in 1985.-Selected filmography:* Brewster's Millions * "Crocodile" Dundee * Predator * Superman IV: The Quest for Peace...

 and Gordy's son Kerry Gordy, along with the RZA
RZA
Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, better known by his stage name RZA , is an American Grammy-winning music producer, multi-instrumentalist, author, emcee, and occasional actor, director, and screenwriter. A prominent figure in Hip Hop, RZA is the de facto leader of the Wu-Tang Clan. He has produced almost...

 were set to produce. Penning the screenplay as well as producing was Dallas Jackson, who heads up the urban family label DJ Classicz with Davis.

Filming

  • The film began production on exclusive New York City locations on April 16th, 1984.
  • The Dojo and workout scenes were filmed at the Harlem Karate Institute of Grandmaster Ernest Hyman, Japanese Goju-Ryu, in Harlem, New York City.
  • The Victory Theater on 42nd Street which was used for the scene where Sho-Nuff interrupts the viewing of Enter The Dragon
    Enter the Dragon
    Enter the Dragon is a 1973 Hong Kong martial arts co-production with Golden Harvest and Warner Bros. studios, directed by Robert Clouse; starring Bruce Lee, Jim Kelly and John Saxon. This is Bruce Lee's final film appearance before his death on July 20, 1973...

    .
  • Bernstein's-on-Essex, a kosher Chinese restaurant used in the film with its decor intact.
  • Village East Pizza restaurant between 11th and 12th street on Ave C in lower Manhattan. (Daddy Green's);
  • A Chinese warehouse on Walker Street in Manhattan (the Sum Dum Goy fortune cookie factory);
  • Super Amusements in Flushing in the Queens Borough of New York City (Eddie's Video Emporium);
  • An abandoned wire factory and warehouse at East 118 Street and East Side Highway in Manhattan which was used for the climatic fight between Leroy and Sho'Nuff.
  • Peter Larkin's spectacular Seventh Heaven club video set was built on Camera Mart stages at 54th and 10th Avenue, a set so impressive that Diana Ross, visiting one day, promptly asked if she could buy it for her next tour.

External links

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