20 Black Movie Characters Hollywood Should Learn From
8. Williams (Enter The Dragon)
Williams is very much in the vein of James Bond and blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Everything he does is larger than life, from his stature to his haircut to how he delineates his leisure time to his dialogue, such as his one-liner to the villainous Han, Man, you come right out of a comic book. Whether or not Williams realizes on some level that his statement applies to just about everything in the movie, he is nevertheless for the most part a very entertaining character.
Hollywood would do well to learn from his example, and I dont mean in terms of the Brother Rule or the Bond stuff. The alliance of the three main characters of the movie, Lee, Roper, and Williams, brings an aspect of the Chinese phrase tianxia to the movie, which includes the notion that true justice is higher than the laws of any government. Each character in the trio comes from a different cultural background (in the case of Roper and Williams, even within the same country) but upholds true justice, whether in the face of corrupt police officers or supervillains on mysterious islands. The idea of men of honor coming together from different backgrounds for a common purpose is always a moving one in any genre and gives the audience more to watch. Expanding the martial arts genre in modern mainstream films (or bringing out existing films) to include more of a variety of characters with backgrounds, lifestyles, and behaviors to cheer rather than lament would be a very cool thing.