Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Hammer Blu-ray Movie Review

Hammer time, no harem pants required.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 13, 2015

If Pam Grier owned the title of Queen of Blaxploitation, Fred Williamson was at least one of the finalists for the King spot, with a series of popular films which saw the erstwhile football marauder taking on all sorts of nefarious criminal elements, with Williamson typically punching, kicking and chopping his way to ultimate victory. Williamson’s “reign” began with 1972’s Hammer, a film whose title traded on Williamson’s gridiron moniker and which capitalized on Williamson’s already well documented proclivities of throwing punches, karate chops and other modes of attack. Hammer is a kind of odd Blaxploitation entry in at least a couple of ways, with a boxing element which draws on hoary tropes well outside of typical Blaxploitation elements, tropes which are in fact more reminiscent of noir (or at least noir-esque) outings like 1949’s Champion. Williamson’s character B.J. (otherwise known as Hammer) starts the film as a dock worker, but in an opening melee dispatches a nasty cohort with so much force that he’s fired (in just one of the film’s kind of illogical developments, since the white co-worker was being a racist jerk and most if not all of the workers are black). That loss of employment ultimately leads to Hammer pursuing a professional boxing career, but unfortunately the would be pummeler falls in with the wrong crowd and finds his matches controlled by mobsters who (of course) ultimately want Hammer to “take a fall” in order to rake in substantial bucks. A couple of silly subplots, including a kidnapping and hostage taking of Hammer’s girlfriend, play into a predictable but surprisingly enjoyable early seventies’ Blaxploitation offering.

A certain sloppiness in Bruce Clark’s direction is evident from the first dockside sequence. Not only is the initial fight staged almost laughably badly, the whole scene is cut together strangely, as if it had been put together specifically to invite scorn from the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew. There are a number of laugh out loud moments in this first sequence—note, for example, how a number of dock workers simply wander into the frame observing the fight with absolutely no reaction whatsoever, as if this sort of smackdown happens there every day. Even little dialogue moments, which are inserted interstitially between the punches and karate chops, are haphazard, as if the actors aren’t quite sure anyone actually called out “Action!”

The dock sequence at least manages to introduce one of the film’s central villains, a henchman named Brenner (genre stalwart William Smith), who in yet another slightly illogical series of events gets Hammer fired, only to show up later as one of the chief acolytes to mobster Big Sid (Charles Lampkin), the guy who ends up promoting Hammer up the ranks of the lucrative boxing industry. Big Sid makes moolah any way he can, and that means boxing isn’t his only stock in trade. In typical Blaxploitation manner, drug dealing also enters the scenario, as if rigging boxing matches just won't quite cut it with the perceived urban audience demographic.

Also playing out against Hammer’s series of bouts is a somewhat convoluted romantic triangle of sorts where Hammer first ditches an initial girlfriend, a harridan named Mary (Nawana Davis) who later shows up as a prostitute (ouch!), and begins to go after Big Sid’s luscious secretary Lois (Vonetta McGee). Hammer experiences both the thrill of victory, at least in the ring, and the agony of defeat, at least in his social standing, when it turns out that his sudden success makes him something of a pariah back out on the street.

Things come to a head when Hammer is pressed to take a fall, and Lois is taken to insure he’ll comply. Meanwhile Hammer has forged an alliance with a cop named Hamilton (Bernie Davis) which, along with some unlikely last minute help from a former disparager (regular Williamson film comedy relief D’urville Martin), manages to bring the bad guys to justice. Everything plays out exactly as expected in Hammer, which is actually not as much of a detriment as might be expected. What’s actually more problematic is Clark’s inability to properly stage and frame some epochal fight sequences, or to get a consistent performance out of Williamson, who seems to still be finding his cinematic sea legs.

On the plus side, there’s no denying Williamson’s inherent charisma, something that would allow him to coast through a series of similar pictures even when his acting chops might not equal the force of his karate chops. He’s got more than enough swagger to carry the physical equation of the film, something that only tends to point up Clark’s frequent incompetence in filming these sequences. The supporting cast of Hammer is quite enjoyable. Smith seethes through his bad guy role, and Vonetta McGee, then something of an “it” girl in black- centric cinema, is incredibly lovely, managing to keep her role from devolving into a traditional hysterical damsel in distress. Hammer may ultimately not have burst from the cinematic gate as fully formed as, say, Coffy (for all of its issues) would a year later, but it certainly delivered enough punch (so to speak) to firmly establish Williamson as one of that decade’s premiere Blaxploitation idols.

Hammer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hammer is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This falls very much in line with the recent glut of Blaxploitation fare released by Olive (Coffy, Foxy Brown), with elements that show their age at times, including fairly typical amounts of dirt, minus density and small scratches. Colors have faded slightly here toward the brown end of things, but probably not quite as much as was seen in Coffy. Blues are still quite respectable (see the bright skies in screenshot 1 for a good example), while reds and even yellows can look just a tad skewed. Fine detail is quite good in close-ups (see screenshot 4), but this can be a fairly soft looking transfer at times, independent of the use of diffusion filters (as in screenshot 16). Clarity is very good throughout the presentation, with the exception of a few moments which look like they may have been sourced off of a secondary element, with an attendant uptick in both grain and fuzziness. Grain is very evident throughout the presentation, struggling a few times to resolve organically in some of the darker moments.

Hammer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hammer features a boisterous lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track which provides surprisingly full bodied support for the bass heavy score by Solomon Burke. The audio effects and foley effects editor as well as whoever did the ADR were not especially artful, and so those who pay attention to such things will notice no lip movements during the opening tête-à-tête "dialogue" scene (above the boxing ring) or, later, synchronization issues between fists meeting flesh and the actual sounds thereof. These anomalies aside, dialogue, effects and score are rendered faithfully, with very good fidelity and at least sporadically decent dynamic range. There are no issues of any kind to warrant concern on this problem free track.

Hammer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements of any kind on this Blu-ray disc.

Hammer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If Coffy's director Jack Hill had helmed Hammer, it might have had a bit more coherence and staging effectiveness. The film is repeatedly hobbled by some unfortunate framing and fight choreography choices which only tend to highlight how artificial everything is. Williamson is appealingly casual throughout the film, but probably didn't give Laurence Olivier any night sweats at the time. Most of the fun of this picture comes from the really colorful supporting cast. Hammer is predictable, but for lovers of Blaxploitation fare at least, there's probably enough to warrant checking it out. Technical merits are generally very good (video) to excellent (audio) for those considering a purchase.