On March 22, 1985, TriStar Pictures released a film like nothing anyone had seen before. It was an action film, a comedy, it had elements of fantasy, and relied heavily on integrating music in its narrative. Thanks to Motown founder Berry Gordy, the world was given The Last Dragon. Celebrating its 35th anniversary, the film still manages to unite audiences as well as ingrain itself into popular culture. Helping me take a look back at such an influential film is ‘Bruce’ Leroy Green himself, Taimak.
The Last Dragon (aka Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon) is the story of Leroy Green (Taimak), a martial artist who is trying to follow in the footsteps of his idol Bruce Lee. He has reached a point in his training where his master has nothing left to teach him. He still needs to reach “The Final Level” to become a true master, but it will be a quest he has to do on his own. The evil Sho’nuff (Julius J. Carry III) is a master in his own right and doesn’t like the idea of someone out there threatening his title. Leroy refuses to fight him which only angers the man to no end.
Meanwhile, music video maven Eddie Arkadian (Christopher Murney) is trying to get his girlfriend’s music video featured on the hit show 7th Heaven, but VJ Laura Charles (Vanity) refuses to play it. He hatches a plan to kidnap her, only to have the attempt foiled by Leroy. Laura and Leroy have an undeniable attraction to one another but he can’t let their relationship sidetrack his quest to find the master. As Sho’nuff continues to break him down, Arkadian realizes that the two of them have a common enemy in Leroy and team up to try and destroy him and his family.
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Under the direction of Michael Schultz, the film began production on April 16, 1984, and shot on various locations around New York. At the time of casting, the film’s star, Taimak, was just a nineteen-year-old martial artist who knew nothing of acting. Word of mouth spread throughout the martial arts community about the film casting, and Taimak decided to give it a shot.
He remembers, “I was competing with a combination of Karate, Tae Kwon Do, and Kickboxing when I heard about it through other competitors. They were telling everyone that the lead they were looking for was going to be a person of color. One of my friends thought I’d be good for the role. I grew up watching action movies, read comic books, and even watched shows like Spider-Man and Batman. I was a huge fan of Bruce Lee so I was willing to give it a shot.
I was training with Ron van Clief at the time, and he had recently been hired to do choreography on the film with two other guys. He said he could get me the script. My mom had a friend who was a dance choreographer and he said he could get me an audition. I went over there in my Karate gi, I was so naïve about auditions and acting that I thought they were going to have me do a Kata or something. I had to read from the script and I had no idea what I was doing, so I ended up doing horribly. I was so broken-hearted at the time that I went home and just worked on it. A month later, I went back and did it again. This time, they hired me.”
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It’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role of Leroy Green, even if some of Taimak’s competition included up-and-coming performers like Billy Blanks, Wesley Snipes, Mario Van Peebles, Laurence Fishburne, and Denzel Washington. With all the talent who was interested in the role, it’s no surprise that a newcomer like Taimak was met with jealousy and other emotions when work began. He states, “There was a lot of jealousy on and off set. It was kind of like James Bond, there were a lot of guys who wanted that role. It was very difficult for me because there were people there who didn’t want me to succeed. I dealt mostly with Berry Gordy, an acting coach, and that was really it.”
Even though there was an envious aura around the set at times, he jumped all in to his character and ran with it. His performance in the film reflects a little of himself and the position he had found himself in.
“I have always had a natural talent towards performing, and my instincts were really good. My thing was that I just didn’t know anything technically. Acting is really instinctual, just like sports. The athletes on a team or in a sport will instinctively respond to things. A professional athlete has the tools and the training to succeed. It’s the same with acting. You don’t need to have acting classes if you have instinct. If you really trust those instincts, you can appear to be a really solid actor. Everyone has emotions and I just paid attention to what was happening. I allowed myself to get taken by the moment and reacted as I was feeling those emotions,” Taimak relates.
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Screenwriter Louis Venosta created a larger than life villain in the form of Sho’nuff. The only thing larger than the man himself was his ego, and they needed the proper performer to fill the role. They found the perfect actor in Julius J. Carry III, who passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2008. He was a beast of a man, though not a martial artist, he was completely convincing in the role. Carry was so dedicated to the role, he made it a point to never break character.
“Man, he was always in character and very funny. You have to imagine though, he was walking around the set all day as Sho’nuff, not Julius. So little things would end up happening because of that, if you know what I mean,” Taimak recalls.
Once they had the perfect villain, the hero needed a love interest and the filmmakers brought in Vanity (real name Denise Matthews, who passed away from kidney failure in 2016). Previously to the film, Vanity had been a protégé of Prince and was lead vocalist of Vanity 6 who achieved minor success with the song “Nasty Girl.” She took on the role of Laura Charles, the host of the show 7th Heaven and the object of Leroy’s affection. She evoked many emotions from the people she worked with, including Taimak.
“Vanity was always trying to get me to listen to her music. She had a good voice, but she was no Whitney Houston. She was just so charismatic and beautiful that she captured everyone’s attention. Leo (O’Brien who played Leroy’s brother Richie) was just a kid always trying to hit on her. Just like in the movie, he kept talking about how she only had eyes for him or that she was giving him a look. It was all in his mind but he was so committed,” he laughs.
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The Last Dragon is one of those films you can watch over and over, never once imagining anyone else is those roles. Other notable cast members are Christopher Murney, Faith Prince, Glen Eaton, and the debuts of Keisha Knight Pulliam of The Cosby Show and Ernie Reyes Jr. If you look close enough, Academy Award-nominated actor William H. Macy shows up in one of his first screen roles.
As important as the actors are to the film, so is the soundtrack. The album was executive produced and supervised by Berry Gordy, featuring new music by artists like Vanity, Stevie Wonder, Willie Hutch, Smokey Robinson, and more. The album spawned the #1 hit “Rhythm of the Night” by DeBarge and was written by Diane Warren. The song jumpstarted her career that continues to flourish to this day (she has had nine #1 songs and thirty-two top 10 songs in the Billboard Top 100 Chart).
Taimak says of the soundtrack, “They packed in such a diverse group of artists onto the record and it turned out brilliantly. DeBarge had the #1 song at the time with “Rhythm of the Night” and the video was promoted in the film. The ’80s were such a crazy and colorful time, and this film and soundtrack was a perfect example as well as a product of it.”
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One thing I never really appreciated in the film until much later in life was not only the diversity of cast, but the way screenwriter Venosta toyed with racial stereotypes. Taimak elaborates, “Louis is a Puerto Rican guy who grew up in New York. Not only was he a fixture in the film scene there, he was a dancer, he was in Fame, as well as being a writer. He was experiencing all this diversity living in New York City and he obviously found humor in how different ethnic groups would stereotype other ethnic groups, like the Chinese are all martial artists, which of course isn’t true, or that all blacks play craps, which wasn’t true either. Here I am, a person of color, living as a stereotypical Chinese man on a boat with a master. Then the Chinese guys were dancing to the Temptations and shooting craps. It was a brilliant idea.”
With that idea in mind, he progresses on a deeper level, “People spend too much time talking to each other on the surface level. When you get past what you see on the surface, inside everything is the same. I’m currently working on a book that tries to break that barrier and inform people from the inside out. When you talk with certain people, especially those who are very spiritual, you’ll see that the only race they acknowledge is the human race, one race. When you fall in love with someone, the color of someone’s skin isn’t what you fall for, it transcends that. The Last Dragon speaks to people in much the same way, it’s broken that barrier.”
After thirty-five years, the film continues to draw attention and admirers for various reasons. Whether it be the action (there is plenty), the music, the message, or the fact that it’s inherently an ’80s film, people continue to discover and enjoy it. “The Last Dragon hasn’t been given the attention like The Karate Kid was given, partly because of the suits who washed their hands of it. Any attention the movie gets now is driven by the fans, not the studio. People from all over the world contact about me to say how the film means to them. It has such a positive message that it’s important to share it with young people; the kids just love it.”
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Taimak continues, “I had never acted or done a film before it, so every scene in that film is important to me. There were people involved, on and off the set, that didn’t want to see me succeed and I’m so proud of all the work I did on it. I was just a young guy with no experience starring in a movie, and looking back at how it turned out and the impact it has had, I’d say I did a great job.”
The film has been referenced numerous times in popular culture and continues to have an impact on those who grew up on the film, as well as those just discovering it for the first time. It has entertained, inspired, and captured the affection and imagination of people all over the world for thirty-five years. Taimak very eloquently sums up The Last Dragon experience not only for those involved, but for fans, “Be the voice of what the film is about. To me, that means all positive beliefs and all dimensions are valid and possible. Some people may call it a pipe dream, but I hope the fans can be the voice of possibility, taking action and showing unconditional love to all.”
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