Some songs get you going no matter how much you just want to watch the movie. Usually the song will come in at just the right moment when the action is about to happen or the situation warrants it. In any case Black Betty is a song that let’s you know that the action is about to start or that things are getting serious and it’s time to sit up and pay attention. Unfortunately when it was first released by Ram Jam it actually caused a lot of trouble as the NAACP tried to boycott the song and the band. Thankfully we still have the song and it’s been used to great extent in movies and even in TV on occasion.
Here are a few good examples.
5. Blow
Nearly every film that has something to do with drugs eventually shows the downfall of those that get in too deep. George Jung is a guy that was attempting to do something great but somehow got lost along the way and forgot the most important lesson, that the money he wants isn’t real. The only thing that is real are the people that will be there for you through thick and thin. Without them nothing is real.
4. The Condemned
Performed by a different band, Black Betty is still a tone-setter for The Condemned. On a tropical island in the middle of the ocean an eccentric internet mogul has set up a disturbing game for a group of convicts that were handpicked by his own people. The rules are simple, survive and make it to the compound in one piece, and you’re free. The trick is that only one of them can win.
3. The Losers
I couldn’t find a clip with the song in it, but I do know it’s there from having watched the movie. The Losers was extremely underrated considering that it’s one of the most entertaining action films made within the past two decades. It stars a few well-known actors but keeps a relatively low profile since it didn’t really build up a lot of hype before the release.
2. The Dukes of Hazzard
If you’re a diehard Dukes of Hazzard fan then this movie might have let you down a bit. It had all the old nostalgic pieces of the show but it definitely swung wide of the mark when it picked the stars. Give them some credit though they made it pretty funny and had a decent story line going. The only problem seems to be that they didn’t let the audience in on it enough.
1. The Brave One
Once again no clip just a trailer. Some of these are extremely hard to find. This film is about a woman that loses her fiance during a mugging and ends up in the hospital, terrified and traumatized by the experience. A weird thing happens not long after this however, she finds a way to combat the fear in the most literal sense possible. Becoming an armed vigilante she soon enough forgets just why she was afraid in the first place.
Black Betty is a song that really gets you going and is used in a perfect way in any movie it’s used in.
