“Three The Hard Way, three cities, three of us.” So it is decided. Three heroes are needed to save the black populations of Detroit, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles . This movie has some heroes in Fred Williamson, Jim Brown and Jim Kelly.  Failure is not an option. How they kick racist asses has many options. This movie shows the viewer quite a few.

Gordon Parks Jr. directed this film in 1974, two years after Super Fly. The soundtrack is by The Impressions who star as a band in the recording studio. Some of the stand out songs are “That’s What Love Will Do” and the theme for Jim Kelly’s character Mister Keyes. His first name is Mister so everybody will show him respect whether they want to or not. Setting this fellow up for a fall is not an easy thing for the crooked police officers to do.

I haven’t seen the film yet. Be warned, there are several versions out there.  I spotted on Internet Movie Database a thread that claims the original running time is different and a scene with the song Make A Resolution is missing from recent television and cable broadcasts. Perhaps, an editor did not cut the film for commercials in a wise fashion. Having the assignment of cutting content is at times impossible.  Thankfully , the song does play during the credits and there’s a full version on the soundtrack album (track one).

Turntabling has a copy of the vinyl LP soundtrack of Three The Hard Way for sale -first come first served.  It is a used copy, but in great shape, tough, yet sweet, just like the stars. If we find any new copies we’ll give you a heads up.