Riccardo Bardellino, producer of “Poison: First Fall: Jack’s Lightning,” is sad but grateful. This is what he told this newspaper, after the death of the legendary Dominican fighter Jack Verí, idol of his childhood and adolescence, when he attended the Eugenio María de Hostos park or the Color Vision amphitheater, channel 9, in the wrestling television program.
“I brought a couple of salamis and a couple of Forty Malt too, I was lucky, I can’t complain,” he explained on the radio show “The Morning Sun, when in 2018 he was promoting the film.
In this interview he detailed how the idea of making a trilogy of films that will narrate the life of Rafael Sánchez, real name of the champion, was born, and the first intention was to make a written biography, so it was in the house of the fighter to do a series of interviews in 2010.
“I actually went home to thank him, for everything he had represented in my childhood and adolescence,” said Bardellino, who is a fan of the sport of “agility, courage, deadlifts and men by the air, ”recount.
In shaping this project, the producer had several intentions. First, to pay tribute to the “only Dominican superhero”, to do justice to a generation of artists who want to propose all the talent that exists in this country, to rescue our own values, to use our music … ” to show ourselves what we can do with quality cinema that doesn’t have to be a comedy. ”
For this he was assisted by the filmmaker and publicist Taba Blanchard, screenwriter, director and editor of the film, for whom he represented a challenge to make a work that would do justice to the dimension of the mythical figure of Jack Poison, and on the other to recreate the whole visual environment in which the character developed.
“Everyone in the production was in charge of making a film that transcended time,” said Blanchard, for whom working on a vintage film is at the same time a fascination, because it is what he likes most. , and a very big commitment, for the visual fidelity it must have.
That is why for the realization of this first part of the life of the “Champion of the ballot of the world”, he commented that a meticulous investigation had to be done on how the Dominican of those years was, his way of speaking, clothes, in short, capture the essence of these years, second half of the 60s and the first of the 70s.
“Poison: First Fall: Jack’s Lightning” premiered in February 2018 and the second part of the trilogy was announced at that time for 2020, but it didn’t arrive. According to Blanchard, the two missing parts are in the process of being written, although there are no start dates for filming.
musical fighter
Jack Poison also inspired composers and musical arrangers. Papi Sanchez, for example, used it as the protagonist in his meringue video “Give Me Your Love.”
“Jack Poison’s Strip”, 1977, However, is a typical meringue dedicated to the Dominican wrestler, engraved by Leonardo Figueroa, known as El Negrito Figueroa.
This theme explains all that this fighting hero means, from his passage through Earth to his arrival in heaven, and was used as a musical background during some commercials in his visits to the villages, with the wrestling billboard .
“El Homenet” is a CD that included the song “Jack Verí ha mort”, in 2009. As if he wanted to become a blues spinning on a military march, “El Homenet” carries this urban picture, typical of Santo Domingo with the “son of Dona Tatica” as the central axis.
Marel Alemany recorded “Give me a fight” in 2010. A love story, various TV figures or local music making cameos and masks hiding the faces of beautiful girls is what this work brings.
The story completes its greatness with the presence of the champion of the “ballot of the world” giving advice and waiting, who could become his successor or in this case, successor. And they do find it.
“The Judge”
Rita Indiana & The Mysteries: “El juidero” (2010) also paid tribute to her. “La Montra” captivated with this video, where even a model of Joaquín Balaguer’s car makes his figure: a Lincoln Continental.
Wink everywhere, from the art direction in the details, to the plot itself, with an essence of Dominicanness. This same one that sometimes we want to ignore but we can’t.
Jack Poison, who died yesterday Tuesday morning, was in charge of giving us courage, in the midst of the Juye-Juye.
Whitest Taino Alive ft VFRO: “Jack Veneno” (2017). The malcriao but pampered ones of the patio deliver an apology to the man of the sleeve, contained in their musical production “Mana Nudes”.
It’s a track that exudes tigueraje, courage and has this verb on that if you invent a lot “they can make you spark, spark, spark”.
Not bad, considering that in the childhood of several generations he aspired to be like Jack, and so he longed to buy a Forty Malt in the houses, even if you knew lightning. And no one, I say no one of our generation, can deny that he was not thrown into bed to jump mortally before the reprimanding gaze of an adult.