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Blaxploitation
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Blaxploitation is a film genre that emerged in the United States in the early 1970s when many exploitation films were made that targeted the urban black audience; the word itself is a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation." Blaxploitation films starred primarily black actors, and were the first to feature soundtracks of funk and soul music.
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Encyclopedia
Blaxploitation is a film genre that emerged in the United States in the early 1970s when many exploitation films were made that targeted the urban black audience; the word itself is a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation." Blaxploitation films starred primarily black actors, and were the first to feature soundtracks of funk and soul music. Variety magazine credited Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song with the invention of the blaxploitation genre. Others argue that the Hollywood-financed film Shaft is closer to being blaxploitation, and thus, is more likely to have begun the genre.
Common qualities
When set in the Northeast or West Coast of the U.S., Blaxploitation films tend to take place in the ghetto, dealing with pimps, drug dealers, and hit men. The genre frequently takes place in an atmosphere of crime and drug-dealing. Ethnic slurs against whites (e.g. "honky"), and negative white characters like corrupt cops, politicians, women of ill repute and easily fooled organized crime members were common. Blaxploitation films set in the South often take place on a plantation, dealing with slavery and miscegenation.
Blaxploitation includes several types of films, including crime (Foxy Brown), action (Three the Hard Way), horror (Abby), comedy (Uptown Saturday Night), nostalgia (Five on the Black Hand Side), coming-of-age/courtroom drama (Cornbread, Earl and Me), and musical (Sparkle). The primary quality of the Blaxploitation film is the targeted marketing to black audiences with the use of exploitable elements such as a black cast and subject matter of interest to African-Americans.
Following the lead of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, many of these films featured funk and soul jazz soundtracks with heavy bass, funky beats and wah-wah guitars. These soundtracks are notable for a degree of complexity that was not common for radio-friendly funk tracks and rich orchestration that included uncommon instruments such as flutes and violins. This style of music actually evolved into a bona-fide musical genre, also called blaxploitation. Prominent examples of this style include Curtis Mayfield's Super Fly and Isaac Hayes's Shaft.
Stereotypes
At the same time, the films also stereotyped blacks, the audience they aimed to appeal to, as pimps and drug dealers. This dovetailed with common white stereotypes about black people, and as a result, many called for the end of the blaxploitation genre. The NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Urban League joined together to form the Coalition Against Blaxploitation. Backed by many black film professionals, this group received much media exposure and hastened the death of the genre by the late 1970s.
Blaxploitation films, such as Mandingo, laid the foundation for future filmmakers to address racial controversies regarding inner city poverty, and in the early 1990s, a new wave of acclaimed black filmmakers focused on black urban life in their films, particularly Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and John Singleton's Boyz N the Hood, among others.
Famous blaxploitation films
1970
1971
- Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) Written, produced, scored, directed by, and starring Melvin Van Peebles, this film is considered by many to be the film that triggered the "blaxploitation" trend. The hero is raised among prostitutes and is arrested for a crime he did not commit; during his arrest, he saves a Black Panther from a police beating by attacking the (white) police officers. He becomes a fugitive from (white) police authority and heads for Mexico. After various adventures and assistance from an array of colorful characters, the hero finally crosses the border to safety. In 2004, Mario Van Peebles directed and starred as his father in BAADASSSSS!, a biopic about the making of Sweet Sweetback.
- Shaft (1971) Directed by Gordon Parks and featuring Richard Roundtree as the black detective John Shaft, a character comparable to James Bond and Dirty Harry. The soundtrack has contributions from such prominent musicians as Isaac Hayes, whose recording of the titular song won several awards, including an Academy Award. Perhaps the most famous blaxploitation film, it was deemed culturally relevant by the Library of Congress. It spawned two sequels, Shaft's Big Score (1972) and Shaft in Africa (1973), as well as a short-lived TV series starring Roundtree. The concept was revived in 2000 with an all-new spin-off starring Samuel L. Jackson as the nephew of the original John Shaft.
- Hit Man (1971) This is the story of an Oakland hit man or contract killer, played by former NFL player Bernie Casey, who comes to Los Angeles after his brother is murdered. He later finds out that his niece has been "forced" into pornography and later murdered. He then sets out to murder everyone directly involved, from a porn star (Pam Grier) to a theater owner (Ed Cambridge) to a man he looked up to as a child (Rudy Challenger) to a mobster (Don Diamond). The film is said to be a remake of, or based on, Get Carter .
1972
- Super Fly (1972) Directed by Gordon Parks, Jr., this film had a soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield and is considered to be a classic of the genre. Curiously, while the movie celebrates drugs and the people dealing them, Mayfield's soundtrack presents the exact opposite: a harsh commentary on the way drugs ruin people's lives, especially those of blacks.
- The Legend of Nigger Charley (1972) Written and co-produced by Fred Williamson, who also stars. It was followed by the 1973 sequel, The Soul of Nigger Charley.
- Hammer (1972). Starring Fred Williamson as B.J. Hammer. He plays a boxer who gets mixed up with a crooked manager who wants him to throw a fight for the Mafia.
- Across 110th Street (1972) is a crime thriller about two detectives (played by Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto) who try to catch a group of robbers who stole $300,000 from the mob before the mob catches up with them.
- Black Mama, White Mama (1972) A women in prison exploitation movie partly inspired by The Defiant Ones (1958) with Pam Grier and Margaret Markov in the roles originally played by Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis.
- Blacksnake (1972) A unique Russ Meyer period piece about colonial slavery, a cruel white plantation mistress named Lady Susan and her domination of both the black and white men on Saint Cristobal (Barbados).
- Blacula (1972) is a take on Dracula, featuring an African prince (played by William H. Marshall) who is bitten by Count Dracula and, after turning himself into a vampire, spreads terror in modern day Los Angeles.
- Trouble Man (1972) Starring Robert Hooks as "Mr. T.", a hard-edged private detective who tends to take justice into his own hands. Although the film itself was unsuccessful, it is still of note today for its successful soundtrack, written, produced and performed by Motown artist Marvin Gaye.
1973
- Trick Baby (1973), based on the book of the same name by ex-pimp Iceberg Slim
- Blackenstein (1973) is a joking quasi-sequel to Blacula, featuring a black Frankenstein's monster.
- Detroit 9000 (1973) is a 1973 blaxploitation feature film set in Detroit, MI, Street-smart white detective Danny Bassett (Rocco) teams with educated black detective Sgt. Jesse Williams (Rhodes) to investigate a theft of $400,000 at a fund-raiser for Representative Aubrey Hale Clayton (Challenger). Championed by Quentin Tarantino it was released on video by Miramax in April 1999.
- Cleopatra Jones (1973) and its sequel, Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold (1975), stars Tamara Dobson as a karate-chopping government agent. The first film marked the beginning of a subgenre of blaxploitation films which focused on strong female leads who took an active role in shootouts and fights. Some of these films include Coffy, Black Belt Jones, Foxy Brown, and T.N.T. Jackson.
- Coffy (1973) Pam Grier is Coffy, a nurse turned badass who takes revenge on all those who hooked her 11-year-old sister on heroin. Grier's biggest hit. Same formula used again in 1974 with Grier as Foxy Brown.
- Black Caesar (1973) Fred Williamson plays Tommy Gibbs, a street smart hoodlum who worked his way up from the bottom of the barrel to the crime boss of Harlem.
- The James Bond franchise once took on some elements of blaxploitation during the heyday of the genre, in the movie Live and Let Die (1973). (The plot involved many black and blaxploitation themes, including drugs and voodoo.)
- The Mack (1973) The Mack is a 1973 blaxploitation film starring Max Julien and Richard Pryor. This movie was produced during the era of such blaxploitation movies as Dolemite, however it is not considered by its makers a true blaxploitation picture. It is a social commentary, according to Mackin' Ain't Easy, a documentary about the making of The Mack, which can be found on the DVD edition of the film.
The movie deals with the life of John Mickens (AKA Goldie), a former drug dealer recently released from prison who becomes a big-time pimp. Standing in his way is another pimp named Pretty Tony, two corrupt white cops, a local crime lord, and even his own brother (the black nationalist), who try to force him out of the business.
The movie is set in Oakland, California and was the biggest grossing blaxploitation film of its time. Its soundtrack songs were recorded by Motown artist Willie Hutch. - Scream Blacula Scream (1973), a sequel to Blacula; William H. Marshall resumes his role as Blacula/Mamuwalde.
- Gordon's War (1973), starred Paul Winfield as a Vietnam vet who recruits ex-Army buddies to fight the Harlem drug dealers and pimps responsible for the heroin death of his wife.
- The Spook Who Sat By the Door (1973). Adapted from Sam Greenlee's novel and directed by Ivan Dixon, with music by Herbie Hancock. A token black CIA employee who is secretly a black nationalist, trained in all sorts of undercover and clandestine operations, including guerrilla warfare, leaves his menial position to train a street gang in all the CIA has taught him and become an army of "freedom fighters". The film was reportedly pulled from distribution because of its politically controversial message and depictions of an American race war. Until its 2004 DVD release, it was very difficult to obtain, save for infrequent bootleg VHS copies.
1974
- Johnny Tough (1974) Starring Dion Gossett and Renny Roker.
- Truck Turner (1974) Starring Isaac Hayes and Yaphet Kotto, and directed by Johnathan Kaplan. The screenplay was written by Michael Allin, Jerry Wilkes and Oscar Williams.
Truck Turner (portrayed by Isaac Hayes) is a former professional football player who becomes a bounty hunter (along with his partner Jerry) in search of a pimp in Los Angeles, California. After a tragic accident (where Truck uses deadly force where the alleged pimp is killed and his friend is stabbed by a prostitute), Turner becomes a marked man by the a hired assassin. - Willie Dynamite (1974) Willie Dynamite is a 1974 (see 1974 in film) blaxploitation film which features Roscoe Orman (Gordon from Sesame Street fame) as a pimp who lives the "life". This film, unlike Super Fly, is more dramatic to which someone intervenes.
As usual with blaxploitation films, the lead character is seen driving a customized Cadillac Eldorado coupe—the one featured in the film was previously used in the Magnum Force (the Super Fly Eldorado seen in Magnum Force was painted pink but repainted for use in the film—the only difference is the D & G headlight covers which were not seen in the Dirty Harry film). In one scene in the film, the pimpmobile meets its demise when several ghetto thugs vandalize the car to which the hubcaps, grille cap, headlight covers, and lake pipes were ripped. - Abby (1974) was a blaxploitation version of The Exorcist and starred then rising star Carol Speed as a virtuous young woman possessed by a demon; Ms. Speed also sings the title song. William H. Marshall (of Blacula fame) conducts the exorcism of Abby on the floor of a discotheque.
- Black Belt Jones (1974)—Better known for his role as "Mister Williams" from the Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon; Jim Kelly was given a leading role in this martial arts film. In it he plays Black Belt Jones, a federal agent/martial arts expert who takes on the mob as he avenges the murder of a karate school owner.
- Foxy Brown (1974) Largely a remake of her hit film Coffy, Pam Grier once again plays a nurse on a vendetta against a drug ring.
- Get Christie Love! (1974 TV movie later released to some theaters). A police drama, this time with an attractive young black woman (Theresa Graves) as an undercover cop. Later made into a short-lived TV series.
- Space Is the Place (1974) A psychedelically-themed blaxploitation film featuring Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Solar Arkestra.
- Three the Hard Way (1974), three black men must stop a white supremacist plot to eliminate all blacks with a serum in the water supply.
- T.N.T. Jackson (1974) Starring Jean Bell (one of the first black Playboy playmates), this film, partly set in Hong Kong, is notable for blending blaxploitation with the then-popular "chop-socky" martial arts genre.
1975
- Sheba, Baby (1975) A female private eye (Pam Grier) tries to help her father save his loan business from a gang of thugs.
- The Black Gestapo (1975) Rod Perry plays General Ahmed who has started an inner-city People's Army to try and relieve the misery of the citizens of Watts. When the Mafia moves in, they establish a military style squad.
- Black Shampoo, a take off on the Warren Beatty hit Shampoo.
- Boss Nigger (1975) Along with his friend Amos (D’Urville Martin) Boss Nigger (Fred Williamson) takes over the vacated position of sheriff in a small western town in this Western Blaxploitation film. Because of its controversial title, it was released in some markets as The Boss, The Black Bounty Killer or The Black Bounty Hunter.
- Darktown Strutters (1975) is a farce produced by Roger Corman's brother, Gene, and directed by William Witney. A Colonel Sanders-type figure with a chain of urban fried chicken restaurants is attempting to wipe out the black race by making them impotent through his drugged fried chicken.
- Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde is a retelling of the Jekyll and Hyde tale, starring Bernie Casey.
- Dolemite is a 1975 blaxploitation feature film, and is also the name of its principal character, played by Rudy Ray Moore, who co-wrote the film. Moore had developed the alter-ego as a stand-up comedian and released several comedy albums using this persona. The film was directed by D'Urville Martin, who appears as the villain Willie Green. The film has attained something of a cult status, earning it a following and making it more well known than many of its counterparts. A sequel, The Human Tornado, was released in 1976.
- Mandingo (1975). Based on a series of lurid Civil War novels, this focuses on the abuses of slavery and the sexual relations between slaves and slave owners. It was followed by a sequel, Drum (1976) with Pam Grier.
1976
- Ebony, Ivory & Jade (1976) by Cirio Santiago (also known as She Devils in Chains, American Beauty Hostages, Foxfire, Foxforce). Three female athletes are kidnapped during an international track meet in Hong Kong and fight their way to freedom. Another cross-genre blend of blaxploitation and martial arts action films.
- The Muthers (1976) another Cirio Santiago combination of Filipino martial arts action and women-in-prison elements. Jeanne Bell and Jayne Kennedy rescue prisoners held at an evil coffee plantation.
- Passion Plantation (1976), aka Black Emmanuel, White Emmanuel. A blend of the Mandingo, and Emmanuelle films with interracial sex and savagery.
Post 1970s Blaxploitation films
- Original Gangstas (1996) brings together the premiere '70s blaxploitation stars Pam Grier, Richard Roundtree, Fred Williamson, and Jim Brown.
- Jackie Brown (1997) Starring Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, and an all-star supporting cast, director Quentin Tarantino partly pays homage to the blaxploitation genre. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel Rum Punch, Tarantino's title change, casting of Grier, and '70s-style poster art, are all references to Grier's 1974 film Foxy Brown.
- Full Clip (2004 film) made in the graphic novel style.
Later influence and media references
An early blaxploitation tribute can be seen in the character of "Lite" played by Sy Richardson in Repo Man (1984). Richardson would later go on to write Posse (1993), which could be described as a kind of blaxploitation Western.
Later movies such as Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), Superbad (2007), and Undercover Brother (2002), as well as Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2003), and Death Proof (2007) feature pop culture nods to the blaxploitation genre. The parody Undercover Brother, for instance, starred Eddie Griffin as an Afro-topped agent for a clandestine organization satirically known as the "B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D." Likewise, Austin Powers in Goldmember co-stars Beyoncé Knowles as the Tamara Dobson/Pam Grier-inspired heroine, Foxxy Cleopatra. In the 1977 parody film The Kentucky Fried Movie, a mock trailer for Cleopatra Schwartz depicts another Pam Grier-like action star married to a Rabbi. Furthermore, the acclaimed film auteur and noted fan of exploitation films, Quentin Tarantino, has made countless references to the blaxploitation genre in his films, in addition to Jackie Brown. In a famous scene in Reservoir Dogs, for instance, the main characters engage in a brief discussion regarding Get Christie Love!, a mid-1970s blaxploitation television series. Similarly, in the catalytic scene of True Romance, the characters are seen viewing the movie The Mack.
John Singleton's remake of Shaft (2000) is a modern-day interpretation of a classic blaxploitation film. The 1997 film Hoodlum starring Laurence Fishburne was an attempt at gangster blaxploitation, portraying a fictional account of black mobster Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson. In 2004, Mario Van Peebles, Melvin's son, released Baadasssss!, a movie based on the making of his father's movie in which Mario played his father. 2007's American Gangster, based on the true story of heroin dealer Frank Lucas takes place in the early 1970s in Harlem and has many elements similar in style to blaxploitation films, specifically when the song Across 110th Street is played.
Furthermore, blaxploitation films have made a profound impact on contemporary hip hop culture. Several prominent hip hop artists (including Snoop Dogg, Big Daddy Kane, Ice T, Slick Rick, and Too Short) have taken the no-nonsense pimp persona popularized first by ex-pimp Iceberg Slim's 1967 book Pimp and then by films such as Super Fly, The Mack, and Willie Dynamite, as inspiration for their own works. In fact, many hip-hop artists have paid tribute to pimping within their lyrics (most notably 50 Cent's hit single "P.I.M.P.") and have openly embraced the pimp image in their music videos, by including entourages of scantily-clad women, flashy jewelry (known as "bling-bling"), and luxury Cadillacs (referred to as "pimpmobiles"). Perhaps the most famous scene of The Mack, featuring the "Annual Players Ball", has become an often-referenced pop culture icon, most recently by Chapelle's Show, where it was parodied as the "Player-Haters’ Ball." The genre's overseas influence extends to artists such as Norway's Madcon.
Cultural references and parodies
The notoriety of the genre has led to a number of parodies, some of them humorous, others satirical. The earliest attempts to mock the genre, Ralph Bakshi's Coonskin and Rudy Ray Moore's Dolemite, were both made during the heyday of the genre, in 1975. The satirical film Coonskin was intended to deconstruct racial stereotypes ranging from early minstrel show stereotypes to more recent stereotypes found in blaxploitation films of the era. However, the work encountered a strong amount of controversy before its release when it was protested by the Congress of Racial Equality, and its distribution was handed to a smaller distributor who advertised Coonskin as an exploitation film. However, it developed a cult followinng with black viewers. Dolemite was less serious in tone and produced as a spoof. Dolemite centered around a sexually active black pimp played by Moore, who based the film on his stand-up comedy act. The film was followed by a sequel, The Human Tornado.
Later spoofs parodying the blaxploitation genre include I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, Pootie Tang, Undercover Brother and The Hebrew Hammer, which featured a Jewish protagonist, and was jokingly referred to by its director as a "Jewsploitation" film.
A more recent parody is the invention of the Botsploitation genre championed by the website botsploitation.com featuring robotic version of famous cultural personalities.
Robert Townsend's comedy Hollywood Shuffle features a young black actor who is tempted to take part in a white-produced blaxploitation film.
The anime series Cowboy Bebop features several episodes with blaxploitation themes, particularly Mushroom Samba which extensively parodies blaxploitation movies.
The Onion's book Our Dumb Century has an article from the 1970s entitled "Congress Passes Anti-Blaxploitation Act: Pimps, Players Subject to Heavy Fines."
FOX's network television comedy, "MADtv", has frequently spoofed the Rudy Ray Moore-created franchise Dolemite, with a series of sketches performed by comic actor Aries Spears, in the role of "The Son of Dolemite." Other sketches include the characters "Funkenstein", "Dr. Funkenstein" and more recently Condoleezza Rice as a blaxploitation superhero. A recurring theme in these sketches is the inexperience of the cast and crew in the Blaxploitation era, with emphasis on ridiculous scripting and shoddy acting, sets, costumes and editing. The sketches are testaments to the poor production quality of the films, with obvious boom mike appearances and intentionally poor cuts and continuity. There was even an episode where the Son of Dolemite met and faced off against Black Belt Jones.
Saturday Night Lives long-running character the Ladies Man parodied blaxploitation's exaggerated sexuality. The Ladies’ Man, played by Tim Meadows, was an Afro-topped and sexually-crazed talk-show host who believed himself to be the living definition of what females search for in a man.
In the movie Leprechaun in the Hood, a character played by Ice-T pulls a baseball bat from his afro; this scene is a satire of a similar scene in Foxy Brown, in which Pam Grier hides a revolver in her afro.
Adult Swim's Aqua Teen Hunger Force series has a recurring character called "Boxy Brown" (A play on Foxy Brown, a lead character in another blaxploitation film). An imaginary friend of Meatwad, Boxy Brown is a cardboard box with a crudely drawn face with a goatee on it that dons an afro. Whenever Boxy speaks ’70s funk music, typical of blaxploitation films, is played in the background. The cardboard box also fronts a confrontational attitude and dialect similar to many heroes of this film genre.
Some of the TVs found in the action video game Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne feature a blaxploitation-themed parody of the original Max Payne game called Dick Justice, after its main character. In the original Max Payne, there is a dialogue between two mercenaries, one of whom admits that he has christened his gun "Dick Justice." Dick behaves much like the original Max Payne (down to the "constipated" grimace and metaphorical speech) but wears an afro and mustache, and talks in Black English.
Duck King, a fictional character created for the video game series "Fatal Fury", is a prime example of foreign black stereotypes.
The animated series Drawn Together features a character named Foxxy Love who spoofs both 1970s Hanna-Barbera cartoons and blaxploitation characters. Her name is derived from those of the characters Foxy Brown and Christie Love. Another blaxploitation example is the repeated minor character named Judge Fudge, a talking piece of fudge who is a judge in his own TV show, The Judge Fudge Adventure Power Hour.
The Internet phenomenon "The Juggernaut Bitch!!!" features a Blaxploitation-styled over-dub on a series of X-Men cartoon clips featuring the Juggernaut.
The sub-cult movie short Gayniggers from Outer Space, a blaxploitation-like science fiction oddity directed by Danish filmmaker DJ and singer Morten Lindberg.
Jefferson Twilight, a character in The Venture Bros., is a parody of the comic-book character Blade (a black, half-vampire vampire-hunter), as well as a blaxploitation reference: he has an afro, sideburns, and a mustache; carries swords; dresses in stylish 1970s clothing; and says that he hunts "Blaculas." He looks and sounds somewhat like Samuel L. Jackson.
The intro credits in Beavis and Butthead Do America has a Blaxploitation style, even having the theme sung by Isaac Hayes.
Professional wrestler Human Tornado's gimmick is done in vein to blaxploitation films.
Family Guy has parodied Blaxploitation numerous times using fake movie titles such as "Black to the Future" (Back to the Future) and "Love Blactually" (Love Actually). These parodies occasionally feature a black version of Peter Griffin.
On 30 Rock, Tracy Jordan claims to have been in a remake of An Affair to Remember entitled A Blaffair to Rememblack.
See also
Further reading
What It Is...What It Was!; The Black Film Explosion of the ’70s in Words and Pictures by Andres Chavez, Denise Chavez, Gerald Martinez ISBN 0-7868-8377-4
External links
- — A comprehensive database on blaxploitation films, soundtracks and artwork.
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- at THE DEUCE: Grindhouse Cinema Database
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- — a space devoted to Blaxploitation films
- — reflects the history and legacy of the African American cultural contribution to cinema.
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