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Blaxploitation

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File:Shaft Movie.jpg
Shaft (1971)

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 African American 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. Although criticized by civil rights groups for their use of stereotypes, they addressed the great and newfound demand for Afrocentric entertainment, and were immensely popular among black audiences. Most consider Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song to be the first film in the blaxploitation genre, although others concede that because the film was conceived and produced independently and directed by an African American filmmaker, the Hollywood-financed film Shaft is closer to being blaxploitation, and thus, is more likely to have begun the genre.[1]

Common qualities

Almost all blaxploitation films featured exaggerated sexuality and violence. When set in the North or West Coast of the U.S., they tended to take place in the ghetto and dealt with pimps, drug dealers, and hit men. In all these films, it was common to see drugs, the Afro hairstyle, “pimpmobiles,” and crooked and corrupt white police officers. When set in the South, the movies most often took place on a plantation and dealt with slavery and miscegenation. [2] [3]

Following the lead of Sweet Sweetback, many of these films featured funk soundtracks with heavy bass, funky beats and wah-wah guitars. This style of music actually evolved into a bona-fide musical genre, also called blaxploitation. Prominent examples of this style include Curtis Mayfield's Superfly and Isaac Hayes's Shaft.[4]

Stereotypes

At the same time, the films also stereotyped African Americans, 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 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 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.

These films were made for an African American audience and often showed negative depictions of Caucasian characters; whites were often cast as crooked and racist police officers or government officials, and the racial slur “honky” was frequently used toward them. Italian-Americans were frequently portrayed negatively as drug-dealing members of the Mafia whom black characters would often rip off. Anti-Italian epithets such as “dago” and “wop” were used in conjunction with “honky” against these characters.

Though regarded racist by many, some film scholars defend the cinematic genre as instrumental in bringing greater screen presence to African Americans.[citation needed] Furthermore, blaxploitation films laid the foundation for future filmmakers to address racial controversies regarding inner city poverty. In the early 1990s, a new wave of acclaimed African-American filmmakers focused on African-American 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

Template:List to prose (section)

Main article: List of blaxploitation films
  • Hit Man (1971) This is the story of a hit man or contract killer, played by former NFL player Bernie Casey, hailing from Oakland who comes to Los Angeles after his brother is murdered. He later finds out that his niece gets "forced" into pornography and later murdered. He then sets out to murder everyone directly involved, from a porno actress (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). Said to be a remake of Get Carter.
  • 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.

  • Mandingo (1975). Based on a series of novels, this blaxploitation film was set in the American South during the U.S. Civil War and focused on the sexual relations between slaveowners’ wives and slaves. It was followed by a sequel, Drum, which became a favorite among black audiences for a scene in which a slave literally tears the testicles off of a white slave driver.
  • Passion Plantation (1976)
  • 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 spin-off starring Samuel L. Jackson in 2000. (It was not a remake.)
  • Sheba, Baby (1975) The action movie Sheba, Baby, starring Pam Grier as Sheba Shayne, was released in 1975. In the film, Sheba returns to her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky to confront thugs who are trying to intimidate her father into dissolving or handing over his family business. Austin Stoker plays Sheba's love interest, Brick Williams.

Sheba, Baby was Pam Grier's last movie on her contract with AIP.

  • Space Is the Place (1974)
  • Sparkle (1976) Directed by Sam O’Steen and written by Howard Rosenman and Joel Schumacher. It is the story of three sisters from Harlem who embark on a singing career. The movie shows the pitfalls and the background dealings in the music business. The story is a dynamic piece on family connections with it showing the love of the three sisters and the devotion they have to each other. It also showcases a wonderful performance by Lonette McKee as “Sister” whose rise to fame leads her to a life of drug use and abuse. This movie also stars Irene Cara and Philip Michael Thomas as “Sparkle” and “Stix,” a young couple in love and straining to deal with all that success has to offer, the highs and the lows. The musical score for this production was done by Curtis Mayfield and the album for the movie was recorded by Aretha Franklin.
  • Superfly (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 enough while the movie celebrates drugs and the people dealing them Mayfield’s soundtrack is the exact opposite; a harsh commentary to the way drugs ruins the lives of especially the black man.
  • Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971), written and directed by Melvin Van Peebles. This tale of a black male prostitute turned vigilante is considered by many to be the first true blaxploitation film, and the film that thrust afrocentric films into the spotlight.[citation needed] (Van Peebles himself does not consider his film to be a part of the genre.)[citation needed]
  • Three the Hard Way (1974), three black men must stop a white supremacist group from imposing genocide against Negroes in three American cities.
  • Trick Baby (1973), based on the book of the same name by ex-pimp Iceberg Slim
  • Trouble Man (1972)Trouble Man is a 1972 blaxploitation film produced and released by 20th Century Fox. The film stars 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.

Like Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield before him, Gaye became the next in a line of soul music stars who recorded soundtracks for films aimed at African American audiences. While the Trouble Man film was a flop, the Trouble Man soundtrack and single became successes for Gaye.

  • Truck Turner (1974)Truck Turner is a 1974 blaxploitation film, starring Isaac Hayes and Yaphet Kotto, and directed by Johnathan Kaplan. The screenplay was written by Michael Allin, Jerry Wilkes and Oscar Williams.


[edit] Synopsis 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.

  • Watermelon Man (1970). Written by a white man (Herman Raucher) but directed by an African American (Melvin Van Peebles), this film about a white man who is turned into a black man is considered a forebearer of the 1970s blaxploitation boom.
  • 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 Superfly, 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 Superfly 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.


  • 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 African-American and blaxploitation themes, including drugs and voodoo.)

Later media references

Later movies such as Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) and Undercover Brother (2002), as well as Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown (1997) and Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2003), 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. 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.

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 $hort) have taken the no-nonsense pimp persona popularized first by ex-pimp Iceberg Slim's 1967 book Pimp and then by films such as Superfly, 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.”

Parodies and spoofs

The notoriety of the genre has lead 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 following with African American viewers.[1] 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.

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 animated series Family Guy, in episode 1ACX12, If I’m Dyin’, I’m Lyin’, showed a cutaway based on blaxploitation movies in the form of a parody of Back to the Future (Black to the Future), starring the main character Peter’s distant cousin Rufus Griffin as “Marty McSuperFly” (reference to Back to the Future protagonist Marty McFly). Also mentioned were other fake blaxploitation movies: Caddyblack, Blackdraft, and Black Kramer vs. Kramer.

In The Simpsons episode “Simpson Tide” (3G04) a TV announcer says “Next, on Exploitation Theatre...Blacula, followed by Blackenstein, and The Blunchblack of Blotre Blame!” The first two are real films.

The Simpsons episode 1F18 is entitled Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baadasssss Song.

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 Live’s 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. Sample Dialogue

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. It should be noted that 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 ebonics.

Duck King, a fictional character created for the video game series fatal fury, is a prime example of foreign African-American 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.

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 Issac Hayes.

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
  1. ^ a b James, Darius (1995). That's Blaxploitation!: Roots of the Baadasssss 'Tude (Rated X by an All-Whyte Jury). ISBN 0312131925. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ "Music Genre: Blaxploitation". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2007-06-21.
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