Blaxsploitation Films

Blaxploitation is a film genre that emerged 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."

Characteristics of Blaxploitation films:
1. Story uses the urban ghetto as a locale for its setting
2. Often includes such characters as: pimps, hit men, drug dealers, the ho, etc.
3. White characters are often antagonists: corrupt cops, evil politicians, easily fooled organized crime goons, etc.
4. Characters are often stereotypes
5. Black music (hip hop, rap, jazz, R&B, funk, blues, etc.) is used as a score
6. Black actors play primary and protagonist roles

Popular genres of film include:
Crime (Foxy Brown), action (Three the Hard Way), horror (Abby, Blacula), comedy (Uptown Saturday Night), nostalgia (Five on the Black Hand Side), coming-of-age/courtroom drama (Cornbread, Earl and Me), and musical (Sparkle).

Here is a list of clips for your viewing pleasure:

They Call Me MISTER Tibbs (1970) (Sidney Poitier) - sequel to In the Heat of the Night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zklu9zyFlv4

Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) directed by Ossie Davis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKmSwcFkxCc

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) starring Melvin Van Peebles - considered (with Shaft) to have created the Blaxploitation cycle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rD1OzJVoWY

Shaft (1971) Directed by Gordon Parks; starring Richard Roundtree
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiCB2isZcRM

The popularity of this film spawned these sequels:

Shaft's Big Score (1972)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXFzFYt12-g

Shaft in Africa (1973)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p_VY7qBKhM

Remake in 2000, Shaft 2000
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trOuMvapW8E

Also by Gordon Parks:
Superfly (1972)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmZjD2UWoso

Blacula (1972) directed by William Crain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd5giV-9Ncs

And its sequel: Scream, Blacula, Scream (1973)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxqE50c2x_0

And because Dracula was lonely:
Blackenstein (1973)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJGkgDJXQV0

Cleopatra Jones (1973) starring Tamara Dobson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYVX8JBjbMw

and its sequel for all the sistahs:
Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold (1975)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opmM0iY3G90&feature=PlayList&p=9786C2F4BDBE473F&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=50

Coffy (1974) starring Pam Grier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jVAIitIP-4

These exploitation films were influenced by lesbian exploitation films (also prison exploitation films):
Black Mama, White Mama (1972)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK8I1eEQ_tU

Abby (influenced by the Exorcist - 1974)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLX6BnmtWS4

Sugar Hill (1974)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtEMUuFR62w

Dolemite (1975)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkjExJqf34o

Ralph Bakshi's Coonskin (1975) Bakshi is not black, but many white filmmakers took advantage of reaching a black audience in their films.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEozkBGHPgU&feature=related

Sparkle (1976) Musicals like this also included such popular titles as the Wiz (1978)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YmVj7vgsqE&feature=PlayList&p=0D49159FD388DEA0&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=44

The Wiz (1978)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9VdzxmgL_w&feature=PlayList&p=6A57B44E547E7713&index=0&playnext=1

Later in the 1980's until present, blaxploitation film style has been parodied:

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka! (1988)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7M8q4ABq98

Jackie Brown (directed by Quentin Tarantino) 1997
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5pfU3Sd3Aw

Pootie Tang (2000)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpV2ULCb6WU

Black filmmakers like Spike Lee would go back to blaxploitation films to influence a whole new host of black directors and redirect African American cinema. Fundamentally, Spike Lee's films are also blaxploitation films, although they have a wider audience.

Feel free to look up some of these films by Spike Lee:
She's Gotta Have It (1986)
School Daze (1987)
Do the Right Thing (1988)
Mo' Better Blues (1990)
Jungle Love (1991)
Malcolm X (1992) This award winning film established Spike Lee as an important African American auteur.

For extra credit this marking period, write a very short blaxploitation film script (3-7 pages): due at end of next week (June 19 at the latest). We will pick up Blaxploitation as popular culture next year in Writing Across Cultures. Stay tuned next season!