Blaxploitation films

Motion pictures geared toward black audiences

Blaxploitation films emerged in the late 1960s as a new cinematic genre. While some critics found them demeaning, these films illustrated the importance of developing black story lines from black perspectives.>

The term “blaxploitation” was first used by New York magazine on June 12, 1972. The magazine argued that such films exploited African American life and culture. Black filmmakers, however, viewed the young genre as an evolving form of black filmmaking and fictional life. Blaxploitation films—such as Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song (1971), Shaft (1971), Superfly (1972), Coffy (1973), and The Mack (1973)—dismissed the stereotype of black passivity and ignorance and replaced it with images of strength, pride, and a unified community.

Origins

Blaxploitation films appeared as a result of changes in American society. After World War II, racial issues became a top priority. In Hollywood, desegregation helped negate racial stereotypes and bring about the hiring of black actors, allowing the creation of such films as Blackboard Jungle (1955), starring Sidney Poitier.

With the postwar decline of the Hollywood studio system, the film industry was no longer able to determine and define black presence and issues in cinema. The end of the studio system represented a tremendous opportunity for many African American filmmakers and directors. These filmmakers forced the industry and American society to confront issues of race, gender, and class. Consequently, blaxploitation films were shaped by personal experiences with racism, the desire to create heroic images, and ideologies associated with the Black Power movement.

Characteristics

Blaxploitation films were usually filled with proud, independent, and intelligent characters. The main protagonist was family- and community-oriented, suspicious of white authority, and supportive of the armed defense of himself and the community. Blaxploitation films also displayed a dual and contrasting America. White society was seen as racist and privileged, while urban black life was portrayed as revolutionary despite socioeconomic ills. These images were important because they illustrated how external forces influenced and shaped black protagonists.

Black filmmakers sometimes remade white story lines and images from a black perspective. For example, Edward G. Robinson’s gangster film Little Caesar (1931) became Black Caesar (1973), and the vampire film Dracula (1931) became Blacula (1972).

While blaxploitation story lines were generally dominated by male perspectives, a few films showed black women as lead characters. In Cleopatra Jones (1973) and Coffy, Tamara Dobson and Pam Grier, respectively, played smart, sassy, and strong women who were skilled in marital arts and weaponry. Such films challenged the image of black women as docile and passive. They demonstrated that black women could be intelligent, sexy, and independent. Most important, films such as Coffy reflected the influence of black feminism.

Other talented black thespians of the 1970s included Jim Brown, John Amos, and Richard Roundtree. Musicians and composers also contributed to the success of blaxploitation films. African American composers such as Quincy Jones for Melinda (1972), Isaac Hayes for Shaft, and Curtis Mayfield for Superfly created soundtracks that epitomized black culture and highlighted the conditions of urban black life.

Controversy

Although successful, blaxploitation films were sharply criticized for their content and their portrayal of African American life. Many critics asserted that black audiences would be unable to differentiate reality from fantasy and would act out stereotypical images and violence. In a 1974 article, black psychiatristAlvin Poussaint argued that blaxploitation films would “glorify criminal life and encourage in black youth misguided feelings of machismo that are destructive to the community as a whole.” He claimed that such films damaged the well-being of all African Americans and presented negative stereotypes of blacks as gangsters, criminals, and oversexed savages. Newsweek concurred with Poussaint. In an article published August 28, 1972, the magazine maintained that blaxploitation films represented not art but the mere commercial exploration of the “repressed anger of a relatively powerless community.”

Leading civil rights organizations also criticized the new genre of black film. In 1972, former National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) leader Junius Griffin established a Los Angeles-based group, the Coalition Against Blaxploitation (CAB), to challenge the content and scope of the films. It included members of the NAACP, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Both black and white filmmakers responded to such criticisms, calling them double standards based on race. They suggested that blaxploitation films challenged black middle-class notions of respectability and defied those who wanted black films to assimilate into mainstream Hollywood. African American photographer, author, filmmaker, and composer Gordon Parks Sr., the director of Shaft, argued that it was “ridiculous to imply that blacks don’t know the difference between truth and fantasy and therefore will be influenced by these films in an unhealthy way.” In an article in Newsweek published October 23, 1972, black actor James Earl Jones contended “if they’re going to put the damper on John Shaft, let them put it on John Wayne too and they’ll find out that there are a lot of people who need those fantasies.” White film producer Larry Cohen, who was behind Black Caesar, asserted that white gangster films also portrayed violence and crime.

Impact

Blaxploitation films contributed to black artistic expression and political activism. They showed that black audiences would support black motion pictures. Perhaps most important, they created a genre that would later inspire both black and white filmmakers, such as Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino, and a host of other talented directors and actors.

Bibliography

Cripps, Thomas. Black Film as Genre. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978.

Nesteby, James R. Black Images in American Films, 1896–1954: The Interplay Between Civil Rights and Film Culture. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1982.

Patterson, Lindsay, comp. Black Films and Film-Makers: A Comprehensive Anthology from Stereotype to Superhero. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1975.

Poussaint, Alvin F. “Cheap Thrills That Degrade Blacks.” Psychology Today 7 (February, 1974): 22-23.

Sauers, Ashley. “‘Can You Dig It?’: The Politics of Race, Gender, and Class in Blaxploitation Cinema.” Film Matters, vol. 3, no. 1, 2012, pp. 14–19. Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f3h&AN=85982245&site=eds-live. Accessed 29 Nov. 2016.