The early Seventies was a time of social turmoil and major changes in US society. The Black Power movement was on the rise, both the militant Black Panthers and the peaceful followers of Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s leadership were very active. At the same time, there was a growing black American middle class with money to spend.
Already in the silent era up to the Forties, there had been films portraying the black population, but with the blaxploitation genre, there was a new breed of films, with an empowering theme, where strong, independent black heroes and heroines took to arms against “The Man”.
The term blaxploitation cinema was coined in August 1972 by producer Junius Griffin, the president of the Beverly Hills-Hollywood NAACP branch. He disliked the genre because he felt it portrayed black people as stereotypical characters often involved in criminal activity.
However, some of the films had black producers and directors, but many were produced by unscrupulous white production companies and directors, like Roger Corman’s AIP, to make a quick buck on this new trend, and this growing paying audience.
The films had a much broader appeal than catering to the African-American community. As they were shock full of action, nudity and cynicism, there was a big, broad appreciating audience for them.
The blaxploitation films were often a mix with other genres, including crime, action/martial arts, bikers, women-in-prison and westerns.
“Black Mama White Mama” (1973)
Blaxploitation icon Pam Grier is shackled together with Margaret Markov, running away from prison in the Philippines, in this women-in-prison/blaxploitation movie. The story was reportedly inspired by the 1958 film “The Defiant Ones” (1958) in which Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis are stuck together.
Martial arts mixed with blaxploitation as Jean Bell (ex- Playboy model) fights ruthless Chinatown drug dealers who killed her brother. From an IMDB review: “This is so '70s bad Far Eastern martial arts meets black power that it hurts, but boy it hurts so good! I am ashamed to admit that I almost enjoyed it.”
A black gangster has to take on the white heroin cartel in order to become the big boss. A typical theme for a blaxploitation movie, is how the black hero/thug/anti-hero takes on the bad white mob/drug dealers/cops!
Blaxploitation western, where a returning soldier from the American Civil War has to take on the bad guys who killed his mother and abducted his neighbour’s wife. Fred Williamson starred in a number of blaxploitation films.
Fred Williamson produces, directs and stars in this predecessor of the Rambo films, which similarly featured a violent Vietnam Vet plot. Co-starring big names like Elliott Gould; Stuart Whitman; James Brown; and Roddy McDowall also star.
Cultpix is celebrating Blaxploitation with a slew of fun movies. This is the first, but certainly not the last blaxploitation theme week we’re doing.
This 1960 movie got the nudie treatment with added boobs by producer William Rowland in 1965. Maybe not a pure blaxploitation movie, this juvenile delinquent film certainly contains many of the elements, like evil white drug dealers and interracial tension and violence. It co-stars Rita Moreno, just one year before she won an Oscar for West Side Story. [NB: The film has an audio sync issue that we are trying to fix and will republish when done.]
Black Brigade is a 1970 American made-for-television war drama film starring many prominent black actors, like Richard Pryor, Rosey Grier, Robert Hooks, Billy Dee Williams and Moses Gunn. It’s a kind of black Kelly’s Heroes, where a racist white office has to make soldiers of a squad of all black troops during WWII. Rosey Grier was also in the bizarre blaxploitation film The Thing With Two Heads, where a racist’s head is grafted onto the body of a black man.
In 1970, producer-director Laurene Merrick unleashed Black Angels, a loopy yet cynical biker flick about a white motorcycle gang vs. a black motorcycle gang that’s jam packed with absurdities, semi-authenticities, and even some ass-kickin’ action.
An interracial bevy of beauties from Miss Emerson’s School for Girls -- wearing short skirts and schoolgirl-style collared shirts -- are at knifepoint by a gang of seedy, drunken bastards led by John Paul Jones. Of course, being nasty bitches to begin with, these gals don’t take it lying down. They "learn how to fight back" by taking karate lessons and target practice and purchasing leather jackets with a snarling pussycat logo on the back, and become The Black Alley Cats -- an ebony and ivory female vigilante group that robs from the rich and gives to the poor.
“The Spook Who Sat by the Door” (1973)
A secret black nationalist is trained by the CIA and later trains and leads black freedom fighters in an uprising against the U.S. government. The subject matter of the film was so controversial that the then Mayor of Chicago would not allow it to be filmed in the city, which is where Greenlee had sought to film it. Gary, Indiana had to be the stage, instead.
“Black Mama White Mama” (1973)
Blaxploitation icon Pam Grier is shackled together with Margaret Markov, running away from prison in the Philippines, in this women-in-prison/blaxploitation movie. The story was reportedly inspired by the 1958 film “The Defiant Ones” (1958) in which Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis are stuck together.
Martial arts mixed with blaxploitation as Jean Bell (ex- Playboy model) fights ruthless Chinatown drug dealers who killed her brother. From an IMDB review: “This is so '70s bad Far Eastern martial arts meets black power that it hurts, but boy it hurts so good! I am ashamed to admit that I almost enjoyed it.”
A black gangster has to take on the white heroin cartel in order to become the big boss. A typical theme for a blaxploitation movie, is how the black hero/thug/anti-hero takes on the bad white mob/drug dealers/cops!
Blaxploitation western, where a returning soldier from the American Civil War has to take on the bad guys who killed his mother and abducted his neighbour’s wife. Fred Williamson starred in a number of blaxploitation films.
Fred Williamson produces, directs and stars in this predecessor of the Rambo films, which similarly featured a violent Vietnam Vet plot. Co-starring big names like Elliott Gould, Stuart Whitman, James Brown and Roddy McDowall also star.
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