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Blaxploitation In African American Movies Research Paper

1543 Words7 Pages

Within African American cinema, Blaxploitation has left one of the biggest impacts in the film industry. Following the 1970’s many filmmakers took elements from Blaxploitation to use in their own films. Many of these elements and narratives have been parodied and imitated by filmmakers in the 1980’s, 1990’s, 2000’s and even today. Filmmakers such as Spike Lee, John Singleton, Mario Van Peebles, etc. owe a debt to this very influential genre. Blaxploitation can span many film genres. The genre can be an action film such as Shaft (1971), a comedy picture like Uptown Saturday Night (1974), a horror movie such as Blacula (1972) or a drama film like Black Caesar (1973). There are certain themes and elements which make a Blaxploitation picture. These elements include being released in the 1970’s, having an African American leading actor or actress, a predominantly African American cast, focus on themes and elements prevalent in the African American community and showing …show more content…

The most notable films would be I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988), Shaft (2000), The Wash (2001), and Undercover Brother (2002). Each of these films treat the Blaxploitation genre in different way. The first film, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) parodies the genre. It mostly parodies the films Shaft (1971), The Mack (1973) and Three the Hard Way (1974) by taking the “pimp”, “martial artist” and “bad negro” characters from each film and making it funny. The second film Shaft (2000) is a pseudo remake of Shaft (1971) where this film follows the story of John Shaft’s nephew while keeping the spirit of the original. The third film The Wash (2001) is a remake of Car Wash (1976), where they slightly tweaked the plot and set it in present day. The final film, Undercover Brother (2002) is another parody of the genre, where the characters are taken from typical action Blaxploitation films such as a Black Belt Jones (1974) and Slaughter

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While watching this movie it does not take long to realize that most of the characters are black men. Also the communication style between the characters is very different from an average American that may be watching the movie. Through viewing the culture and communication styles of the characters it is very easy to tell that the director of the film has some experience in this type of life style. A good example of this is when Tre tells the story about hooking up with a girl. He tells a story about sneaking into a girl’s house then the grandma coming in and almost catching him (Singleton, 1991).

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While breakthroughs like the internet and successful Black films such as Men in Black and Bodyguard increased Black culture’s visibility in mainstream media, upheaval, violence, and racial injustice marred the decade. Preceded by Reagan’s conservative era and Bush’s tepid stance on civil rights, Clinton’s presidency brought cultural awareness but also implemented policies that worsened challenges for Black communities. This tumultuous scenario sets the stage for a resurgence in Black filmmaking, reminiscent of the Blaxploitation era. In this cinematic landscape, Set it Off stands out as a masterpiece that poignantly reflects the era’s social and cultural dynamics and provides a platform for the experiences of Black women. While celebrated for steering away from hypersexualized stereotypes of Black women, the film was critiqued for underdeveloped queer representation and perpetuating notions of femininity’s weakness compared to masculinity, missing an opportunity to challenge limiting gender

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All of these unique factors in one production helped Blaxploitation films to combat the mainstream movies that led audiences to perceive black people negatively. These unique factors of Blaxploitation, made the genre popular, because they created and displayed to audiences new stories where the blacks did not “always ended up dead”, according to famous Blaxploitation filmmaker and actor, Martin Van Peebles (Christian). They displayed taboo actions and roles for the mainstream false image of the African-American, which many audiences yearned for. Blaxploitation hit its decline Towards the 80s, as the demand for more films featuring heavier black involvement in non-stereotypical roles decreased…. there was need for Blaxploitation after a while because it jumpstarted more black involvement in Hollywood, Hollywood was noticing there

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