This bitterness runs through most
blaxploitation films and is central to "Super Fly," not just the best of the genre but nearly the only one of the bunch that can still be watched simply as a very good movie, of whatever label.
Writer Toni Cade Bambara suggests that their "focus on issues of family, women, history and folklore marked a direct response to the popular
blaxploitation films of the 1970s which tended to glorify violence and offered shallow stereotypical depictions of Black Nationalism and sexuality" (Ogunleye 159).
achieved fame through first his lineage, as the son of the major African American photographer Gordon Parks, and then through his direction of Super Fly, one of the most well-known of the
blaxploitation films of the 1970s.
Allegedly inspired by an unfinished '80s
blaxploitation film, Gutterfly purports to chronicle the adventures of fearless "ghetto superheroes" in Razorblade City (a.k.a.
Lately, it's looked and sounded more like the fusing of the Spice Channel with every bad
blaxploitation film you thought you never would see again.
Staged last month what was once a downtown Manhattan gym, the work is a mad romp through multilayered experiences of oppression and hatred, punctuated by neo-Nazi, Holo-Punch and Judy shows, and a multi-track text that blends scenes from the 1970s
blaxploitation film Mandingo with Abdoh's own brand of "rap" and poetry.
The former
blaxploitation film stunt woman, described as "'the coolest chick you ever want to meet in the 1970s'" and "'Pam Grier as Foxy Brown'," is on a quest to stardom and she'll do whatever it takes to get there - including faking it 'til she makes it.
Graham (who had directed one previous
blaxploitation film, Honky, in 1971), and featuring the only cinematic soundtrack ever composed by Barry White, the film's release was overshadowed by that of other blaxploitation pictures also released that year, such as The Education of Sonny Carson (1974), Foxy Brown (1974), and Sugar Hill (1974).
The couples live contented enough lives--Archy and Gwen are expecting their first child together--until Archy's father, a former
blaxploitation film actor, and a teenaged son from Archy's past both return to throw a wrench into things.
The so-called
blaxploitation film genre courted controversy during its meteoric rise (and equally precipitous disappearance) in the 1970s.
The book is set against the shroud of the
blaxploitation film era, and the author skillfully incorporates actual people and events, using such real-life characters as Pam Grier, Writ Chamberlain and Huey Newton.
The
blaxploitation film Cleopatra Jones (1973) defined another model for African-American women.
Specifically, I wish to consider Singleton's film within the context of the
blaxploitation film, as well as against the background of his previous films, in order to examine the ideological implications of contemporary constructions of black masculinity.
In the
blaxploitation film interracial sex is a fairly common occurrence (Shaft, Sweetback, and The Mack provide notable instances) chiefly to underline the hero's sexual charisma.
Hollywood is all set to revisit a genre that supposedly died two decades ago -- the
blaxploitation film.