The Blaxploitation Era
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RightThe expanding Now Harvard universe NEITHER PG NOR P.C. The Blaxploitation Era hree of last sum- Actor Ron O’Neal, as Young- mer’s popular film blood Priest in Superfly (1972), comedies—Barbershop, makes a strong fashion statement. Undercover Brother,and release and BBC broadcast are Austin Powers: Goldmem- scheduled for 2003. ber—recalled, in one way or T Two 1971 films—the detec- another, the vital, action- packed, sexy, and short- tive movie Shaft, directed by lived 1970s film genre the esteemed black photogra- known as “blaxploitation.” pher Gordon Parks Jr., and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, The hilarious Undercover a profane, X-rated sexual Brother was a direct blax- ploitation send-up; Austin romp through the underbelly Powers time-traveled to of ghetto life that was pro- hook up with blaxploitation duced and directed by Melvin character Foxy Cleopatra; Van Peebles—launched the trend. The Black Panthers re- and Barbershop rekindled the debates on black political quired members to watch correctness that eventually Sweetback, which, despite its doomed the earlier style. flaws, knocked Love Story o≠ Now a fourth film, the 50- the top of box-o∞ce charts for minute documentary two weeks. Sweetback, so un- like anything before it, BaadAsssss Cinema, describes the era in the words of ac- stunned black audiences. “In tors and directors who cre- the theater there was not a ated it. “There were no real sound,” recalls Van Peebles studies that took any of on-screen. “You could have those films seriously,” says heard a rat pissing on cotton.” Isaac Julien, visiting lecturer Previously, black characters— in Afro-American studies especially baad black charac- and visual and environmen- ters—did not “make it to the tal studies, who directed end of the movie,” he explains. “But Sweetback got away— BaadAsssss Cinema. “The films weren’t well received by the that never happened in a black intelligentsia, but they were very movie before.” which sponsored the $500,000 documen- Elvis Mitchell, an African-American popular with both black and white audi- tary along with the Ford Foundation, film reviewer for the ences.” The Independent Film Channel, New York Times, con- broadcast the film in November; a DVD sulted on Julien’s film and observes dur- 16 January - February 2003 Film stills courtesy of the Independent Film Channel Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For copyright and reprint information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746. Right Now ing it, “In the mid 1970s, white cinema Goddess of sex, was about defeat. There was Nixon, sass, and strength: Pam there was Watergate, and feminism was Grier in Foxy making men rethink their roles. These Brown (1973, black movies had heroes who won—they inset) and today. could e≠ect change, they had charisma.” In an on-screen interview, actor Samuel NAACP L. Jackson says, “The black heroes were coined the antiheroes—they were pimps, drug term “blax- dealers, gangsters. But they were all ploitation.”) fighting against The Man.” Mitchell, “The seeds of however, remains clear-eyed about the black political correctness began to fact that the films were made “purely take hold; the black bourgeoisie was from a commercial impulse—to get as vaguely embarrassed about these many Afros in the theater as humanly films,” says Julien. “There was a dou- possible.” ble standard in operation, penalizing That they did. Shaft, with its memorable the blaxploitation films while leaving Isaac Hayes score, grossed $12 million de- their white counterparts intact. Un- spite a shoestring budget estimated at fortunately, the discussion of how $500,000 to $1.5 million (star Richard these films work cinematically and Roundtree earned a mere $13,000). Some artistically never gets beyond the credit Shaft with saving MGM from bank- question of whether they show ruptcy. Superfly (1972), a film detailing the positive or negative images of black urban adventures of a cocaine dealer, was characters.” another hit. Studios woke up and smelled The blaxploitation era ended the cash. “What Hollywood did was sup- around 1976, but its influence con- press the political message and add tinues. Actor Fred “The Hammer” caricature,” Van Peebles explains, “and Williamson convened a cinematic blaxploitation was born.” Soon, gangster- reunion of several top blaxploita- movie remakes using black actors, tion stars in Original Gangsters (1996) and through popular genres like hip-hop, like Black Caesar, and horror films, such director Quentin Tarantino cast Pam they live on, almost in the unconscious.” as Blackenstein and Blacula, appeared. Grier as the title character of 1997’s Jackie craig lambert Pam Grier in Foxy Brown (1973) and Brown. Julien agrees with Tarantino that Tamara Dobson in Cleopatra Jones (1973) there is “a certain Americanness at the isaac julien e-mail address: were African-American actresses center of these films that got lost. Still, [email protected] playing tough, sexy babes who set their own terms. 1,000 THINGS THAT DON’T WORK “On the surface, a film like Blacula is hysterical,” says Julien. “But if you decon- struct the film, it reveals, in a cinematic sense, the anxiety about race relations in The Power of Negative Thinking the United States.” Social messages were often present in an “underground code” oing science is always more fun bad batting averages, scientists often decipherable by black audiences, Mitchell when your predictions prove true learn from a good whi≠, says Hersey pro- explains. In one scene, for example, detec- and your experiments shine. Posi- fessor of cell biology Bjorn R. Olsen. Many tive John Shaft cannot get a taxi, but a cab tive results are satisfying, signifi- experiments fail, or produce controver- that passes him by stops a block away for cant, even lucrative, and scientists sial, ambiguous, or unexpected results. a white fare. Dlabor long and hard to get them. Like For those who bravely—or accidentally— Organizations like the National Associ- baseball sluggers stepping up to the plate, go where few have gone before, Olsen and aton for the Advancement of Colored Peo- many scientists hope for home-run out- Christian Pfe≠er, a visiting research fel- ple and the Congress of Racial Equality comes and dread research slumps for low in pediatrics at Dana Farber Cancer and spokesmen like Jesse Jackson de- good reason: swing and miss too often Institute, have created the Journal of Nega- nounced blaxploitation cinema, despite and maybe your contract, or your funding, tive Results in Biomedicine to push such out- its popularity, for providing poor role won’t be renewed. comes into the mainstream. models to black youth. (In fact, the Although ball players can’t win with “The word ‘negative’ is a little bit Harvard Magazine 17 95-5746. print information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-4 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For copyright and re.