Blaxploitation Films Essay

Blaxploitation Films and Their Importance:
A Research Paper
Bianca Van Vlimmeren
San Jos State University Alternative Cinema
Drew Todd

Blaxploitation Films and Their Importance
Blaxploitation was a revolutionary movement that brought civil rights progression in America to the silver screen. Developed around the early to mid-1970s, Blaxploitation was a genre that sought to break the boundaries of the stereotypical portrayal of African- Americans at the time, which were generally loyal slaves, unintelligent ruffians, and criminals. Instead, these films included black protagonists, supporting characters, and other things characteristic of a contemporary black society such as Rhythm-and-Blues soundtracks.
The Blaxploitation movement’s success was partially due to the rise of the civil rights movement, but also due to the financial crisis that was ongoing in Hollywood. In-home television had just hit the markets fully for consumers, therefore there was less of a need or want to go out and see movies as often (Lawrence, 2009). In this paper we will explore Blaxploitation in the form of four different films and the different ways they made an impact on society. These films include: Cotton Comes to Harlem, Shaft, Super Fly and Blacula.
The movement began with a movie called Cotton Comes to Harlem,

Blacula was played by William Marshall, who took great pride in playing this character. Originally the character name for Blacula was Andy Brown, which was similar to a black face comedy character on a well-known radio show at the time. William expressed serious discontent with this and demanded that the name be changed, so there was no confusion between the two. Marshall also cared about the nobility of the character and suggested that the name be respectable and related to African roots like Mamuwalde (Lawrence,