With the passing of Gordon Parks earlier this week, I reflected on blaxploitation films. After Justin and I had the post on Tyler Perry and Minstrelity, I wondered how we should view those old 70’s movies like “Superfly,” “Dolemite,” and “Truck Turner.”
Watching these movies as a kid and young adult, I always thought they were pretty funny and kind of pointless. I first saw “Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song” in high school. I remember the movie literally being Melvin Van Peebles having sex with women, running from the police, and then having sex with more women. That’s all I remember the movie being about. Freshman year of college, me and my dormmates would watch “The Mack” over and over again to the point where we could quote whole passages for joke’s sake. I did not view the movies as anything more than popcorn entertainment. I also did not view them as being detrimental to African-Americans even though I think movies like Madea and the old Shelly Garret Minstrels are. I have an explanation.
In the Blaxploitation movies, the protagonist is usually an African-American male who is fighting against the man or saving his woman or the people in his neighborhood. By and large I think that’s positive and no different than “Walking Tall” or pick-a-western. These movies came after, and to some extent as a reaction to, the Mammy and Sambo figures of the Minstrels. Sure blaxploitation films played up black male sexuality. However, given the choice, I would rather pick that as opposed to some mindless fool.
On the whole, I think The State Of . . . Black America improved because of blaxploitation films. They provided many in our community with heroes that the rest of America had in its spaghetti westerns. At least in those days you didn’t have to wait every other year to see a black male hero played by 1 of only about 3 black actors (Denzel, Will, and ?) in a movie.
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