BLAXPLOITATION GUIDE:

MOVIES:

(The Classics)

Across 110th Street
    (1972--directed by Barry Shear--starring: Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto, Anthony
Franciosa, Antonio Fargas)

The Big Bird Cage
    (1972--directed by Jack Hill--starring: Pam Grier, Anitra Ford, Sid Haig)

The Big Doll House
    (1971--directed by Jack Hill--starring: Judy Brown, Roberta Collins, Pam Grier,
Sid Haig)

Black Caesar
    (1973--directed by Larry Cohen--starring: Fred Williamson, art Lund, Julius
Harris, D'Urville Martin)

Blacula
    (1972-directed by William Crain--starring: William Marshall, Denise Nicholas,
Vonetta McGee, Elisha Cook, Jr.)

Cleopatra Jones
    (1973--directed by Jack Starrett--starring: Tamara Dobson, Bernie Casey,
Shelley Winters, Brenda Sykes, Antonio Fargas, Bill McKinney, Esther Rolle)

Cleopatra Jones & the Casino of Gold
    (1975--directed by Charles Ball--starring: Tamara Dobson, Stella Stevens, Norman Fell)

Coffy
    (1973--directed by Jack Hill--starring: Pam Grier, Booker Bradshaw, Robert
DoQui, Allan Arbus, Sid Haig)

Come Back, Charleston Blue
    (1972--directed by Mark Warren--based on characters created by Chester
Himes--starring: Raymond St. Jacque, Godfrey Cambridge, Jonelle Allen)

Cotton Comes to Harlem
    (1970--directed by Ossie Davis--based on the novel by Chester Himes--starring:
Raymond St. Jacque, Godfrey Cambridge, Calvin Lockhart, Judy Pace, Redd Foxx,
Cleavon Little)

Foxy Brown
    (1974--directed by Jack Hill--starring: Pam Grier, Antonio Fargas, Peter Brown,
Sid Haig)

Friday Foster
    (1975--directed by Arthur Marks--starring: Pam Grier,  Yaphet Kotto, Godfrey
Cambridge, Thalmus Rasulala, Eartha Kitt,  Jim Backus, Scatman Crothers, Ted
Lange,  Paul Benjamin, Julius Harris, Carl Weathers)

Get Christie Love!
    (1974--TV Movie--directed by William A. Graham--starring: Teresa Graves, Harry Guardino,
Louise Sorel)

Hammer
    (1972--directed by Bob Clark (III)--starring: Fred Williamson, Vonetta
McGee, Bernie Hamilton)

The Harder They Come
    (1973--directed by Perry Henzell--starring: Jimmy Cliff, Janet Barkley, Carl
Bradshaw, Ras Daniel Hartman)

Let's Do it Again
(    1975--directed by Sidney Poitier--starring: Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Calvin
Lockhart, John Amos, Jimmie Walker, Ossie Davis, Denise Nicholas, Julius Harris)

A Piece of the Action
    (1977--directed by Sidney Poitier--starring: Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, James
Earl Jones, denise Nicholas, Ja'net Dubois)

Shaft
    (1971--directed by Gordon Parks--screenplay by Ernest Tidyman, based on his
novel--starring: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John, Gwenn
Mitchell, Lawrence Pressman)

Shaft's Big Score!
    (1972--directed by Gordon Parks--screenplay by Ernest Tidyman--starring:
Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Drew Bundini Brown, Julius Harris, Joe Santos)

Shaft in Africa
    (1973--directed by John Guillermin--screenplay by Stirling Silliphant--starring:
Richard Roundtree, Frank Finlay, Vonetta McGee)

Sheba, Baby
    (1975--directed by William Girdler--starring: Pam Grier, Austin Stoker, D'Urville Martin)

When her father is threatened by thugs who want to take over his loan company,
Chicago private eye Sheba Shayne (Pam Grier) returns to Louisville to help out.
Her father, his partner & the police all want her to stay out of it, but after a
car bombing and a shooting which wounds her dad, Sheba has to step in.

This is a pretty formulaic actioner, helped greatly by Grier's dynamism and a
terrific theme song ("she's kickin' ass & takin' names").

Two & a 1/2 stars

Super Fly
    (1972--directed by Gordon Parks Jr.--starring: Ron O'Neal, Carl Lee, Sheila
Frazier, Julius Harris, Charles McGregor)

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssssss Song
    (1971--directed by Melvin Van Peebles--starring: Melvin Van Peebles, Simon
Chuckster, Rhetta Hughes, John Amos, Mario Van Peebles)

Three Tough Guys
    (1974--directed by Duccio Tessari--starring: Lino Ventura, Isaac Hayes, Fred Williamson,
Paula Kelly)

Truck Turner
    (1974--directed by Jonathan Kaplan--starring: Isaac Hayes, Yaphet
Kotto, Alan Weeks, Nichelle Nichols)

Uptown Saturday Night
    (1974--directed by Sidney Poitier--starring: Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Harry
Belafonte, Flip Wilson, Richard Pryor, Calvin Lockhart, Rosalind Cash, Roscoe
Lee Browne)

The Watermelon Man
    (1970--directed by Mario Van Peebles--starring: Godfrey Cambridge, Howard Caine,
Estelle Parsons, D'Urville Martin)

(The Modern Revival)

Action Jackson
    (1988-directed by Craig Baxley--starring: Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson,
Vanity, Sharon Stone, Bill Duke, Robert Davi)

Dead Presidents
    (1995--directed by The Hughes Brothers--starring: Larenz Tate, Keith David,
Chris Tucker, N'Bushe Wright, Freddy Rodriguez, Bokeem Woodbine)

I'm Gonna Get You Sucka
    (1988--directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans--starring: Keenen Ivory Wayans, Bernie
Casey, Antonio Fargas, Isaac Hayes, Jim Brown, Ja'net DuBois, Clu Gulager, Kadeem
Hardison, Damon Wayans)

Jackie Brown
    (1997--directed by Quentin Tarantino--based on the novel Rum Punch by Elmore
Leonard--starring: Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda,
Michael Keaton, Robert DeNiro)

New Jack City
    (1991--directed by Mario Van Peebles--starring: wesley Snipes, Ice T, Allen
Payne, Chris Rock, Mario Van Peebles, Judd Nelson, Vanessa Williams, Thalmus
Rasulala)

Original Gangstas
    (1996--directed by Larry Cohen--starring: Fred Williamson, Jim
Brown, Pam Grier, Paul Winfield, Isabel Sanford, Richard Roundtree, Ron O'Neal,
Robert Forster, Charles Napier, Wings Hauser)

Panther
    (1995--directed by Mario Van Peebles--starring: Kadeem Hardison, Bokeem
Woodbine, Joe Don Baker, Courtney B. Vance, Bobby Brown, Nefertiti, Chris Rock,
Richard Dysart, M. Emmett Walsh, Dick Gregory, Jerry Rubin, Robert Culp)

Posse
    (1993--directed by Mario Van Peebles--starring: Mario Van Peebles, Stephen Baldwin
Charles Lane (II), Tom 'Tiny' Lister Jr., Big Daddy Kane, Billy Zane, Blair Underwood,
Melvin Van Peebles, Tone Loc, Pam Grier, Isaac Hayes)

A Rage in Harlem
    (1991--directed by Bill Duke--based on the novel by Chester Himes--starring:
Forest Whitaker, Gregory Hines, Robin Givens, Danny Glover, Zakes Mokae,
Screamin' Jay Hawkins)

Set It Off
    (1996--directed by F. Gary Gray--starring: Jada Pinkett, Queen Latifah, Vivica
A. Fox, Kimberly Elise, John C. McGinley, Blair Underwood)Back to home
 

SOUNDTRACKS:

Across 110th Street (Bobby Womack)

Dead Presidents

Jackie Brown

Shaft(Isaac Hayes)

Superfly(Curtis Mayfield)

Three Tough Guys & Truck Turner (Isaac Hayes)
 

TELEVISION:

Get Christy Love (1974-75--ABC--starring: Teresa Graves)

Shaft (1973--CBS--part of the Tuesday Night Movies wheel-starring: Richard Roundtree, Ed Barth)

The Young Rebels (1970-starring: Louis Gossett, Jr., Rick Ely, Hilary Thompson, Alex Henteloff)

BOOKS:

Ball, John
    (Virgil Tibbs Mysteries)
        -In the Heat of the Night
        -Five Pieces of Jade
        -The Eyes of Buddha
        -Death for a Playmare

Cleaver, Eldridge
    -Soul on Ice

Ferris, Wally
    -Across 110th

Greenlee, Sam
    -The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1969)   (Read Orrin's review)

Himes, Chester
    -If He Hollers Let Him Go
(Coffin Ed Johnson & Gravedigger Jones Mysteries)
    -Cotton Comes to Harlem
    -The Real Cool Killers
    -The Heat's On
    -The Crazy Kill    (Read Orrin's review, Grade: B)

Jackson, George
    -Soledad Brother : The Prison Letters of George Jackson

Mosley, Walter
(Easy Rawlins Mysteries)
    -Devil in a Blue Dress
    -A Red Death
    -White Butterfly
    -Black Betty
    -A Little Yellow Dog
    -Gone Fishin'        (Read Orrin's review, Grade: B)

Nelson, Hugh
-The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America       (Orrin's review, Grade: B-)

Sallis, James
(Lew Griffin Mysteries)
    -Black Hornet
    -Eye of the Cricket
    -The Long-legged Fly

Tidyman, Ernest
    -Shaft
    -Shaft Among the Jews

Wright, Richard  (1908-1960)
    -Native Son (1940)        (Read Orrin's review, Grade: C+)

X, Malcolm & Alex Haley
    -The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)        (Read Orrin's review, Grade: A+)
 

LINKS:
    -Blaxploitation.com
    -Blaxploitation from Black Voices
    -dolemite: an homage to blaxploitation
    -Isaac Hayes Historical Tour
    -Jackie Brown Movie Homepage
    -Pam Grier Homepage
    -The Pam Grier Experience
    -Shaft
    -Solid! Blaxploitation Journal
    -Truck Turner Homepage