An era of its own. A time when American was in a transition from separatism to civil rights. The 70's was a Golden Age on so many levels and the influence echoes around the world in present day. Blaxploitation is considered in my opinion to be the coolest of cool. Touching on the most sensitive material in America at its time and exploiting them on the big screen or the vinyls in your record player produced for a glorified genre that nobody will ever be able to duplicate. Our mission at Blax-Pride is to educate those who are unfamiliar with this era and combine knowledge with those who are familiar.
Also you will notice Kung Fu movies on this site as well. What does this have to do with Blaxploitation? Well, the more action packed Blaxploitation films did not just street fight. Oh no.....they thought they were Kung Fu Masters. Chinese martial art movies gave a sense of invincibility to these actors. Seeing how cool it was to be a masterful fighter, why not just integrate this with Pimpin', Hustlin', Jive Talkin' and Pam Grier? Blax-Pride!!!
Greetings,
When we were teenagers, blaxploitation cinema for some of us was a rite of passage. "Hey, nephew? Come over here. I gotta flick for you to peep........."
Maybe that film turned out to be Superfly, The Mack or Shaft, the holy trinity of blaxploitational baptism.
Certainly, we all have either an interesting story or a pubescent fairy tale to share after viewing and/or attempting to personify these or other films of the genre.
As we here at BP begin our much needed forum (Self-Science and Dragonetta are stashing the cupboards and placing the party favors for the blogwarming event over there), Funkback and I would like to ask a few questions of our international community.
In some comments on previous posts, we hear "I've been looking for this for ages" or "If you can make (blank) available, I would be totally geeked and keyed up!" "This is my favorite soundtrack of all time"............. really?
Well what are your favorites?
Top 10's are so unavailing nowadays because they can change as the day turns into the next.
There will not be any other 'blaxploitation' (loosely using that term) films produced because that time of 1968-1980 has passed.
This genre is fixed in history meaning your favorites can be finalized with BP Question #1:
What are your Top 10 Favorite Blaxploitation Films? (that is of course if you were fortunate enough to watch 10)
Alternative question for any who haven't ventured that far into the genre:
What is your favorite blaxploitation film?
Think long and hard before you comment, now.
Mr. Wone
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Which of these films is your ultimate favorite?
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11 comments:
I'll kick it off righteously:
1. The Spook Who Sat By The Door
2. The Baron
3. Killer Of Sheep
4. Sweet Sweetback's Badaaasss Song
5. Three The Hard Way
6. Superfly
7. Cooley High
8. The Education Of Sonny Carson
9. Ganja & Hess
10. Car Wash
Yeah, that won't change. I'm stickin' to it and fully committed!
NO!!! Brothers!!?? How could I leave that out? I'll take out Car Wash for some---- naw, Bill Duke, Richard Pryor, Ivan Dixon, George Carlin, Franklin Ajaye, heck no--- but Brothers was a cold-blooded piece of film, though!!
Let's do Top 11, fam!! haha
Wow this is a tough one. I am always hard pressed to put numbers on films like this. Maybe it's because Blaxploitation covers so many sub-genres. (take trying to seriously compare Spook who sat by the door with Dolemite! Two of my fav Blax movies but totally different in content and delivery -in my opinion.) OK with that said here's 10 but I'm not really going to put them in proper order.
Fritz, Dolemite, Boss Nigger, Spook who sat by the door, Superfly, Shaft, They call me Mr Tibbs, Coffy, Truck Turner, Foxy Brown and just because I'm a huge horror fan I'm going to include as #11 - Blacula.
This is of course based on the idea that Blax movies ended in 1980. (I wanted to add the wonderfully craptastic Pootie Tang to my list )
1. Sweet Sweetback's Badaaasss Song
2. Superfly
3. Truck Turner
4. Coffy
5. Shaft
6. Foxy Brown
7. Bucktown
8. Boss Nigger
Just discovered this site and let be it known that it'll be a good use of my bandwidth to no end. I've personally canonized Fred Williamson and Pam Grier (who hasn't? *cough, bias):
1. Coffy
2. Across 110th Street
3. Mean Johnny Barrows
4. Cotton Comes to Harlem
5. The Spook Who Sat By the Door
6. Hell Up In Harlem
7. Foxy Brown
8. Sweet Sweetback's
9. Bucktown
10. Blacula
? Thing With Two Heads
? I'm Gonna Git You Sucka
mr. wone, heard of 'em, but haven't seen all of from your list.
If The Harder They Come counts, then that slides in top 5 What'd be even harder is if I'm pressed to make a top 10 Blax scores and soundtracks list, where the sounds outdo the story.
01. Foxy Brown
02. Cleopatra Jones
03. Sparkle
04. Blacula
05. Cotton Comes to Harlem
06. The Mack
07. Shaft
08. Three the Hard Way
09. Black Belt Jones
10. The Spook Who Sat By the Door
These are my all-time favorite Blaxploitation flicks. It's REALLY hard for me to pick just ten, but these are the ones I enjoy watching the most.
I have to give Foxy Brown the number one spot for having THE BEST OPENING MONTAGE EVER IN A BLAXPLOITATION FILM. I dare you to challenge me on that. ;)
Damn, I need two more spaces for Dolemite and The Human Tornado!
Oh, crap! I really need five more, 'cause I gotta have Black Caesar, Cooley High, and Which Way Is Up? on there, too!
Okay, nevermind. I can't do this. It's too hard.
figured i'd jump in here - although i had a fair vhs collection of bought and dubbed blaxploitation, i feel rather amateurish when looking at the amount of drops on this here site - but anyway:
1. black caesar
2. dolemite
3. hell up in harlem
4. coffy
5. blackbelt jones
6. three the hard way
7. sweetback
8. superfly
9. truck turner
10.shaft
in the 'most listened to soundtrack but never seen the movie' category, i would have to say, three tough guys.... i dont like making request to bloggers, as the amount of work you all do is humbling, but does anyone have that movie?
So many greats to choose from!
(in no particular order)
1. The Shaft Trilogy (can't choose just one!)
2. Superfly (The first "Blax" film that I saw)
3. Truck Turner
4. The Mack
5. Dolemite
6. The 2 Blacula films (again, I can't just do 1 :p)
7. Hell Up In Harlem (One of the most explosive of all!)
8. JD's Revenge (Glynn Turman is a brilliant actor!)
9. Coffy
10. Bucktown (starring the king and queen of "soul cinema".)
On the flipside, most hated "blax" film:
1. Velvet Smooth! (Insects could've made a more exciting action film.) Sorry if that one is anyone's favorite. Sorry for you, that is. :D
I'm late to the party but I couldn't resist...
1. Across 110th Street
2. Putney Swope
3. Spook Who Sat By The Door
4. Uptight
5. Truck Turner
6. Superfly
7. Black Caesar
8. Short Eyes
9. Dolemite
10. Black Belt Jones
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