The Baadasssss Blaxploitation Top 20
From The Grindhouse Cinema Database
Blaxploitation was a popular exploitation film genre born in the 1970s that focused on stories about African Americans' social struggles and their fantasies. These movies were heightened, outrageous versions of reality and featured main characters that were larger than life. The subject matter dealt with everything from inner city crime (pimps, players, gangsters, drug dealers, private eyes) to tales of the supernatural (vampires, demonic possession). Throughout the 70s, black audiences finally got their own heroes to champion on the big screen. Most importantly the movies created an outlet for the African-American artistic community to work in and be seen. It remains a very important part of both cultural and cinematic history.
More Baadasssss Info:
1. Shaft (1971)
2. Coffy (1973)
3. Super Fly (1972)
4. The Mack (1973)
5. Black Caesar (1973)
6. Blacula (1972)
7. Dolemite (1975)
8. Foxy Brown (1974)
9. Black Belt Jones (1974)
10. Cleopatra Jones (1973)
11. Sugar Hill (1974)
12. J.D.'s Revenge (1976)
13. Darktown Strutters (1975)
14. Willie Dynamite (1974)
15. The Black Gestapo (1976)
16. Truck Turner (1974)
17. Thomasine & Bushrod (1974)
18. Abby (1974)
19. Three The Hard Way (1974)
20. Trouble Man (1972)
Released in the winter of 1972, Trouble Man dazzled; luring audiences in with its sensational fractured mirror poster art: but it didn’t make much of an impact. Perhaps it was the picture’s rudimentary title: too specific, too didactic, too straightforwardly “brand.” Or perhaps it was the fact that the scenario played like that of so many other Blaxploitation films: just another gun-toting angry black man out to stick it to Whitey. Whatever the reason, it’s a shame; Trouble Man remains one of the more fully realized black action hero character portraits. It’s both fantastic wish fulfillment and a film teeming with the politics of the day.