Many thanks for your posts and your commentary.
On Mon, 15 Feb 2016 21:44:37 -0500, Tarkus@here.com wrote:
>
>Shaft
>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067741/
>
>The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071175/
>
>Do The Right Thing
>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097216/
>
>
>It is funny how plans go awry for the right reasons. I thought I had
>this posting set ready to go back in September but circumstances
>prevailed to delay that launch and then it struck me around mid
>November that if I delayed a little longer I could post two films a
>day and end on February 1st which seemed fitting to finish the post at
>the onset of Black History month. As November rolled around I began
>to check the integrity of the films and their back story. Admittedly
>I even had to suffer through watching a few of them that I had missed
>but for the most part I had seen almost all of that original set. Of
>course that it the magic term; original set.
>
>As I began investigating some of the back stories I kept finding yet
>another 'gem' that I realized needed to be included. Either it was
>one I had forgotten about or was relevant to a major player or theme.
>As I indicated earlier I tried to keep the hardcore out as much as
>possible which is actually fairly easy since hardcore
>black/interracial porn had existed before Blaxploitation and for the
>most part hasn't changed much since and typically Blaxploitation isn't
>about the nudity or for that matter even softcore and as such all that
>appears in many of the films was some topless. However even with
>keeping the porn out of the loop the film set kept growing. Thus we
>went from two films being posted each day to three and then four in a
>desperate attempt to at least finish in February as the final tally of
>films reached ninety five. Even then it would not have been difficult
>to add another fifteen films and even an extra twenty on top of that
>but eventually you are getting into simply more of the same or
>stretching the context and I didn't want to find myself suggesting
>that Old Yeller would be an acceptable film since the rabid wolf that
>bites the dog had some black fur.
>
>So 95 is the number.
>
>As a rule Blaxploitation seems incongruous with anything good. By
>definition its name denotes the exploitation of a race and without a
>question the majority of these films were financed by white mainstream
>movie executives who had no concern for the story that was being told
>and/or the stereotypes that were being expressed and confirmed. On
>the other hand one could argue that the genre created a black star
>system that carried on beyond craze and dozens of black actors owe
>their careers to the genre. One could also promote the idea that
>while it cannot be denied that there was an oppressive negative factor
>stemming from Blaxploitation it was also a medium where mainstream
>America could garner an insight of the black experience, regardless of
>how exaggerated, and recognize that despite the flash for the most
>part they were just people trying to get by.
>
>Was it a bad thing or a good thing? I expect like most genres it was
>a combination of both.
>
>The final three films of this set speak to the plosive of the
>Blaxploitation genre and even though all three are completely
>divergent each reflects their roots from the same tree.
>
>Clearly Shaft brought a legitimacy to the Blaxploitation movement but
>also as featuring a black lead as someone who was successful within
>his culture and not merely as a 'white version'. Guess Who's Coming
>To Dinner, In The Heat Of The Night and Dear Sir portrayed successful
>black leads but there was no questioning that these men were not
>ghetto but rather a celluloid example that given a chance a black man
>could be equal to white. I would suggest, with no disrespect to
>Sidney Poitier, that they iconic he portrayed was made to be
>non-threatening whereas Richard Roundtree was one badass mutha' fucker
>who took no shit who was very threatening. While not exactly creating
>that role of the strong black lead Shaft cements the vision of a black
>man who lives within society on his own terms and does not feel the
>need to change his behaviour to meet the standards in general.
>
>I would propse that without Shaft the Blaxploitation rage is much
>shorter lived.
>
>
>I selected The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman over another highly
>regarded film of the time, Sounder, primarily because it benefited
>from a new found interest in the black experience that was generated
>by the Blaxploitation genre, (keeping in mind Roots was still four
>years away). Jane Pittman's story is particularly telling in that it
>stretches a single life from a young girl born into slavery to her
>final act engaging in the Civil Rights Movement contrasted against the
>start of the Apollo program to put a man on the moon. The concept of
>a person having been born into slavery and potentially witnessing the
>moon landing seems almost too incongruous to accept as if slavery must
>have ended further back in the past.
>
>Her life story is one of hardship, joy and the strength of the human
>spirit and anyone who can watch her final scene, (based on true
>events), and not feel an emotional stir should probably check their
>pulse because they may not realize that they are currently in a state
>of death.
>
>
>Lastly what comes from this genre? While there are better films I
>believe that Do The Right Thing was made on the backs of those 5.1 out
>of 10 star films. In some ways the film made in 1989 portrays the
>same reality that we see today. George Lucas lamented in attempting
>to make Red Tails that Hollywood really hadn't changed all that much
>since it was next to impossible to find financing for a Black themed
>movie without a white protagonists so he put the money up himself. We
>all have heard the anger from the black community about the lack of
>diversity in the Oscar nominations.
>
>Could Do The Right Thing exist without the plethora of Blaxploitation
>films having broken at least a level of a coloured glass ceiling?
>Maybe, maybe not. However I think it is too easy to simply limit the
>importance of these films as mere exploitation when in fact they
>played an important role both in terms of educating the mainstream
>public and giving the black voice something more than just an tonality
>of anger.
>
>
>95 films... just because the majority of them were poorly made or
>stereotypical doesn't automatically mean there wasn't something good
>that came out of the effort.
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