The So-Called Fall of Blaxploitation

Guerrero, Ed.  2009. The So-Called Fall of Blaxploitation.  The Velvet Light Trap (University of Texas Press).  64: 90-91.

Ed Guerrero, a noted film scholar and historian, documents the fall in popularity (and financing) of blaxploitation films as part of The Velvet Light Trap’s series on “Perspectives on Failure”. Guerrero attributes the decline of blaxploitation to several factors: disinterest in funding by major studios who are mainly interested in larger, quick profits,  formulaic plots , resistance from  black activist organizations, and finally, Hollywood studios use of blaxploitation to save the film industry from bankruptcy in order to finance larger blockbusters (such as The Godfather). In essence, black actors, directors and writers were used and tossed aside due to profit and lack of interest. Furthermore, audiences for “mainstream” films became overwhelming black; therefore, studios felt that there was no need for films with black interests in mind (91).

In agreeing with Guerrero, I also feel that although blaxploitation is “dead” in a sense of financing from studios and also being somewhat culturally irrelevant as a genre, the genre does deserve critical examination as an important genre of film. In essence, the genre is responsible for many of the motifs we see in hip-hop music, gangster films, and were influential to other African-American film makers (such as Robert Townsend and Keenan Ivory Wayans-both who did spoofs of blaxploitation films).  I am also interested in what the article does not address: How did the fall of blaxploitation affect working actors, particularly the African-American women who had difficulty finding parts in “mainstream” films but found much success via the genre? What has been the impact of blaxploitation on the perceptions of African-American female audiences who were witness a virtual “white washing” of films for years after blaxploitation ended?