The Best Blaxploitation Films of the 70s
From 'Blackenstein' to 'That Man Bolt,' here are the best blaxploitation movies from the 70s that have empowered people and broke down racial barriers.
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Blackenstein (1973)
Director: William A. Levey
Stars: John Hart, Ivory Stone, Joe De Sue
A Vietnam veteran whose limbs were blown off by a land mine visits a genius surgeon to get him some damn limbs. All good, except a jealous assistant who covets his chick screws with the surgery and transforms him into Black Frankenstein. So bad it's evil genius!
Blacula (1972)
Director: William Crain
Stars: William Marshall, Vonetta McGee, Denise Nicholas
An African prince asks Count Dracula's racist ass to help him end the slave trade, but instead gets turned into a vampire and sealed in a coffin for 300 years. When he awakens, he finds himself in 1970s Los Angeles—just in time to found the Bloods.
Petey Wheatstraw (1977)
Director: Cliff Roquemore
Stars: Rudy Ray Moore, Jimmy Lynch, Leroy Daniels
From the man you know as Dolemite comes a gem about man who was born as a full-grown nine-year-old and, uh, shared his mother's womb with a watermelon. WTF is that? Anyway, he gets in trouble with the devil (who wants him to marry his daughter), then has to fight off demon henchmen. Way, WAY fucking funnier than it sounds.
That Man Bolt (1973)
Director: Henry Levin, David Lowell Rich
Stars: Fred Williamson, Byron Webster, Miko Mayama
Jefferson Bolt is on that black Bond ish as a martial arts expert commissioned to deliver $1 million from Hong Kong to Mexico City and bust out his kung-fu moves on anyone who stands in his way. When Bolt discovers he's got dirty mob money, he heads to China for revenge...and a massage or three (the happy ending is shaken, not stirred).
Friday Foster (1975)
Director: Arthur Marks
Stars: Pam Grier, Yaphet Kotto, Godfrey Cambridge
The poster's lurid headline-'Wham, Bam. Here comes Pam!"-pimps Pam Grier's notoriety as a shit-talkin', bra-bustin' hellcat. While the title character does have her moments (check her milk delivery), this is actually one of Grier's more dynamic roles: a fashion photographer who uncovers a white-supremacist conspiracy to assassinate a black politico. Based on the '70s comics strip, the first in mainstream papers to feature a black lead character. Plus Isaac from the motherfuckin' Love Boat!
The Legend of Nigger Charley (1972)
Director: Martin Goldman
Stars: Fred Williamson, D'Urville Martin, Don Pedro Colley
Starring defensive back Fred Williamson in his first lead role—well, pretty much simultaneously with Hammer—this pioneering fusion of blaxploitation and westerns was a huge hit despite having the n-word in the title (it was even rated PG—take that, Nas!). Who doesn't love horseback shootouts with whitey?
Black Caesar (1973)
Director: Larry Cohen
Stars: Fred Williamson, Gloria Hendry, Art Lund
No, it's not a documentary about Drake's hair. Growing up as a young thug on the streets of Harlem, Tommy Gibbs aspires to be a kingpin. Racism, conniving partners, and the law stand in his way but nothing can stop Gibbs' rise to the top of the city's underworld—all to the tune of some funky James Brown classics.
Willie Dynamite (1974)
Director: Gilbert Moses
Stars: Roscoe Orman, Diana Sands, Thalmus Rasulala
First off: Yes, that is Gordon from Sesame Street playing the pimptagonist. Second of all: Yes, the pimptagonist learns some heavy lessons, thanks in no small part to his astonishing wardrobe and a script that's often overlooked. How this didn't win an Oscar for Best Candy-Cane-Themed Fur Coat, we'll never know.
Truck Turner (1974)
Director: Jonathan Kaplan
Stars: Isaac Hayes, Yaphet Kotto, Alan Weeks
Sure, this tale of a bounty hunter on the run from a vengeful hooker boasts an incredible cast, but more importantly it features the greatest villain henchman in the history of blaxploitation: a white dude with mutton chops, a neckerchief, and a motherfucking BEADAZZLED EYE PATCH. Holla atcha cinematic watershed moment!
Three the Hard Way (1974)
Director: Gordon Parks Jr.
Stars: Jim Brown, Fred Williamson, Jim Kelly
Two former football stars and a Kung-Fu master—it's like Battle of the Network Stars up in here!—team up to stop a white supremacist plot to poison America's black population through the water supply. Think of it as the bromantic version of Erin Brockovich.
Cooley High (1975)
Director: Michael Schultz
Stars: Glynn Turman, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Garrett Morris
The movie that gave us What's Happening! (nice "adaptation," TV execs) looked at the lives of black inner-city high school kids without getting bogged down in slapstick or melodrama. Definitely one of of those funny-because-it's-true deals, and has given us plenty of pop culture touchstones because of it (to wit: the movie theater scene that the Fugees jacked for their "Killing Me Softly" video).
Coffy (1973)
Director: Jack Hill
Stars: Pam Grier, Booker Bradshaw,Robert DoQui
Pam Grier's breakout role has her seducing and blowing (away) local drug pushers in attempts to find the one responsible for selling her sister bad dope. If you don't watch for the action, watch for the debut of the most famous twos of the '70s.
Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
Director: Sidney Poitier
Stars: Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Harry Belafonte
Poitier and a bearded Cosby (back when he was cool) go on a wild goose chase through a series of gangsters and con men while searching for a stolen lottery ticket. The movie Camp Lo took their whole style from—this is it, what?
em>The Spook Who Sat By the Door (1973)
Director: Ivan Dixon
Stars: Lawrence Cook, Janet League, Paula Kelly
The C.I.A. reluctantly hires their first black agent, but it turns out he's actually an undercover militant black nationalist who uses everything he learned from the government to start his own guerilla army of hood kids. Reportedly released in the South under the title Glenn Beck's Nightmare.
Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)
Director: Ossie Davis
Stars: Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, Calvin Lockhart
Based on one of Chester Himes' Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones detective novels. Two sleuths try to recover community money that was lost in a Back to Africa scam. Attention, ACORN—Coffin and Grave Digger were on yo' asses even back then!
Ganja and Hess (1973)
Director: Bill Gunn
Stars: Duane Jones, Marlene Clark, Bill Gunn
After its release was compromised by a bastardized studio-sanctioned version, most viewers never realized that this was one of the most profound, surreal and horrifying love stories ever made. Breaking barriers of black cinema (and the producers' expectations of just another piece of rehash vampire trash), director Bill Gunn instead delivered a blood-soaked masterpiece that was the only American film screened during Critics' Week at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival...where it won a standing ovation.
Dolemite (1973)
Director: D'Urville Martin
Stars: Rudy Ray Moore, D'Urville Martin, Jerry Jones, Lady Reed
What started as Rudy Ray's alter ego become one of the most well-known characters in movie history. After a 20-year prison bid, the pimp/hustler sets out to find the ones that set him up. But not before getting his, uh, affairs (read: stable) in order. Pimpin' was never easy, word to Scoob and Scrap.
Trouble Man (1972)
Director: Ivan Dixon
Stars: Robert Hooks, Paul Winfield, Ralph Waite
A private detective named Mr. T takes on a job for the operators of a dice game, only to find himself framed for murder in a plot to start a gang war and take down a rival kingpin. Great soundtrack, but where were his 68 gold chains and Howlin' Mad Murdock?
Black Belt Jones (1974)
Director: Robert Clouse
Stars: Jim Kelly, Gloria Hendry, Scatman Crothers
The best part of Enter the Dragon comes back to kick ass and take names when the Mafia kills his mentor (whose karate studio stands in the way of their land development). What's his black belt in, you ask? Oh, just something called Punch-A-Motherfucker-In-The-Nuts-Fu.
Across 110th Street (1972)
Director: Barry Shear
Stars: Frank Adu, Anthony Franciosa, Yaphet Kotto
Mismatched like sweet potato pizza, a black cop (Kotto) and his racist Italian-American captain (Quinn) pursue murderous crooks who ripped off the mob and threaten to start a war in Harlem. Or maybe it's more like collard green canolis. Unexpectedly delicious either way!
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
Director: Melvin Van Peebles
Stars: Simon Chuckster,Melvin Van Peebles, Hubert Scales
A gigolo with a magical penis runs from the police after being set up for a murder he didn't commit. Sweetback was the Big Bang of blaxploitation—a revolutionary independent movie that showed Hollywood that bad-ass, political black cinema could make bank. It also made the Van Peebles family forever unfuckwittable, so don't even think about bringing up Sonny Spoon.
Super Fly (1972)
Director: Gordon Parks Jr.
Stars: Ron O'Neal, Carl Lee, Sheila Frazier
The perma-conked O'Neal is a cocaine dealer with that good hair who's trying to get out of the biz before he winds up dead or in prison. To do so, he needs to pull off the biggest coke deal he's ever undertaken. Obviously. Whether you think it exposes harsh reality or glorifies the drug trade, Super Fly is uncut dope, daddy.
Foxy Brown (1974)
Director: Jack Hill
Stars: Pam Grier, Antonio Fargas, Peter Brown
It might be a re-hash of Coffy, but for our money it's the winner. Who else is bad enough to pack a gun in her Afro? Only the finest woman alive, when she infiltrates a prostitution ring in order to find out who killed her husband. Kicking ass, taking names, and wearing hooker clothes? Yes, please.
Shaft (1971)
Director: Gordon Parks
Stars: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi
Shaft is that black dick you need to know about. What? We're just talking about Shaft, the badass private detective who's hired to find a crime lord's kidnapped daughter and ends up in the middle of a Harlem gang war that could spark a race war. Trust us, you need some Shaft for your funky ass.
The Mack (1973)
Director: Michael Campus
Stars: Max Julien, Don Gordon, Richard Pryor
Goldie returns from San Quentin to run the pimp game in Oakland. Top to bottom and front to back one of the best films of the decade, in any genre—it's a classic for the Player's Ball alone, not to mention Richard Pryor trying to act serious and not doing such a great job of it ("You white nigger!"). Attention rappers and "entertainment company" CEOs: if you want to learn what real game is, take a lesson from the original and ask yourself...who's the mack?
