Blaxploitation Cinema

Pocket Essentials is a dynamic series of books that are concise, lively, and easy to read. Packed with facts as well as expert opinions, each book has all the key information you need to know about such popular topics as film, television, cult fiction, history, and more. In the early 1970s a type of film emerged that featured all-black casts, really cool soul, R & B and disco music soundtracks, characters sporting big guns, big dashikis, and even bigger afros, and had some of the meanest, baddest attitudes to shoot their way across our screens. These films depicted a reality about the world which African-American audiences could identify with, even if the stories themselves were pure fantasy. After an essay defining Blaxploitation, this book considers the major themes and subgenres of Blaxploitation, with chapters on Blaxploitation detectives, action women, horror and kung fu movies, and a look at the Blaxploitation revival in the 1990s. The major and currently available films in each topic are reviewed and analyzed, and there is also a comprehensive filmography included.