Blaxploitation Cinema: Race and Rebellion

Abstract

Per the title, this chapter is an introduction to the notorious and controversial blaxploitation cinema that became famous in the early 1970s. However, unlike previous studies in this form, this chapter chooses not to become too entangled in arguments about race-representation (although it does acknowledge some of the debates around these motion pictures) but rather to maintain that the form had stylistic similarities to both the exploitation-horror film and the key sexploitation motion pictures of the era.