Were "blaxploitation" films from the 70s a good or bad thing for Black people?

[MarathonMike]

IM2's post about the glorification about the Mafia made me think of the so called "blaxploitation" films of the 70s like SuperFly. Were they not glorifying bad people? Were they good or bad or meh for the Black community?

 

[gtopa1]

Never watched them I don't think, but To Sir with Love...anything Poitier was magic!!!

Greg

 

[JoeB131]

IM2's post about the glorification about the Mafia made me think of the so called "blaxploitation" films of the 70s like SuperFly. Were they not glorifying bad people? Were they good or bad or meh for the Black community?

I think the question is, how were black people portrayed in film before the "blaxploitation" film? If they were in films at all, it was usually as comic relief or servants.

In short, film reinforced social norms of subordination.

Then the blaxploitation films came along, where black heroes stood up to usually criminal white people. Yeah, some of the movies were cartoonish. But for the first time, black people could go to a movie and see themselves empowered.

It was also a larger part of the change in cinema overall... the Hayes Code had largely ended and was replaced by the MPAA, which meant that filmmakers were allowed to use sex, violence and profanity in a way that they had never been allowed to do before. The studio system collapsed and you had a whole new generation of renegade film makers like Lucas, Speilberg, Scorsase, Coppola.

It was a very narrow window before the MPAA and Hollywood sucked this moment of creativity out of Hollywood, and we went back

 

[MarathonMike]

JoeB131 Excellent post!

 

[IM2]

Why is this a topic? Whites make all kinds of movies and this question is never asked.

 

[MarathonMike]

Why is this a topic? Whites make all kinds of movies and this question is never asked.

YOU STARTED THE TOPIC!!! Sometimes you are quite hilarious.

 

[MarathonMike]

Why is this a topic? Whites make all kinds of movies and this question is never asked.

How about try to comment on the topic instead of running from it? Do you think those movies were good, bad or indifferent for the Black community?