Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic where he files multiple pieces a week, covering new releases, notable anniversaries, and commentary on topics as varied as MPAA ratings, Oscar predictions and what he's learned by watching movies with his mom. He previously contributed reviews to RogerEbert.com and is one of the writers behind the Big Media Vandalism blog, a searingly insightful and hilarious critical apparatus. In his own words, he's "a massive fan of film noir, musicals, Blaxploitation, bad art, and good trash."
Henderson makes good on his love of Blaxploitation with 2024's Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation Cinema, an in-depth and personal review of the brash and often misunderstood subgenre; filled with encyclopedic knowledge, chatty asides, and the larger social context that these films were responding to.
In your prologue you acknowledge that defining Blaxploitation is slippery, but you offer that it is "an era, a period of time when certain films are definitive examples and others are up for discussion and debate" with the period of scope falling within 1970 and 1978; kicking off with Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song and Shaft. Are there any other definitions of the term that you'd be willing to entertain?
Not really. I do think, however, that certain elements easily identify a Blaxploitation film: Soul music, fine clothes, characters with a suave or sharp attitude, and a location known for Black people like Harlem, the Hough, Detroit, Chicago, or L.A.
Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras is weaved with autobiographical details throughout, including your time working at a video store while in college. Can you describe the education you received there (at the video store, of course!)?
I learned about letterboxing, believe it or not. As a teen, I was originally against those bars on the top and bottom of the videotape image. Obviously, I'm much wiser now about aspect ratios and so on. I also continued the education I received from the independent NYC channels; that is, I learned a lot about all kinds of movies I might not have chosen to see otherwise, especially foreign films. I watched those videos since they were easily available (as were the random movies shown on my TV set growing up). Shockingly, I stayed out of our porn section.
In 1968, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) replaced the Hays Code, creating a more lenient environment for filmmaking and resulting in the rating system that is, more or less, still used now. How did the Motion Picture Association assess Blaxploitation films, especially compared to the edgy "New Hollywood" films being released throughout the 70s?
The MPAA was occasionally harsher on the Blaxploitation movies than other Hollywood films. For example, Black Belt Jones, which is rated R, has no bloodshed, no explicit sex or nudity, and little profanity. Gloria Hendry, the film's co-star, called the martial arts action "clean violence," and it's clearly slapstick in numerous scenes. Totally PG-level, but the MPAA rated it R. Strangely enough, Sheba Baby, which is rated PG, is far more graphically violent than Black Belt Jones and has nudity. As usual, the MPAA was, and is, inconsistent.
The 1970s were a particularly turbulent time in American politics, and the films you cover had the finger on the pulse of the people but were delivered with a flippant, joyous attitude, often unconcerned with delivering a practical message. How did political stakeholders of the time respond to these film's commercial and cultural popularity?
The movers and shakers who responded strongly were Black writers, intellectuals and members of organizations like the NAACP and CORE. Many of these films DID have a message, but like all good exploitation, it's hidden under a bunch of unsavory though enticing elements. Think about a pill hidden in a cat's bowl of tuna. Members of NAACP, CORE, and Jesse Jackson's PUSH got together to form the Coalition Against Blaxploitation, a Hays Code-like entity designed to restrict and/or censor material in these films that they found objectionable. Meanwhile, the audiences who came out to see them could care less about what these bougie folks had to say.
You cite Josiah Howard's Blaxploitation Cinema: The Essential Reference Guide as being a crucial source during your writing process, but what other material were you digging through while doing research? Your recall of your viewing habits makes me wonder how you've documented your movie intake over the decades!
Since 1992, I have kept a database of movie ratings for films I've seen. So, I had little reviews for many of the movies I wrote about in Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras. Additionally, I wrote several essays on these films on my old blog, Big Media Vandalism, 10 or more years before I approached this book. I'd read Donald Bogle's books as well. Once I started researching my book, I wanted to know what audiences, critics, and culture reporters were saying about the movies when they were released. So, I focused on the era's newspapers, TV shows, and magazine articles. Also, I started reading reviews back in 1974 or 1975, so I also had memories of things I read. I also had memories of where I saw the movies, and the fun was looking at the old NY Times ads to see if my memory was correct. It usually was.
Finance and talent, among other unknowns, need to align for a film to be made; every genre and era of films has unmade projects. What are the great could-have-been of Blaxploitation?
The one that always stings for me is the movie Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson were going to do after the success of Cleopatra Jones and Coffy. Grier had the idea of making a female buddy/road trip/crime picture starring the two of them. It would have been ahead of its time not just for Black people in movies but for women as well; two women protagonists hadn't led a movie. Sadly, it never got made. There was also a Stevie Wonder musical that wasn't made, either, though Motown announced it at the time.
Any favorite uses of L.A. landmarks or filming locations in the Blaxploitation canon?
Blacula and Darktown Strutters have some great uses of L.A. locations. Not necessarily landmarks but neighborhoods and street corners. Watts gets a big shoutout in Strutters. Also, Car Wash makes some good use of Los Angeles.
Can you pick three Blaxploitation classics for the uninitiated? How about an underseen personal favorite for the more seasoned viewer?
I love Sugar Hill (1974) and think it's an underrecognized horror movie/Blaxploitation hybrid starring a game, Marki Bey, as a woman out for revenge. Her white and red outfit is iconic. But if we're going classics, we have to choose Shaft, Super Fly and Coffy.
Here in LA, and really all across the country, we're living through a great revival of reparatory film programming, with new and renovated theaters popping up, filled with enthusiastic audiences. Have you witnessed these films attracting new audiences in a theater setting?
People show up Whenever a Blaxploitation movie plays! I know this firsthand, as I've been touring with the book and doing screenings before signings. They are always well-attended. Whenever Film Forum here in NYC does a series, it's also quite well attended.
Your coverage of these films ends in 1978—what to you signaled the end of the genre? Any favorites or notable films from this "mature" period?
Car Wash (1976) is a favorite, as is The Bingo Long Travelling All-Stars & Motor Kings. I had to chop the chapter on the latter out of the book due to space, but I wrote an essay on the film some years ago on my blog. I also have some affection for Petey Wheatstraw (1977), Rudy Ray Moore's most offensive comedy. As to what signals the end of the era, the movies really started to deteriorate in quality.
The Blaxploitation-era has recently been revisited through remakes (2018's SuperFly), tributes (2009's Black Dynamite), and biopics (2019 Dolemite Is My Name). Have these managed to retain what made the originals great? Any favorites from these past few decades of Blaxploitation-inspired flicks?
In terms of Blaxploitation parodies, nothing is meaner (or funnier) than Keenen Ivory Wayans' I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. That's because it has the actual stars of Blaxploitation films making fun of themselves—Isaac Hayes, Antonio Fargas, Bernie Casey and Jim Brown are all in on the joke and they love mocking the roles that made them famous. I also enjoyed Black Dynamite and Eddie Murphy and Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s performances in Dolemite is My Name. I also dug They Cloned Tyrone. Tim Burton also snuck a Blaxploitation reunion into Mars Attacks, casting Pam Grier and Jim Brown against those annoying killer Martians.
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