Blaxploitation, the predecessor of "Black Panther"

It’s hard not to call it a phenomenon. The brilliant success achieved in the United States by Black Panther is quite fascinating. Adapted from the Marvel Comics’ character T’Challa, the blockbuster directed by Ryan Coogler sparks debates in the Afro-American community—and even outside of it—for all the reasons that we know. The success of this 100% black movie, with its villains, its good guys, its heroes, its victims and all of the others, reminds us most of all that American is far from having dealt with its demons. The sensation is all the more intense that it all happened during Trump’s presidential mandate and that its soundtrack is orchestrated by the most gifted and powerful musician of this very community, Kendrick Lamar. Is this Black Panther an earthquake? A revolution? A brand new phenomenon? Yes… and no!

During the 70s, more than two hundred movies made for the Afro-American public labeled as blaxploitation were released in the movie theaters of the biggest cities of the country. The scenarios of these often Z movies usually make any script from an episode of The Young and the Restless look like Citizen Kane. And their budget comes generally close to the GNP of Bangladesh… In an America struggling between its intervention in Vietnam since 1965 and the rising demands of these black citizens, inherited from the fight of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, the Hollywood studios most of all know that by targeting their audience so well, they will reach the heart—and thus the wallet—of a community avid for heroes with whom they can finally identify. In the time it takes for TNT to explode, the good old black butler makes way for a muscular black lover, blackbelt in Karate and proficient with a Magnum 350! Every genre goes through this blaxploitation makeover: crime films (Car Wash, Let’s Do It Again, Uptown Saturday Night), science-fiction movies (Space Is The Place with whacky jazzman Sun Ra!) or horror (Blacula, Blackenstein, Abby, Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde), kung-fu movies (Black Belt Jones, Three The Hard Way) or engaged left-wing political movies (Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, The Spook Who Sat By The Door, The Black Gestapo), not forgetting western movies (Boss Nigger, The Legend Of Nigger Charley), musicals (Sparkle with Aretha Franklin) and even erotic movies (Black Emmanuelle)!