Thursday, October 7, 2010
While my knowledge of 70s blaxploitation is limited, what I've seen is based on a rather embellished idea of the African-American male. Whether it is "Boss Nigga" or "Sweet Sweet Back" these characters are most often pimps with stereotypical, crowd pleasing agendas. With "gangsta" films of the 90s it seems a more realistic approach was attempted. This grit of films like "Boyz N the Hood" or "Juice" provided a stark difference in content to the blaxploitation films. While this attempt at a more realistic cinema is admirable, it still seems these films focus on stereotypes rather that intricacies of their character's daily life.
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Alex, nice work here. One, that you draw out specific characterizations and films, and two that you hit on a central point: the intricacies of characters lives are often distorted outside the realistic parameters of daily life. As I said in another response, though not perfect, I thought Poetic Justice was a nice turn to a different side of the gangsta genre.
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