Every month we receive mail from people asking us what our favourite blaxploitation movies are, or which movies we recommend for a variety of reasons. Well, here you go - a full list of movies we like with reasons why! Click on the links to read more about or buy the item.
This list was last updated on 18 Dec 2005.
Across 110th Street
1972
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Classic, hard cop movie in true old school style. Fantastic Bronx locations, a tight script and some good performances. Outstanding soundtrack too.
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Avenging Disco Godfather
1979
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Rudy Ray Moore in classic tongue-in-cheek ass-kicking style . Grab a six pack and get stuck in!
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Black Belt Jones
1974
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Our all-time favorite blaxploitation movie. Total entertainment that doesn't take itself too seriously. Jim Kelly's best performance, a strong female lead in Gloria Hendry, killer music from Dennis Coffey, and some excellent set-pieces to boot. Unreservedly recommended.
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Black Caesar
1973
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Fred Williamson's best film role. A tough movie with superb soundtrack and some excellent performances.
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Black Shampoo
1976
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Ridiculous black remake of the Warren Beatty hit Shampoo. Classic bad B-movie material with John 'Candy Tangerine Man' Daniels. Hilarious, violent and pretty surreal.
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Blacula
1972
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Respected stage actor William Marshall stars in this camped-up black version of the Dracula story. Brilliant music and some good performances - even pretty scary in parts!
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Bucktown
1975
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A less well-known, gritty Fred Williamson movie with Pam Grier. Great theme by Johnny Pate.
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Car Wash
1976
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This one had to go into the list for sheer entertainment value!
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Claudine
1974
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Great to see this low-key classic back on video and DVD for the first time in a long while. Makes a great change from the violence inherent in many of these films.
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Cleopatra Jones
1973
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The first, and best, Cleo Jones film, starring the lovely Tamara Dobson, a 6ft-plus ex-model who can really act. All-round entertainment, some great cars, great chases, and a great soundtrack.
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Coffy
1973
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Arguably Pam Grier's best-known role. As nurse Coffy, she avenges her sister's death by taking on the drug dealers. Vicious, nasty, uncompromising. Superb music and a great lead performance.
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Come Back Charleston Blue
1972
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Well-shot and well scripted, this early blaxploitation movie is a great detective story with plenty of plot. Good stuff.
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Cornbread, Earl and Me
1975
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Low-key, socially conscious basketball-themed movie. Well scripted and acted, great soundtrack too.
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Detroit 9000
1973
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Another of our personal favorites. Highly recommended heist movie featuring excellent, bleak Detroit locations and some superb performances.
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Disco 9000
1976
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Crazy, cult classic B-movie about a disco club in the top of a high-rise exclusive tower block. Pretty cheesy but has its moments - some excellent parody of the music business and tasty dance set pieces.
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Dolemite
1975
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Rudy Ray Moore's original lewd and crude creation on top form. Toasts, wisecracks, bad catsuits and plenty of action.
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Education of Sonny Carson, The
1974
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Superb and largely forgotten socially aware movie about a young ghetto kid's transition to adulthood.
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Enter The Dragon
1974
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Bruce Lee, John Saxon AND Jim Kelly? Music by Lalo Schifrin? The movie that kick-started the 1970s kung-fu obsession.
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Foxy Brown
1974
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Our favorite Pam Grier role. Tough, sexy, confident and just slightly vulnerable. A genre classic.
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Friday Foster
1975
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Almost a complete change for Pam Grier, cast as a photographer in a bright, breezy production. As always, Grier is very watchable and turns in a great performance in a movie with a much lighter feel than most of her other films.
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Gordon's War
1973
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Neighborhood hero forms his own army to battle the drug dealers moving into their patch. Classic Paul Winfield flick with an incredible, super funky soundtrack (by the same composer who wrote the Twin Peaks music, trivia fans!)
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I'm Gonna Git You Sucka
1988
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Hilarious pastiche of all things blaxploitation, from the pimps to the cars to the clothes. Very funny with many classic one-liners.
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Mack, The
1973
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Along with Superfly, here's the original guide to ghetto pimp life.
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Man And Boy
1971
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Beautiful understated Western with a great performance by Bill Cosby and fantastic music by Bill Withers and JJ Johnson.
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Monkey Hustle
1977
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Infectious mid 70s classic starring all the main male leads of the time in a hustling-themed film.
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Shaft
1971
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What can you say? The original black private dick. Everyone should own a copy of this.
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Slaughter
1972
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Jim Brown's best screen role.
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Spook Who Sat By The Door, The
1973
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Underground classic. Amazing, experimental soundtrack by Herbie Hancock and super-weird conspiracy theory-style plot with a superb lead performance. Gripping and essential.
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Superfly
1972
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Savage, vicious, exploitative genre classic. A gripping main performance and superb soundtrack.
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Sweet Sweetback's Badaaasss Song
1971
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Melvin Van Peebles' superb, almost avant-garde genre-defining classic. Self-financed and publicized, it's a triumph. Weird, hard, absorbing and at times difficult viewing, it's impossible to miss.
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Willie Dynamite
1974
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Finally available on video, this is the other classic pimp movie. Superb music by JJ Johnson and some key performances, not least by Roscoe 'Sesame Street' Orman in the lead role!
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