What exactly is Blaxploitation? Similar to film noir, Blaxploitation, a genre that dominated American theaters for a decade, doesn’t have a strict definition. You just sort of know it when you see it.

These films locate interest in Black empowerment, and feature a set of stock characters: private dicks, slick pimps and pushers, and foxy women seeking revenge. Often Whitey receives the bulk of the ire, though anyone who undermines the community—no matter their race—is severely punished. The films are also defined by their earworm soundtracks, delivered by the era’s biggest soul artists: James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Earth, Wind & Fire, and more. 

Because the genre is tied thematically rather than aesthetically—to be clear, these films are still defined by colorful fashions and tricked-out cars—a Blaxploitation picture can come in all shapes and sizes. Along with revolutionary visions of underworld figures rising to become local heroes, these movies can be a sweet coming-of-age story, a dusty Western, a creepy horror flick, a tender family drama, or a blown-out musical.

For that reason, with this essentials list, which salutes Shout! Factory’s recent box set of Blaxploitation classics, I’ve tried to offer a smattering of each kind of Blaxploitation film while tipping a cap to the genre’s biggest stars. Unfortunately, that means a witty musical like Car Wash, the cartoonish vampire tale Blacula and the ruthless Willie Dynamite didn’t make it. I also tried to only have one film per director and endeavored mostly to have movies that are publicly available—though I’d implore you to keep an eye out for a rarity like Jamaa Fanaka’s Emma Mae. 

So pop on a playlist of the genre’s mega hits, pick out your hair and open your slang dictionary because we’re talking about the powerful Black men and women in Mayfield’s words who are “gambling with the odds of fate.” 

Uptight (1968)

Jules Dassin’s rebellious drama Uptight isn’t immediately seen as Blaxploitation. Adapted from Liam O’Flaherty’s novel The Informer, it begins with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and is more serious and somber than the later films the genre would produce. Its protagonist, Tank (Julian Mayfield)—a simpleminded alcoholic turned stool pigeon by the erudite Daisy (Roscoe Lee Browne) against his revolutionary brotha B. G. (Raymond St. Jacques)—is also far different from the pimps, pushers and cool cats who would come to lead these stories. But you can see and hear the genre’s building blocks here: a Black power spirit, a loathing of Whitey, and a fantastic soundtrack (this time performed by Booker T. & the M.G.’s), propelling a film whose cataclysmic ending is still shocking.   

Shaft (1971)

There isn’t a more iconic opening shot in the history of cinema than Shaft. I don’t care what retort you have, those films don’t have the best movie theme song ever sung, crooned by Isaac Hayes, or Richard Roundtree emerging from a New York City subway stop dressed in the trimmest chocolate-colored leather jacket ever. Roundtree “is the man that would risk his neck for his brother man,” Shaft, in Gordon Parks’ iconic follow-up to his affecting autobiographical debut The Learning Tree. Based on Ernest Tidyman’s novel, Shaft is also sort of autobiographical of Parks, who often said the character’s manner and style was inspired by him. In Parks’ film, Shaft, a private detective, is hired by Harlem gangster Bumpy Jonas (Moses Gunn) to retrieve his kidnapped daughter. Here, Roundtree is effortlessly cool and physically bruising. Shaft was so wildly successful at the box office that it spawned two sequels (Shaft’s Big Score! and Shaft in Africa) and even a TV show.

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)

It’s hard picking only one film from Melvin Van Peebles, especially when his racial ing satire Watermelon Man is sitting right there. But Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song is the feature that broke the already established subgenre of Blaxploitation wide open. Van Peebles wrote, produced, directed, edited and starred as a black-clad sex worker forced on the lam when he murders LAPD officers in a bid to save a young Black man. Not content with wearing most of the hats, Van Peebles also wrote the soundtrack that’s performed by Earth, Wind & Fire. Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song became a smash box-office hit partly because its controversial X rating from the MPAA became a significant marketing boom. Two years ago, while rewatching the movie in Paris, I spotted four elderly white French women who sheepishly filed out at the film’s end without looking at one another. It still has the power to shock. 

Buck and the Preacher (1972)

There are plenty of examples of Blaxploitation Westerns that could’ve made this list: Thomasine & Bushrod, The Learning Tree, or The Legend of Black Charlie—but Sidney Poitier’s directorial debut is not only the root note of the subgenre but it also features the genre’s most iconic pairing. In Buck and the Preacher, Poitier is Buck, a wagon train leader who teams with a shifty Preacher (Harry Belafonte) to defend Black settlers making their way west. This rebellious picture allowed Black Hollywood’s two biggest titans to shed their clean-cut personas. The usually dignified Poitier shoots cannonball sized holes through racist white folks, and a typically debonair Belafonte is deliciously slimy in this rugged adventure. 

Trick Baby (1972)

Until six months ago, I had not only not seen this movie; I didn’t even know of its existence. But make no mistake, Larry Yust’s Trick Baby, adapted from Iceberg Slim’s novel of the same name, is an edgy take on racial ing that still feels far ahead of its time. Set in Philadelphia, it follows Blue Howard (Mel Stewart) and White Folks, aka Trick Baby (Kiel Martin), two con men who use race to ensnare unsuspecting, prejudiced white people who assume that Trick Baby is white. In actuality, Trick Baby is part Black. In one of their schemes, Trick Baby approaches white mobsters to participate in a gentrification scheme that positions Howard as the possible victim, which today reads as Trumpian. Those embarrassed mobsters seek revenge against the duo in a daring film that pushes the era’s boundaries of interracial sex and racial classification toward wild results.    

Black Caesar (1973)

Not every Blaxploitation film portrayed their protagonist as an obvious hero. Larry Cohen’s Black Caesar, for instance, which stars Fred Williamson as Tommy Tibbs—a gangster backed by the Italian mob before betraying it—features a complicated lead. Tibbs isn’t the guy anyone really wants to be: he’s a rapist, a terrible friend and isn’t behind the community. Many of his problems can be traced to the film’s opening scene. Tibbs is just a boy when a white cop named McKinney (Art Lund) brutally beats him. The incident fuels Tibbs to rise up through the underworld to gain revenge on his ab. Black Caesar, therefore, becomes a biting commentary on how racism can permanently damage the soul of the victim—leading to the poisoning of the community.

Cleopatra Jones (1973)

There were many talented actors who made their name with Blaxploitation movies whose careers didn’t take off outside of the genre. White Hollywood undervalued and forgot about them, prematurely ending potentially brilliant careers. Tamara Dobson as the titular foxy special agent Cleopatra Jones might’ve been the brightest among them. Originally a model, the stunning and towering Dobson turned to acting in commercials before finding success in the Blaxploitation boom. In Jack Starrett’s Cleopatra Jones, based on a screenplay penned by Max Julien (The Mack) and Sheldon Keller, Dobson splits her time destroying poppy fields in Turkey belonging to a white drug lord named Mommy (Shelley Winters) and ing her community-minded lover Reuben Masters (Bernie Casey). Dobson’s long frame makes her a deadly martial arts weapon, and her overwhelming charm suggests a leading lady who should’ve played far more parts.

Ganja & Hess (1973)

Before Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, there was writer-director Bill Gunn’s Ganja & Hess. In this evocatively sensual mix of vampirism and social politics, the rich Dr. Hess Green (Duane Jones) becomes a bloodsucker when his assistant George Meda (Gunn) stabs him with a Myrthian dagger. Hess then becomes romantically attached to George’s widow Ganja (Marlene Clark), and the pair institute a murderous reign. An erotic film featuring possibly the stickiest sex scene in cinema, Ganja & Hess also critiques assimilation and religion, leading to a different kind of ecstasy when Hess decides to attend church. It’s a scene so spiritual, it makes even the most hardened atheist (myself) believe in God.   

The Mack (1973)

Another film about a bootstrapper who might be toxic to his own community, The Mack stars Max Julien as John “Goldie” Mickens—a pimp and drug dealer in Oakland who contends with racist white cops during his rise to the top. Along with the complicated storyline of Goldie dealing drugs to his own people, the film also carries a rich ensemble: Juanita Moore is Goldie’s mom, a spiky Richard Pryor is Goldie’s friend Slim and Carol Speed is Goldie’s other business partner Lulu. There’s also an early scene here where a revolutionary speech is delivered by Goldie’s brother Olinga (Roger E. Mosley), and the camera cuts to each Black spectator proudly listening, which must have influenced Spike Lee’s Kwame Ture scene in BlacKkKlansman.

The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)

Of all the films under the Blaxploitation umbrella, none, other than Uptight, is more politically radical than director Ivan Dixon’s crime-drama about Dan Freeman (Lawrence Cook), a Black former CIA operative who returns to Chicago to teach Black folks destabilizing tactics to use against the government. Based on Sam Greenlee’s novel, a book informed by his own experience working with the CIA, the movie arrived in theaters when assassinations, college protests and urban rebellions weren’t restricted to the imagination. Nor was COINTELPRO’s targeting of Black leaders. The film’s desires and methods for liberation were deemed to be dangerous enough that rumor spread of Ivan’s movie being purposefully pulled and censored from theaters. It recently received a 4K restoration.

Claudine (1974)

Claudine Price (Diahann Carroll) and Roop Marshall (James Earl Jones) are Blaxploitation’s tenderest on-screen couple. Claudine is a spirited single mother of six working as a nanny for a white suburban couple. Roop is a smooth-talking garbage man. The pair find love despite stringent welfare policies and Claudine’s badass kids. The white welfare woman’s frequent visits put Claudine on high alert—a boyfriend, upgraded appliances and a job that’ll make ends meet are grounds for reducing how much she receives from the government. But far from ively earning money, Claudine works hard to her family. Roop also toils to earn her and her kids’ affection. Carroll and Jones are beautiful, caring and ebullient, a perfect confectionery of heart-melting warmth—especially whenever Gladys Knight & the Pips’ music stirs their souls and ours.

Truck Turner (1974)

Another American International Productions hit from 1974, Jonathan Kaplan’s Truck Turner delivered a vehicle for the man whose velvet baritone made John Shaft a household name. Isaac Hayes portrays a former NFL player turned bounty hunter who teams with his partner Jerry Barnes (Alan Weeks) to track down a bail-jumping pimp named Gator (Paul Harris). Nichelle Nichols (Star Trek) also stars as an acidic madam, while Yaphet Kotto (Alien) is a sophisticated, vicious pimp who does her dirty work. Even if Hayes wasn’t so clearly just beginning his acting career here, both Nichols and Kotto would still run away with the movie. They’re both so deliciously evil and have a plethora of zingers that can’t be repeated in mixed company. You’re reminded of the immense and underrated range both actors were rarely credited with. 

Cooley High (1975)

Set in Chicago, Michael Schultz’s Cooley High is a laid back coming-of-age film about two high schoolers: Leroy “Preach” Jackson (Glynn Turman) and Richard “Cochise” Morris (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), who play hooky, date and think about college. Unlike many of the films on this list, Schultz’s dramedy doesn’t possess an original soundtrack. Barring the lone original song, G. C. Cameron’s ‘It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday,’ it’s all Motown tracks by The Four Tops, Mary Wells, The Temptations and more. These throwback tracks, by this point a decade old, owe to the autobiographical memories of the film’s writer and Good Times creator Eric Monte. The film’s presentation of Monte’s youthful experiences would go on to influence other movies about young Black urban men, particularly John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood.

Darktown Strutters (1975)

Quite possibly the nuttiest of the Blaxploitation films I’ve chosen, William Witney’s Darktown Strutters—a Gene Corman production—is a stylish satire concerning an all-Black woman biker gang who try to rescue their mother from the clutches of Commander Cross (Norman Bartold), a Colonel Sanders-type figure using cloning technology to undermine the Black community. So if you’ve ever seen Undercover Brother or They Cloned Tyrone and wondered where they got that conceit from, look no further than here. In this wild escape, Trina Parks—who played Thumper in Diamonds Are Forever—is the leader of bikers who face off against the KKK and attempt to rescue The Dramatics, who are performing ‘Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get’ behind prison bars while dressed in matching green-and-white rhinestone suits. You’ve got to see it to believe it.

The Wiz (1978)

It’s fitting that the movie accused of ending the genre is last alphabetically on this list. A remake of The Wizard of Oz, Sidney Lumet’s The Wiz was a colossal box-office failure but an instant classic. Diana Ross plays Dorothy Gale, a girl swept away by a whirlwind from her Thanksgiving celebration in Harlem to the land of Oz, where a scarecrow (Michael Jackson), a tinman (Nipsey Russell) and cowardly lion (Ted Ross) evade the bitter anger of the Wicked Witch of the West (Mabel King) to seek aid from the Wiz (Richard Pryor). Written by Joel Schumacher, with a score by Quincy Jones, Lumet’s musical is a stylish extravaganza steeped in otherworldly colors, Afrofuturist costumes and urban sets whose elaborate creation eased the genre on down the road, leaving behind a radical Black vision that still feels like a dream.