Odie Henderson

Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras by Odie Henderson is an excellent look at the Blaxpoitation films, both what they represented at the time and how their influence has affected what we watch today.

I graduated high school in 1976, so this period is part of my growing up years. We moved fairly often and a couple of the places I lived had both theaters within walking or bicycling distance as well as a mixed demographic which allowed films like this to play for more than one quick week. This gave me the chance to see some of these first run. While they were certainly a catalyst for part of my social education, I have a couple of old friends to thank even more, they took the time to explain how things I found problematic (though I didn't have that word in my vocabulary then, I'm sure) had more meaning than what was on the surface, which was all I could see at first.

As I eventually studied and used film and popular culture in my teaching, these films were usually given a brief chapter in a larger volume, with little to no depth in analysis than to say they were popular and short-lived. There have been a few books since then to give more nuance, and Henderson cites them here, but this volume does a wonderful job of assessing the films both as films and as cultural artifacts.

What I found most useful was the way Henderson doesn't sidestep or ignore the problematic issues, places them in context, then explains how the films were received differently by different audiences (a microcosm of which is represented by my personal teenage experience). It is easy to fall into the trap of judging past work strictly by the standards and sensibilities of today. To truly understand we have to place the work in its own cultural setting as well as look at what might make a similar new work today difficult to make or appreciate.

There is certainly going to be a lot of nostalgia for many readers. Recently a streaming service (maybe the Criterion Channel?) highlighted Blaxploitation films and I watched several for the first time in decades. I wish I had had this book at that time. Any film buff will gain a better appreciation of not just Blaxploitation films but film in general (filmmaking as well as film as social commentary) by reading this work then (re)watching some of the movies. The new perspective will open them up for the viewer.

Highly recommended for both the casual film buff who likes knowing a little more about the genres they watch and for the film scholar (or future filmmaker) who wants to dig deeper into Blaxploitation and maybe learn a little about how to write about film in an analytical but still engaging manner.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (more)