Running Head: CLASSIFIED X AND SHAFT 1

Classified X and Shaft

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PART 1: Classified X Overview

This is a US-French documentary movie which was written by Van Peebles, narrated

by the same Van Peebles and directed by an individual called Mark Daniels. The movie gives

the details of the black people history in the American cinema during the 20th century. The

details of Classified X will be given in the subsequent section below.

In this movie Van Peebles shows the roles in which African-Americans have been

playing since the introduction of cinema. If you thought that the depictions of racism began

with “Birth of a Nation”, then you are wrong. The narrator includes some scenes from the

movies of Thomas Edison where blacks were used as incompetent comic relief. According to

Van Peebles, blacks were always given roles which portrayed them as being inferior both in

the films and in reality. Such roles included those of being maids or even slaves. On the other

hand, the white actors were always shown as wealthy landowners or action heroes and

Peebles has cited many instances of this happening in this film. Van Peebles shows through

SWEETBACK of 1971 that blacks were being given fallacious and demeaning roles (Dennis,

1998). He goes ahead to mention that during the first half century of film making in America,

blacks were portrayed as some kind of grotesque stereotypes, at times by white actors who

were in black faces. Post-war movies like “Intruder in the Dust” and “Pinky” addressed the

issue of bigotry in the US but blacks were still considered to be secondary in these films as

well, with the white characters being portrayed as forces of tolerance.

The “new black” referred to the new ways in which black film makers and actors were

to conduct themselves so that they could change the image in which the conventional

American movies used to portray them to be.

According to the rules of the new black, the black characters were to play equal roles

that their white counterparts had restricted themselves to before. The new roles included
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producing movies which featured all black casts that were to be exhibited in segregated

theatres and also being part of the film making process. Van Peebles is among the first black

film makers to be hired by Hollywood in 1961.

“A million zillion images” refers to a stock of several photos that are used during the

process of film production. A movie is a set of images which are in motion and the greater

the number of these images, the better the quality of the movie.

The whites took the roles of heroes in the movie industry during the 20th century while

the blacks were always given demeaning ones a mentioned earlier. Athletics was regarded as

demeaning roles which were meant to entertain the whites.

The blacks were happy with the progress made by Sidney Poitier in 1950s when he

changed the situation which black actors used to undergo by becoming among the top

performing actors in Hollywood. He liberated the blacks from the subservient roles that they

used to perform before like comic servants and Uncle Toms.

Classified X has depicted Blaxploitation clearly by show casing the stereotyped roles

which African-Americans were made to play in the American films that were shot in the 20th

century. This movie showed how racism was a big deal in America even with respect to film

production.

PART 2: Shaft Overview

Shaft is one of the early Blaxploitation movies and it revolves around a detective called

John Shaft who has been hired to rescue the daughter of a Harlem mobster. The name shaft is

derived from this actor while “the emergence of a mainstream black hero” name arises from

the fact it advocates for black power movement through nationalism.

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The typical portrayals of blacks from 1900 to 1950 according to this movie was that of

being viewed as individuals who were racially inferior and with no positive influence to the

society as compared to their white counterparts (Vincent, 1971). However, things started

changing in the late 50 and 60s as a result of aggressive civil rights movements that were

organized by Africans. The most phenomenal movements that aided in liberating Africans

were those that were organized by Malcom X and Black Panthers. These movements were

against issues such as the passive roles that blacks were given in the media together with the

prevailing prejudice and racism. The movies which were made in the 60s by stars like Sidney

Poitier changed the way in which Africans were being perceived to be and it proved that they

were truly equal to their white counterparts (Corkin, 2011). This made the Africans to

become accepted in the white society.

An exploitation movie is a movie that tries to excel financially through exploitation of

current issues, genres, niche or show casing lurid content. They normally attract those people

seeking critical attention. The revolutionary changes that were created by the Blaxploitation

movies were those of dealing with racism by proving that African-Americans had equal

capabilities to their white counterparts. The Shaft specifically has been celebrated for being a

movie that gave a breakthrough production with respect to the expansion of the

representation of blacks in the commercial cinema. Since the production of this film, African-

Americans have been able to compete equally with the whites in film production and other

areas of life.

In my opinion, Shaft was a good film since it helped in liberating the blacks from the

whites. It shows the historical progress that has been made by blacks in the U.S to date. Shaft

is one of the Blaxploitation films that have made the 70s to be a very prominent period for

blacks in the U.S. However, there were some artistic aspects in this film regarding to the
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black culture and experience which were lost completely and this led to new stereotypes

about Africans.
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References

Corkin, S. (2011). Starring New York: filming the grime and the glamour of the long 1970s.

New York: Oxford University Press.

Dennis, H. 1998. "Melvin Van Peebles' Classified X", Variety.

Vincent, C. 1971. "'Shaft'- At Last, a Good Saturday Night Movie," New York Times.