#29: Foxy Brown (1974)

Watching this film was mostly a reminder to me of how far we've come as a people (women and minorities), and also how far we still need to go. Supposedly this film depicts a strong woman avenging the wrongful death of her man. However, I see it as mostly exploitation.

My first Pam Grier film was her performance in Quentin Tarantino's 1997 film Jackie Brown. Thank goodness for that because I definitely would've thought of her as a terrible actress if I saw this movie first. I guess you can only do so much with the material you're given. Pam Grier isn't given anything but a stereotype in Foxy Brown.

I know there is a lot of contention about whether or not the term "blaxploitation" is appropriate to describe the action films of the '70s that were made by and starred black people. From what I've seen thus far, I think it's fair. Perhaps there were some that bucked the trend (still haven't seen Gordon Parks' Shaft which has a long wait on Netflix), but most of these films are filled with horrible caricatures that put down more than they uplift the black experience in America. 

Even before Civil Rights in the most downtrodden communities in Black America, we were more than just pimps, drug dealers, and hustlers. Those people exist, yes, but they're not the norm and that's not the typical life of a black person in the US. And if those are the people you choose to focus on, don't make them all into fools. Granted, Jackie Brown was a drug mule for an evil ass man, but she was at least intelligent. She was a fully developed character, and you understood from the beginning that she was doing it as a means of survival. She wasn't going around screwing everybody. If you're going to make a film about that kind of person, at least give them that.