Exploitation film

Exploitation film
Exploitation films, Exploitative films or trash cinema is the name given to a genre of films, extant since the earliest days of moviemaking, but popularized in the 1970s. Since the 1990s, this genre has also received attention from academic circles, where it is sometimes called paracinema. Exploitation films typically sacrifice traditional notions of artistic merit for the sensational display of some topic about which the audience may be curious, or have some prurient interest. Thematically, exploitation films are influenced by other so-called exploitative media like pulp magazines. Director Quentin Tarantino, who is a declared lover of exploitation cinema, mirrors evidence of exploitation films’ influence on contemporary cinema in films such as Kill Bill.

Grindhouse Cinema
Another term is grindhouse cinema; referring to the usually disreputable movie theaters that showed them. Many of these inner-city theatres formerly featured burlesque shows, which featured "bump and grind" dancing, leading to the term "grindhouse." The book Sleazoid Express, a travelogue of the grindhouses of New York's 42nd Street, explains that in the 1970s-late 1980s, the etymology of "grindhouse" changed to refer to the operations of twenty-four hour theatres, which would continually "grind out" films around the clock (a reference to the cranking motion required of old film cameras and projectors).

Early Exploitation Films
Some of the earliest exploitation films were pitched as sensationalist exposés of some drug or sex-related scandal, and were made independently of the major Hollywood studios, thus avoiding restrictions of the Production Code and providing a revenue source for independent theaters. Now that the major motion picture studios allow much more latitude in subject matter, it is not necessary for independent producers to cater to audiences' desires to view such things. Thus, in modern cinema, roles have reversed somewhat, with major studios catering to the so-called "lowest common denominator", while art films are more typically made independently.

Subcategories of Exploitation Films

Classic Exploitation
Classic Exploitation films made in the 1930s and 1940s were sensationalist fare at the time, and are now valued by aficionados for their nostalgic and ironic value. The most famous example of these is the cautionary tale Reefer Madness, a sensationalized and notoriously inaccurate attempt to demonize marijuana for Prohibition-era America.

A particularly important type of exploitation film of this era was the "sex hygiene" exploitation film, a remnant from the social or mental hygiene movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These films featured white-coated "doctors" describing the how-tos of sex education to the fascinated and naive audience. Often times, the film would be attended by another "doctor" in a white coat selling sex-hygiene booklets in the lobby after the film screening. Usually the producers would make significantly more money from the sales of the booklets than the from the tickets to see the film. This type of film was also known as a "road show," because it was shown from town to town and was promoted in advance like a circus or carnival. One of the most famous of these was "Mom and Dad" which featured actual birth footage.

Sometimes the sex hygiene films would verge into what would be seen as shock exploitation today, showing graphic footage of the ravages of venereal disease. However, showman David Friedman said that in all his years presenting sex-hygiene films as a road show, patrons sometimes came out pale and shaken, but none asked for their money back.

Black Exploitation
Black Exploitation, or "blaxploitation" films, are made with black actors, ostensibly for black audiences, and about stereotypically African American themes such as slum life, drugs, and prostitution. Examples from the 1970s, when Blaxploitation was introduced, include Shaft and Superfly.

Sex Exploitation
Sex Exploitation, or "sexploitation", or Chick Exploitation "chixploitation" films, are similar to softcore pornography, in that the film serves largely as a vehicle for showing scenes involving nude or semi-nude women. Russ Meyer's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is one example.

Shock Exploitation
Shock Exploitation Films (Shock Films), are films containing content designed to be particularly shocking to the audience. This type of exploitation film focus content traditionally thought to be particularly taboo for presentation in film, such as extremely realistic graphic violence, graphic rape depictions, simulated zoophilia and depictions of simulated incest. Examples of shock films include Cannibal Holocaust, Last House on the Left, Fight For Your Life, Run and Kill, Bald Headed Betty, Last House on Dead End Street, Baise-Moi, Thriller: A Cruel Picture, Cannibal Ferox (AKA Make Them Die Slowly), and I Spit On Your Grave. Sometimes these films purport to be the retelling of a true story, such as the Japanese film Schoolgirl in Cement, which dealt with the Junko Furuta murder. The sub-sub-genre of simulated "snuff" films might also belong here, such as the infamous Guinea Pig films, also from Japan.

Cannibal Exploitation Films
Cannibal films are a sub genre of exploitation film, a collection of graphically gory movies created from the late 1970s through the early 1990s by Italian moviemakers. In 1974, Umberto Lenzi made Man from Deep River (1972), generally believed to be the first Italian cannibal movie. Joe D'Amato made Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals in 1977 and Ruggero Deodato continued the tradition with Last Cannibal World (1977) and Cannibal Holocaust (1978), an acknowledged influence on The Blair Witch Project.

Mondo films
"Mondo" exploitation films are quasi-documentary films, often reconstructions of actual or purported events. The events depicted in such films are usually closer in spirit to shock exploitation: they are shocking not only because they deal with taboo subject matter (foreign sexual customs, for instance, or varieties of violent behavior in various societies), but because the on-camera action is allegedly real. Some mondo movies are more blatantly fictitious than others, and the vast majority of them are staged forgeries. Most of them tend to be anthologies of different things under a broad collective label rather than one specific thing. The name "mondo" comes from the first broadly commercially successful movie of this type, Mondo Cane. In Italian this means "A Dog's World," a title that was meant to imply that the world, as showcased in the film, is a nasty, brutal place. "Mondo Cane" was followed by a number of sequels and spinoffs, many of which were also produced in Italy. Other movies of this type include Addio Zio Tom and the Faces of Death series of films. Sometimes "mondo" films are called shockumentaries (i.e., a combination of shock exploitation and documentary).

Hick Exploitation
hixploitation ("hick," dealing with rural characters) Many times these films indulge in Southern American stereotypes of race relations, "moonshining," corrupt local law enforcement, and miscegenation.

Other examples
• Nunsploitation
• Women in prison films
• dyxploitation ("dyke," profiting from lesbian chic)

Some exploitation movies cross categories freely. Doris Wishman's Let Me Die A Woman contains both shock documentary and sex exploitation elements.

Film genres influenced by exploitation film
• Gangster film
• Horror film
• Slasher film
• Women in prison films
• Sexploitation film

Blaxploitation

Blaxploitation is a portmanteau of the words “black” and “exploitation”. It is a film genre which emerged in the United States in the early 1970s when many exploitation films were made that targeted the urban African American audience. The films featured primarily black actors, and were the first to have soundtracks of funk and soul music. Although criticized by civil-rights groups for their use of stereotypes, they addressed the great and newfound demand for afrocentric entertainment, and were immensely popular among black audiences.

Almost all blaxploitation films featured exaggerated sexuality and violence. When set in the North of the U.S., they tended to take place in the ghetto and deal with pimps, drug dealers, and hitmen. When set in the South, the movies most often took place on a plantation and dealt with slavery and miscegenation. In all these films, it was common to see drugs, the Afro hairstyle, "pimpmobiles," and crooked and corrupt White police officers. Controversy was heightened by the fact that these films were often written and directed by white men, although movies created by African Americans with similar themes have also been labeled as “blaxploitation.”

These films made were made for an African American audience and often showed negative depictions of White characters throughout the films. This was most clearly seen as Whites were often cast as crooked and racist police officers or government officials called the word Honky on several occasions. Italian Americans were specifically portrayed negatively as drug dealing members of the mafia whom Black characters would often rip off. Anti-Italian epithets such as Dago and Wop were used in conjunction with Honky against these characters. At the same time, these films set a negative stereotype of African Americans, the audience they were trying to reach as pimps and drug dealers. These were illegal jobs that many Whites stereotyped Blacks as having especially in the northern ghettoes and as a result a call against Blaxploitation had occurred.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Urban League joined together to form the Coalition Against Blaxploitation. Backed by many black film professionals, this group received much media exposure and quickened the death of the genre by the late 1970s. Though still regarded as racist by many, some film scholars defend the cinematic genre as instrumental in bringing greater screen presence to African Americans. The films also paved the way for “mainstream” movies to deal with urban issues.

Famous blaxploitation films
• Cotton Comes to Harlem was written and directed by the African American Ossie Davis in 1970. It featured two Black NYPD detectives Coffin Ed played by Raymond St. Jacques and Gravedigger Jones played by Godfrey Cambridge who were looking for a money filled bail of cotton stolen by a corrupt reverend named Deke O'Malley. Blazing Saddles star Cleavon Little makes an appearance in the film.
• Watermelon Man (1970)—written by a white man (Herman Raucher) but directed by an African American (Melvin Van Peebles), this film about a white man who is turned into a black man is considered a forebearer of the 1970s blaxploitation boom
• Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)—written and directed by Melvin Van Peebles, this tale of a black male prostitute turned vigilante is considered by many to be the first true blaxploitation film, and the film that thrust afrocentric films into the spotlight. Van Peebles himself does not consider his film to be a part of the genre.


Modern media referencing blaxploitation
Recent movies such as Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) and Undercover Brother (2002) , as well as Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown (1997) and Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2003), feature nods to the blaxploitation genre. John Singleton’s remake of Shaft (2000) would be modern-day interpretations of blaxploitation—this trend goes back to the early 1990s with films like Strictly Business (1991) and Juice (1992).

I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) is a famous spoof of urban blaxploitation films, featuring several of the male stars of that genre. A later film, Original Gangstas (1996), also featured many of those stars, but was made as a tribute to the genre. Pootie Tang (2001) also parodies many blaxploitation elements. Robert Townsend’s comedy Hollywood Shuffle (1987) features a young black actor who is tempted to take part in a white-produced blaxploitation film.

The popular anime series Cowboy Bebop features several episodes with blaxploitation themes, particularly Mushroom Samba which extensively parodies blaxploitation movies.

The 1997 film Hoodlum starring Laurence Fishburne was an attempt at gangster blaxploitation, portraying a fictional account of black mobster Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson.

The Hebrew Hammer (2003) is another parody of blaxploitation films, but with a Jewish protagonist (and was therefore called “Jewsploitation” by some).

In 2004, Mario Van Peebles, Melvin’s son, released Baadasssss!, a movie based on the making of his father’s movie in which Mario played his father.

The animated series Family Guy showed a cutaway based on blaxploitation movies in the form of a parody of Back to the Future (Black to the Future), starring the main character Peter’s distant cousin as “Marty McSuperFly.”

In The Simpsons episode “Simpson Tide” (3G04) a TV announcer says “Next, on Exploitation Theatre...Blackula, followed by Blackenstein, and The Blunchblack of Blotre Blame!

The Onion's book Our Dumb Century has an article from the 1970's entitled "Congress Passes Anti-Blaxploitation Act: Pimps, Players Subject to Heavy Fines"

Many of actor and wrestler The Rock's catch phrases have come from blaxploitation films.

Cult film
A cult film is a movie that attracts a small but devoted group of fans, usually failing to achieve considerable success outside that group.

Overview
Most movies considered "cult films" failed to achieve mainstream success upon original theatrical release, often grossing more money in video rentals and sales than in theater tickets. In most cases (but by no means all), the film hardly makes an impression with the general public and critics are often apathetic as well. However, a small, devoted group of viewers, often "film buffs" or film students, show an extreme appreciation of the film.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is often considered the first "cult film." The movie combines the conventions from science fiction and horror films and included elements of transvestitism, incest and homosexuality — all within the context of a musical. The film received little attention when first released in 1975 but, a few years later, fans showed up at midnight screenings at repertoire theaters, dressed in costume and "participating" in the film (e.g. throwing rice at the wedding scene).

Eraserhead (1977)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is one of many cult films to survive initial box office failure by finding success in other outlets. Like Rocky Horror, Night of the Living Dead, Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, The Hills Have Eyes and Eraserhead achieved cult status through repeat screenings at independent repertory cinemas, most usually during late night "midnight movie" screenings. Such films were cheaper for theaters to hire than current releases and thus were more sensible to screen during late night when attendance was lower. In the early 1990s many repertory cinemas went out of business due to changes in cinema ownership and distribution.

Network television, cable television and pay-per-view stations have also helped raise the stature of cult films. Despite failing to meet box office expectations, Blade Runner was a favorite of early pay-per-view and HBO. When Steven Spielberg's 1979 comedy 1941 (after its near-failure at the box office) aired on ABC in an expanded version, it became one of the most asked-for home video reissues, and thereby giving the movie the popularity it did not receive at the box office. Repeated showings on Comedy Central helped popularize Office Space and Half Baked.

Cult films within a particular culture
An instance of how cults differ between culture can be seen in the cult status of British comedic actor Norman Wisdom’s films in Albania. Wisdom’s films, in which he usually played a family man worker who outsmarts his boss, were some of the few Western films considered acceptable by the county’s communist rulers, thus Albanians grew familiar and attached to Wisdom. Curiously, he and his films are now acquiring nostalgic cult status in Britain. Similarly, the American film It's a Wonderful Life, which features an exploitative capitalist as its villain, was allowed in the USSR, giving it a cult status in Russia.

Another example is the place of The Wizard of Oz in American gay culture. Although a widely viewed and historically important film in greater American culture, it has gained a special meaning to many gay men who see probably unintended gay themes in the film. Gay men sometimes refer to themselves as "friends of Dorothy".

Manhunter, the film that introduced Hannibal Lecter, was originally a box office flop, but found a cult following on video following the success of The Silence of the Lambs in 1991.

So-bad-they’re-good cult films
Many films enjoy cult status because they are seen as ridiculously awful. The critic Michael Medved characterized examples of the "so bad it's good" class of low-budget cult film through books such as the Golden Turkey Awards.


Disaster movie
A disaster movie is a movie that has an impending or ongoing disaster (e.g. a major fire, earthquake, shipwreck, or an asteroid collision with Earth) as its subject. They typically feature large casts and multiple plotlines, and focus on the characters' attempts to avert, escape, or cope of the aftermath of the disaster. One major character, several minor characters, and scores of extras typically die before the story is resolved.

Disaster themes are nearly as old as film itself. D. W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916) has disaster elements, as do 1930s dramas such as San Francisco (earthquake) and In Old Chicago (fire). Science-fiction movies such as When Worlds Collide routinely used disasters as plot elements in the 1950s and early 1960s. The heyday of disaster movies began in 1970, however, when the success of Airport generated a flood of "all-star-cast-in-peril" stories.

Airport itself qualifies as a disaster movie only in retrospect. It is closer in tone and construction to The High and the Mighty or Zero Hour than to the full-blown disaster films that came after it. The disaster-movie cycle of the 1970s, really began with The Poseidon Adventure (ocean liner capsized by tsunami) in 1972, and continued in 1974 with similar movies such as The Towering Inferno (world's tallest building catches fire) and Earthquake (catastrophic earthquake strikes Los Angeles). The genre was beginning to burn out by the mid-1970s, when movies like The Swarm and Meteor were being produced more and more quickly, with weaker disasters (killer bees, etc.), less production effort and less impressive casts. 1983 saw the TV movie The Day After that dealt with the possibility of a nuclear war.

The disaster movie genre revived, briefly, in the mid-1990s—perhaps because new special effects techniques made more spectacular disasters possible. In 1996 Independence Day merged a science fiction alien invasion plot from the 1950s with disaster movie conventions (most notably, from Earthquake). Daylight, a movie about a collapse of the Holland Tunnel followed, and in 1997 two movies about volcanic eruptions debuted, Volcano and Dante's Peak. Later, spectacular products of this brief revival were a pair of extraterrestrial object impact movies Deep Impact and Armageddon, both released in the summer of 1998. The movie The Core dealt with the disasters resulting from the stalling of Earth's core.

In 2004, The Day After Tomorrow built upon fear of global warming with an unlikely assortment of disasters, perhaps setting a record of the most disasters in a single movie.