Another February comes to a close I am sad to see that no DVD company has brought us any Black History month bounty in the way of Soul Cinema or Blaxploitation films. In fact, I am amazed that there are no deluxe special editions for any classic Blaxpliotation films. Where is our Shaft, Dolemite, Lady Cleopatra, Coffy, Superfly, Three the Hard Way, or Hammer? Actually, many of the films I just mentioned aren’t even in print with a bare bones edition.
Now, I don’t expect a stacked collection of these films since they are owned by various companies but a few of the titles should be cleaned up and given some retrospective love. I will put together a dream edition for Shaft, which would be my personal favorite (it just edged out Dolemite), but what I really want is to see all these films receive the dream treatment.
Shaft
First, we need the immortal Richard Roundtree to return for at least one featurette. I would prefer a retrospective on the iconic character and hopefully he could rope in Samuel L. Jackson, who rebooted the role, to come by for a chat.
Second, the director Gordon Parks put together perhaps the best Blaxpliotation film stylistically and he was able to capture the wonder and grit of New York City in a way that only a few directors like Martin Scorcese were able to match. Sadly, he passed away three years ago, so a fitting tribute is in order from some of his friends and contemporaries.
Third, I would like to see a scholarly evaluation on the Blaxpliotation era of films and their positive and negative effects on pop culture and the Black community. Enough time has elapsed for an insightful retrospective, and I think it is ripe for discussion.
Lastly, the late, great Isaac Hayes should get a star studded featurette on his award-winning soundtrack. It set the standard for the genre and raised the bar for soundtracks in general from that point forward. Without the Shaft soundtrack there is no Superfly, and the world of Funk would take a big hit.
Shaft was a surprising mainstream success and I would hope this fictional DVD would perform similarly, sending DVD makers running to put together fitting tributes to this unique and thrilling era of cinema in America.