Shaft - the Emergence of a Mainstream Black Hero?

Running Head : Mainstreaming of Black Heroes

Shaft : The Emergence of a Mainstream Black Hero

[Author 's Name]

[Institution 's Name] In the earlier days of cinema , the presence of blacks was limited largely to the appearance of white performers in blackface . In such performances , blatant stereotypes were exercised largely for the amusement of white viewers , depicting them as comically uneducated layabouts and lecherous savages at worst and easygoing minstrels at best

It was not until the mid-20th century that black presence began to penetrate in more respectable forms , as

best exemplified by performers such as Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte . Still , many of the `respectable ' roles obtained by such actors were framed largely around the white perspective , albeit one that had evolved to a more charitable and benevolent perspective towards racial relations

As such , roles for blacks in mainstream film were primarily concerned with what Mario Van Peebles referred to as the Negro issue ' The problem with such films is that they essentially sanitized blacks with a representation that was largely unthreatening , and concerned themselves more with the integration of blacks into white society (which is most certainly a step forward from their in the documentary , such representations were also largely out of touch with the burgeoning militant culture of blacks

The film Shaft was essentially the turning point for the relationship between mainstream cinema and blacks . By presenting the image of an African American detective who was highly capable , independent and in control while radiating sex appeal , Shaft essentially set off a number of changes to how African Americans were represented in mainstream film and their relationship to the industry itself

Of course , like any `revolutionary ' and `groundbreaking ' phenomenon Shaft did not suddenly burst forth into the cineplexes without a number of precedents , such as the aforementioned entry of black performers into credible three dimensional roles . Other precedents include the successes of various black productions , such as The Learning Tree , a major studio production directed and written by future Shaft director Gordon Parks and the highly incendiary works of the independent scene such as Melvin Van Peebles ' Sweet Sweetback 's Baadasssss Song

Such films began to present blacks in a manner reflecting the black perspective in ways that were strongly political or socially unitarian in bent , but remained largely unseen or deemed irrelevant to the general moviegoing populace . What Shaft did was present a cinematic product that was `cool ' by presenting black masculinity as radically empowered and more importantly , in a way that was appealing to a broad demographic of moviegoers . As Todd Boyd notes , it was a huge crossover hit

I think a part of this crossover success has to do with the largely exotic appeal of taking a fundamentally conventional action film and spicing it up with the presence of a black protagonist . Shaft made an action film interesting by re-coloring (pun intended ) a role that would traditionally be filled in by a white performer , and at the same time it also made a black character interesting...