What is Blaxploitation? In the early 1970s a type of film emerged that featured all-black casts, really cool soul, R 'n' B and disco music soundtracks, characters sporting big guns, big dashikis, and even bigger 'fros, and had some of the meanest, baddest attitudes to shoot their way across our screens.

More than that, for African-American audiences these films were an antidote to the sanitised 'safe' images of blackness that Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby presented to America. These films depicted a reality about the world which African-American audiences could identify with, even if the stories themselves were pure fantasy.

so what's in it? An introductory essay defining Blaxploitation, a consideration of the major themes and sub-genres of Blaxploitation follows, with chapters on Blaxploitation detectives, Blaxploitation action women, Blaxploitation horror and kung fu movies, and a look at the Blaxploitation revival in the 1990s. The major and currently available films in each topic are reviewed and analysed. Also a comprehensive bibliography/filmography is included for further reading and viewing.