Blaxploitation movies: 7 great ones you can stream for free

For Black History Month, the free streaming service Pluto TV is spotlighting its Black cinema offerings, including an impressive lineup of Blaxploitation classics from the 1970s.

The genre has a complicated history. An NAACP official coined the term as a pejorative for violent and sexually graphic fare that often played into old stereotypes, according to the Los Angeles Times. Yet the movies also gave Black audiences a rare chance to see themselves in starring roles on-screen. As Hollywood studios realized these low-budget productions could generate profits, they stepped in as distributors and helped launch a golden age for Black cinema.

Some titles can also be seen on Tubi, another free streaming service; both are advertiser-supported. Here’s a list of seven Blaxploitation films worth watching:

A PIECE OF THE ACTION (Tubi) Leave it to director Sidney Poitier to class things up with a trilogy of breezy crime comedies that concluded with this 1977 entry. It reunites Poitier and Bill Cosby, who play a pair of thieves forced to go straight and work at a youth center. A little corny, perhaps, and marred by the Cosby legacy, but Poitier’s movie has plenty of old-fashioned heart.

BLACULA (Pluto and Tubi)

In what’s often called the first Blaxploitation horror movie (from 1972), William Marshall plays a 200-year-old vampire whose coffin is uncovered in modern-day Los Angeles. Though more of a hoot than an effective horror movie, "Blacula" triggered a mini-avalanche of followers that included "Blackenstein," "Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde" and the sequel "Scream Blacula Scream."

COFFY (Pluto and Tubi)

Pam Grier, an icon of the genre, scored an early hit in this 1973 release about an emergency room nurse turned vigilante. Her targets: The pushers who led her little sister into heroin addiction. Critics recoiled at the violence, but "Coffy" has since been embraced as a Black feminist landmark. It also has some highbrow fans: The film was recently screened at Manhattan’s Metrograph Theater as part of an event with The Whitney Review of New Writing.

COOLEY HIGH (Pluto and Tubi) Though not a typical Blaxploitation film, this comedy-drama about students at a Chicago high school certainly rode the wave. Released in 1975, it’s often compared to "American Graffiti," albeit with more grit and a dose of hard reality. Screenwriter Eric Monte would go on to create the ABC series "What’s Happening!!" (based on this film) and co-create the CBS series "Good Times."

COTTON COMES TO HARLEM (Pluto and Tubi) Before "Blaxploitation" was even a term, Ossie Davis directed and co-wrote this 1970 comedy about a con man (Calvin Lockhart) who gets mixed up in an unlikely hunt for a lost bale of cotton. Shot for a reported $1.2 million, the film earned nearly five times that on its release, surely raising a few studios’ eyebrows. The film also stars Redd Foxx, presciently cast as a junk scavenger.

DOLEMITE (Tubi) Rudy Ray Moore, a Los Angeles-based comedian-singer, turned his raunchy persona into a Kung-Fu action hero for this legendarily gonzo 1975 comedy. Moore really did become a hero, too, for countless rappers (including Big Daddy Kane and Snoop Dogg) and for Roosevelt-raised comedy star Eddie Murphy, who played him in the superb 2019 biopic "Dolemite Is My Name."

TRUCK TURNER (Pluto)

Following the success of his musical score for "Shaft," composer Isaac Hayes stepped in front of the camera as the title character in this 1974 action flick about a former football pro who becomes a bounty hunter. Among the cast are Scatman Crothers, Dick Miller and a young Yaphet Kotto. The director is Jonathan Kaplan, who helped Jodie Foster win her first Oscar in 1988’s "The Accused."

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com