Quentin Tarantino’s love of exploitation films released in the 1970s is a big reason why the genre remains relevant to date. These films were produced on a low budget and portrayed the explicit themes of violence, sex, drug use, gore, horror, and mayhem, as filmmaking became more affordable for small-scale independent companies and individuals to produce. Tarantino pays homage to several of these films, even referencing most of them in his films' titles, like Jackie Brown, Django Unchained, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Over the years, the director has evolved into a spokesperson and patron of the genre, defending the films by their artistic quality and impact on film culture. Tarantino’s filmography can be considered a work of pastiche of these 10 exploitation films.
10 Foxy Brown
Tarantino’s third film, Jackie Brown,pays tribute to blaxploitation films, including Foxy Brown. The title is a direct inspiration from the movie, and it also borrows the font used on the film’s posters from the film. The lead actress of both films is Pam Grier, considered one of the first female action stars in film. In Foxy Brown, Grier plays thetitular character seeking revenge for her lover’s death. Her brother Link exposes the identity of an undercover cop dating Foxy. After the cop is killed, Foxy poses as a sex worker and seeks help from her black panther friends to track down the criminals who took her partner’s life. The film blended the aesthetic of blaxploitation films centered around criminal activities within urban black neighborhoods with Tarantino’s visual style, creating a hybrid experience. Jackie Brown was adapted from the novel Rum Punch, making it the only work of adaptation by the director.
9 Coffy
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Coffyis another blaxploitation inspiration that led to Jackie Brown. The film also stars Pam Grier in the lead role as the titular character goes after drug peddlers and pimps, avenging her sister’s addiction. Coffy works as a nurse and is aware of addiction, but things get personal when her sister is addicted to heroin. She poses as a prostitute and uses her ruse to kill street criminals first, eventually facing the crime lords. Unexpected circumstances rock Coffy as she discovers her boyfriend is also involved in the dirty works. The film is known for its strong female lead who dabbled in action and social commentary, which was rare for women of color at the time. However, the representation wasmore sober in Jackie Brown, as the titular character played by Grier is held by agents for smuggling money from her crime boss as she schemes to dupe everyone and run away with it.
8 Lady Snowblood
The character of the Bride, played by Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, was inspired by the character of Yuki Kashima from the Japanese revenge thriller Lady Snowblood. The film was based on the manga series of the same name and was directed by Toshiya Fujita. The film is told in a non-linear structure as it follows the tragic story of Yuki, whose family was destroyed by three men. Her mother was raped, her father and brother were killed, and she was trained to execute the perfect revenge on the perpetrators that ruined her family. Kill Bill follows a similar premise where a female assassin goes after the lives of a team of assassins who tried to kill her and her unborn child at her wedding. The director used an animation sequence to establish the backstory of the film’s villain O-Ren Ishi, inspired by the arc of Yuki in Lady Snowblood.
7 The Game of Death
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The Bride’s iconic outfit in Kill Billreferences Bruce Lee’s jumpsuit in his last film, The Game of Death. The Bride travels to Japan in the suit as she gears up to fight the assassin, played by Lucy Liu and her murderous gang, the Crazy 88. Thurman also wears the Onitsuka Tiger sneakers as she rides her motorcycle, and wears it throughout the final act. Apart from the costume, the film also replicates the trope of the arcade movie genre, where the protagonist climbs higher floors of a building as she fights assassins who get more dangerous as she goes higher. The trope was popularized by The Game of Death, where Bruce Lee seeks revenge on the gangsters who tried to kill him by ascending the tower while fighting his opponents. Unfortunately, the legendary actor died during the making of the film.
6 They Call Her One Eye
The character of Elle Driver from Kill Bill was based on the character of Madeline from the Swedish rape-revenge, They Call Her One Eye. Madeline is sexually abused as a child, making her mute. She is kidnapped by a pimp and forced into heroin addiction and prostitution, losing her eye when she refuses to oblige. She secretly plans to take revenge on the men who hurt her and takes lessons in driving, shooting, and martial arts. In Kill Bill Vol.1 and Kill Bill Vol.2, Daryl HannahplaysElle Driver, a member of the assassin group Deadly Viper and the Bride’s fourth target. Hannah also has one eye, which was inspired by Madeline, but she loses her remaining eye as well in an epic fighting scene with the Bride in a trailer.
5 Once Upon a Time in the West
Once Upon a Time in the Westis a spaghetti western that popularized the genre in the late 1960s. These films were Italian productions and sometimes were co-produced with the United States. They set in the American west with characters such as cowboys, gunslingers, and bounty hunters who wandered around the dust, ranches, or excluded barren lands and often fought with another group of armed men. Once Upon a Time in the West establishes these tropes where a rail baron, his henchman, the landowner, a bandit, a gunslinger, and his wife arrive at the Flagstone with an agenda.
The trope is seen in Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight,but is instead set in the snow capped town of Red Rock in post-Civil War Wyoming. Kurt Russell plays a bounty hunter named John Ruth, who arrives with his prisoner. He meets another man who claims to be a Sheriff. They enter a shelter to protect themselves from the blizzard but are interrupted by other strangers who do not share peaceful intentions. The film retains the trope of outlaws secluded in an isolated space where bloodshed is inevitable. One can also observe that the film’s title inspired the director’s ninth film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
4 Mandingo
According to Tarantino, the historical melodrama Mandingohas been one of the few instances where exploitation films got the attention of major studios. Exploitation films are mostly low-budget films, and films like Mandingo and Showgirls were pivotal in popularizing the genre in the mainstream. The film dealt with the love story between a plantation owner and an enslaved person in Louisiana and was negatively received by critics. The film’s sensitive themes and visually provocative style of exploitation films grew in prominence much later. Nevertheless, Tarantino incorporated the themes of slavery from Mandingo in Django Unchained and evenused the term Mandingo fights, referring to the film in a scene where the men fight for their owner’s entertainment.
3 Django
Django Unchained combines the exploitative themes of the spaghetti western Djangowith the backdrop of slavery from Mandingo. The film can be considered a collage of the two films in style, plot and visualization. Django was released in 1966 and starred Franco Nero as Django as he rides across the border between Mexican bandits and the Ku Klux Klan. Tarantino’s film retains the adventurous elements of the film as Jamie Foxx plays an enslaved person named Django who accompanies a German bounty hunter across the South to reunite with his wife held captive as an enslaved person.
Franco joins Django Unchained for a cameo appearance as Amerigo Vessepi, who owns a Mandingo enslaved person. The film also uses the title song of Django in the end credits. The inspiration for the infamous ear-cutting scene in Reservoir Dogs also comes from Django, where the character Hugo cuts off Brother Jonathan’s ear.
2 Shaft
The path-breaking blaxploitation film Shaft was pivotal in Black representation in American cinema. The film was produced by the financially struggling MGM at the time and helped revive the company and popularized the genre along with Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasss Songs. The film follows the debonair black detective, Shaft, aiding a Harlem crime lord in rescuing his kidnapped daughter. Several tropes seen in the film, including prostitution, gangster violence, hot-blooded female characters, and inner-city crime, were seen in future blaxploitation films, including Foxy Brown and Coffy. Tarantino added that the character of Broomhilda von Shaft and Django Freeman from Django Unchained were conceptualized as great-great-great-great grandparents of Shaft.
1 Switchblade Sisters
Tarantino re-released the Switchblade Sisters under his label Rolling Thunder Pictures, for it had a profound impression on him. The film shares the assortments of stylistic violence, and outrageous sense of humor that is typical of his filmography. The film stars a girl gang named Dagger Debs, led by Lace, who is threatened by the newest member of the group, Maggie. To add to her sour feelings towards Maggie, Lace’s boyfriend develops feelings for her new enemy. She tries to keep the gang and her boyfriend under control, but a rival gang creates more trouble.
The film was considered a product of its time until Tarantino resurrected it from its tiny shelf-life as one of his most inspiring exploitation films. He even cast one of the film’s stuntpeople in Kill Bill: Volume 2.
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