How much influence did blaxploitation have on todays African-American filmmakers?
O’Neal: I think that without us they wouldn’t be where they are now, and the wisest of them acknowledges that. When I came along there was only Sidney Poitier doing, you know, Lilies of the Field. Brown: Oscar Micheaux made movies with black casts way back in the ’20s and ’30s. So he is more of an influence today than anybody. Grier: The only influence and it’s very little is that today’s filmmakers appreciate the humor and energy of the films we did. Williamson: No influence at all. Zip. Zero. It’s like it never happened. What do you think of the recent crop of black action films like ”Dead Presidents”? Grier: They’ve come a long way from the films we did in the ’70s, when a lot of the budgets were under a million. A lot of films today are about victims, but most of the films then were about empowerment. That’s a big difference. Williamson: You would expect better quality, since you have bigger budgets, but I think some of the films we made in the ’70s were damn good. You look at th
