NOTES

1 The term co-optation signifies a strategy of appropriation that operates beyond a simple borrowing of tropes or homage. It incorporates a level of critique and response to the very things it cites. The term is used throughout this essay to draw attention to this level. Return to page 1 .

2 The character of Sweetback was a revolutionary figure on the screen. It was Hollywood's appropriation of Sweetback that corrupted the positive aspects of Van Peeples' creation. The repetitive militant figures in blaxploitation are still powerful figures of Black Power. However, Hollywood did not duplicate the figure of Sweetback to triumph Black Power, they duplicated him for economical gain and to silence his oppositional voice. Return to page 2 .

3 For a discussion of the connection between black female action stars and perceptions of animality see Yvonne Tasker's "Women Warriors: Gender, Sexuality and Hollywood's Fighting Heroines" in Spectacular Bodies: Gender, Genre and the Action Cinema. New York: Routledge, 1993. Return to page 3.

4 The casting of Yaphet Kotto as the villain in Live and Let Die brings up other intertextual links to blaxploitation. Kotto appeared in such blaxploitation films as Monkey Hustle and Across 110th Street. Return to page 4.