From Eddie Murphy in Top Comedic Form to O.J. Simpson Uncovered: 10 Essential Movies for Black History Month

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo:Everett; Paramount Pictures/Everett; Courtesy of ESPN Films

Everett; Paramount Pictures/Everett; Courtesy of ESPN Films

In honor ofBlack History Month, check out these movies, both educational and insightful.From Spike Lee’s 1992 dramaMalcolm Xto Jordan Peele’s horror hitGet Out, this list offers a range of genres and titles recent and retro.Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

In honor ofBlack History Month, check out these movies, both educational and insightful.

From Spike Lee’s 1992 dramaMalcolm Xto Jordan Peele’s horror hitGet Out, this list offers a range of genres and titles recent and retro.

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

01of 10Black Orpheus (aka Orfeu Negro), 1959Marpessa Dawn and Breno Mello in Black Orpheus.EverettA romantic tragedy,Black Orpheusadapts the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, switching settings from ancient Thrace to Rio de Janeiro.Young lovers Orfeu and Eurydice dash through the favelas during Carnival to escape a hitman dressed like Death and also Orfeu’s scored fiancée. The impressionistic update sees the protagonists go back and forth from moments of ethereal fantasy to stark reality — but some critics have taken issue with how the film exoticizes Brazilian poverty and reinforces racial stereotypes.Nonetheless,Black Orpheuswon the 1959 Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or and the 1960 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. And it introduced the world to the sound of bossa nova and the genre’s pioneers Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

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Black Orpheus (aka Orfeu Negro), 1959

Marpessa Dawn and Breno Mello in Black Orpheus.Everett

Everett

A romantic tragedy,Black Orpheusadapts the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, switching settings from ancient Thrace to Rio de Janeiro.

Young lovers Orfeu and Eurydice dash through the favelas during Carnival to escape a hitman dressed like Death and also Orfeu’s scored fiancée. The impressionistic update sees the protagonists go back and forth from moments of ethereal fantasy to stark reality — but some critics have taken issue with how the film exoticizes Brazilian poverty and reinforces racial stereotypes.

Nonetheless,Black Orpheuswon the 1959 Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or and the 1960 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. And it introduced the world to the sound of bossa nova and the genre’s pioneers Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

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The Learning Tree, 1969

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Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, 1971

Melvin Van Peebles (center) in Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.Mary Evans/YEAH/Ronald Grant/Everett

Mary Evans/YEAH/Ronald Grant/Everett

Van Peebles filmed it over 19 days while starring in the titular role, performing all his own stunts and sex scenes — some of them not acted. Despite its X rating, the moviewent on to make $15.2 million at the box office and launch the Blaxploitation genre as well as film marketing via soundtrack.Sweetback’s came courtesy of a largely unknown funk group namedEarth, Wind & Fire.

04of 10Beverly Hills Cop, 1984Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop.Paramount Pictures/Courtesy Everett CollectionEddie Murphyshines as a flashy Detroit cop who treks to Los Angeles to solve the murder of a childhood friend. The film, a high-water mark for the buddy-cop genre, proved to be an immediate blockbuster (topping the box office that year) and made an international superstar out of Murphy, still in his early 20s and not far removed from his stint onSaturday Night Live.It was also a hit withEntertainment Weekly(which, in 2009 declaredBeverly Hills Copthethird best comedy filmof the previous 25 years) and with the estimable poet Kingsley Amis, who pronounced the film “a flawless masterpiece.”

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Beverly Hills Cop, 1984

Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop.Paramount Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

Paramount Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

Eddie Murphyshines as a flashy Detroit cop who treks to Los Angeles to solve the murder of a childhood friend. The film, a high-water mark for the buddy-cop genre, proved to be an immediate blockbuster (topping the box office that year) and made an international superstar out of Murphy, still in his early 20s and not far removed from his stint onSaturday Night Live.

It was also a hit withEntertainment Weekly(which, in 2009 declaredBeverly Hills Copthethird best comedy filmof the previous 25 years) and with the estimable poet Kingsley Amis, who pronounced the film “a flawless masterpiece.”

05of 10Hollywood Shuffle, 1987Robert Townsend (center) in Hollywood Shuffle.Samuel Goldwyn/courtesy EverettComedian Robert Townsend maxed out his credit cards to makeHollywood Shuffle, the story of an aspiring actor’s fight to make it in an industry that defaults to racial typecasting.Townsend co-wrote the script with Keenen Ivory Wayans, who poured his own early experiences with rejection in Hollywood into the story. But it’s Townsend’s wild imagination that’s responsible for the film’s fantastical asides, which are meant to send up the stereotypical roles Black actors are forced to play (the slave, the pimp). Which is to say: The film just gets more relevant with time.Hollywood Shuffledidn’t just prove to be a box office success ($5.2 million on a $100,000 budget) that established Wayans as a comedy producing powerhouse (and also introduced the world to his brother, Damon). It announced Townsend as a force to be reckoned with in the industry. In fact, his very next project was directing the seminal Eddie Murphy stand-up special,Raw.

05of 10

Hollywood Shuffle, 1987

Robert Townsend (center) in Hollywood Shuffle.Samuel Goldwyn/courtesy Everett

Samuel Goldwyn/courtesy Everett

Comedian Robert Townsend maxed out his credit cards to makeHollywood Shuffle, the story of an aspiring actor’s fight to make it in an industry that defaults to racial typecasting.

Townsend co-wrote the script with Keenen Ivory Wayans, who poured his own early experiences with rejection in Hollywood into the story. But it’s Townsend’s wild imagination that’s responsible for the film’s fantastical asides, which are meant to send up the stereotypical roles Black actors are forced to play (the slave, the pimp). Which is to say: The film just gets more relevant with time.

Hollywood Shuffledidn’t just prove to be a box office success ($5.2 million on a $100,000 budget) that established Wayans as a comedy producing powerhouse (and also introduced the world to his brother, Damon). It announced Townsend as a force to be reckoned with in the industry. In fact, his very next project was directing the seminal Eddie Murphy stand-up special,Raw.

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Boomerang, 1992

Eddie Murphy in Boomerang.Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock

Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock

Eddie Murphy stars as a smooth ad executive who never met a woman he couldn’t seduce. Martin Lawrence and David Allen Grier are his partners in crime. Robin Givens is the ultimate prize, andHalle Berryis her best friend. If that isn’t a laughable formula, even more comic relief comes from Grace Jones (the sex-crazed supermodel), Eartha Kitt (a late-stage cosmetics mogul with her own formidable sexual appetite) and a young Chris Rock (the mail guy who wants in). There’s just as much star power on the film’s top-selling soundtrack — which features songs from Jones, Toni Braxton and TLC.

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Malcom X, 1992

Denzel Washington as Malcolm X.Everett

In perhaps the finest Spike Lee joint,Denzel Washingtonfully embodies the controversial brother-minister — to the point where it doesn’t even seem like he’s acting at times.

“There’s one scene where you see Al Freeman Jr. as Honorable Elijah Muhammad behind him,” Lee said. “And so, we’re looking at this — Denzel is talking. I’m next to my great cameraman, Ernest Dickerson. And we’re shooting film. So, there’s only 10 minutes in a roll of film. We were shooting 35 millimeter. So Denzel is going. I’m turning a page. He’s killing it, killing it, killing it. And Ernest is telling me, ‘Spike, we’re about to roll out.’ And then I see that — I’m reading the script, and this is where the scene is supposed to end, and he keeps going. And the stuff — we were all mesmerized. And finally, Ernest said, ‘We rolled out.’ So I went over to Denzel, and his eyes were glazed over. His eyes were glazed over. Anybody who was there, we saw the spirit of Malcolm. The spirit of Malcolm came over Denzel.”

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O.J.: Made in America, 2016

O.J. Simpson in O.J.: Made in America.Courtesy of ESPN Films

Courtesy of ESPN Films

Some might scoff at the thought of watching a docuseries that stretches on for nearly eight hours, butO.J.: Made in Americamore than justifies its runtime.

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Get Out, 2017

In a stunning authorial debut, funnyman Jordan Peele wrote and directed this psychological thriller, about an interracial couple whose relationship is tested when the White girlfriend (Allison Williams) takes her Black boyfriend (Daniel Kaluuya) home to meet her parents. The drama that follows launched a thousand memes and meditations on modern race relations in the post-Obama era, while announcing Peele (who won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, one of the film’s four nominations) as a serious creator.

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Black Panther, 2018

Lupita Nyong’o (left), Chadwick Boseman and Danai Gurira in Black Panther.Marvel/Disney/Kobal/Shutterstock

Marvel/Disney/Kobal/Shutterstock

Black Pantherwas such an important film for the culture. It didn’t just showcase Black excellence in its full splendor, it disproved the idea that films with Black leads wouldn’t translate with global audiences on the way to becoming the ninth-highest grossing film all-time, earning $1.3 billion at the box office.

The Marvel Studios production, which sees African prince (Chadwick Boseman) grapple with a powerful infiltrator (Michael B. Jordan) determined to turn the world upside down, is the notable comic book fantasy that engages with a bigger idea — in this case, Black American identity and its relationship to Africa.

source: people.com