Click to read the article
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:14
Fresh:11
Rotten:3
Average Rating:7/10
Runtime: 90 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Synopsis: Putting black cinema on the map and ushering in the legendary Blaxploitation genre of the 1970s, Melvin Van Peebles's SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG is a thrilling work of entertainment as well... Putting black cinema on the map and ushering in the legendary Blaxploitation genre of the 1970s, Melvin Van Peebles's SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG is a thrilling work of entertainment as well as a historically and ideologically significant essay on the issue of race. The film tells the story of Sweetback (Van Peebles), an apolitical black sex performer who becomes a reluctant picaresque hero when he kills the two white policemen who brutalized a young prisoner for racist reasons. On the run to Mexico, Sweetback encounters all manner of provocatively stereotypical characters, including a shower-capped ghetto thug who won't help him, a hypocritical Baptist preacher, and, of course, a host of women who can't get enough of his supercharged sexuality. Working overtime as producer, editor, and co-composer (along with Earth, Wind and Fire), Van Peebles delivers a work that is the true definition of an independent film. Incorporating striking cinematic techniques into his production--including split screens, freeze-frames, and use of film negatives--he single-handedly created a new cinematic genre, proving that true innovation comes from individual human spirit, not assembly-line studio efforts. [More]
Starring: Melvin Van Peebles, Rhetta Hughes, Simon Chuckster, John Amos
Starring: Melvin Van Peebles, Rhetta Hughes, Simon Chuckster, John Amos, Hubert Scales
Director: Melvin Van Peebles
Director: Melvin Van Peebles
Get This Movie
Reviews for Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
A landmark in Black filmmaking in the U.S., this angry, extravagant, loud, belligerent movie reaches a high pitch early on and stays there.
A shrewd and powerful mix of commercial ingredients and ideological intent.
Totally uncompromising and grindingly repetitive, the film nevertheless accumulates a kind of hallucinatory groove, with unexpected shafts of bizarre humour and vigorous, experimental new wave direction.
Even 30-odd years on, the picture still has more than a whiff of rebellion about it.
Melvin van Peebles' blaxploitation 'classic' still doesn't fare well by either artistic standards or simple good taste, but any student of the genre is well advised to check it out.
It is style, glamour, and even virtuosic direction (in the inclusive use of so many familiar techniques) that paves Sweetback’s value as a timepiece – its lasting, testimonial contribution is its position as the first of its kind.
a revolutionary movie not because it's about one man's defiance, but because it put front-and-center black issues that had never been dealt with before
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 45% 45% | Ice Age: Dawn of the D… |
| 19% 19% | Transformers: Revenge … |
| 55% 55% | Orphan |
| 43% 43% | The Proposal |
| 26% 26% | Land of the Lost |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 98% 98% | Up |
| 88% 88% | Ballast |
| 67% 67% | The Merry Gentleman |
RT On Current TV
DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
CloseSponsored Links
Around The Network
- Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song at Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh Links
Featured

Moviefone brings us 9 failed attempts at biographical films.

TIME reminisces on the 10 most iconic moments from the films of Cameron Crowe.

BuzzSugar wants to know which movies coming out this month you're most looking forward to.

The AV Club takes a look back at Hedwig and the Angry Inch.



Top Critic



