Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 15
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 4
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 2
liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 3,235
Movie Info
Produced, directed, written, scored by, and starring Melvin Van Peebles, this landmark "blaxploitation" film was as controversial as it was popular for its then X-rated story of one African-American man's triumph over the Man. After beating a couple of white cops he witnessed brutalizing a local black revolutionary, sex show performer Sweetback (Van Peebles) has to go on the run. As he flees through decrepit South Central Los Angeles, Sweetback demonstrates his formidable potency through sex as
Jan 1, 1971 Wide
Jan 14, 2003
Xenon
Cast
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Melvin Van Peebles
Sweetback -
Simon Chuckster
Beetle -
Hubert Scales
Mu-Mu -
John Dullaghan
Commissioner -
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Rhetta Hughes
Old Girl Friend -
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All Critics (17) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (11) | Rotten (4) | DVD (2)
The first black director to break into commercial cinema, Van Peebles obviously feels deeply about black oppression. But he has chosen, paradoxically, to make the kinds of unrealistic films for which blacks have justly criticized white film-makers.
Top CriticA 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.
Instead of dramatizing injustice, Van Peebles merchandizes it.
A landmark in Black filmmaking in the U.S., this angry, extravagant, loud, belligerent movie reaches a high pitch early on and stays there.
Even 30-odd years on, the picture still has more than a whiff of rebellion about it.
"Song" broke ground for minorities, not for filmmaking
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
Audience Reviews for Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
Super Reviewer
For instance, he performed all his own stunts so, for one scene, he jumped off a bridge a total of 9 times. He also performed numerous sex scenes himself, contracting gonorrhea, applying for worker's comp, and using the money to help him complete the funding of the film.
This was one of the most important films that inspired the later films of the blaxploitation era. Incredibly innovative and creative for its time. It has some of the obvious drawbacks of a film made on a half a million dollar budget but much less than you'd expect for such low-budget film.
All the more so, considering Melvin van Peebles himself wrote, scored, directed, edited, and starred in the film.
Super Reviewer
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Latest News on Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
January 24, 2010:
Life Is Still Sweet for Melvin Van PeeblesNearly 40 years after he brought "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" to the screen, 77-year-old...
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Movie: ID: 358133681 Title: Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song Release Date: 1971-01-01 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song (DE)
- Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song (UK)
When I say it's a mess though, I'm not kidding. Some of this is hard to watch, and at times, I had no idea what the hell was going on. I appreciate the techniques being used though, as they add to the tension and the experience of being chased, but I think that they could have done a better job of editing, and toned down the experimental stuff.
This is a landmark film, and for a lot of reasons. It is often cited as the first Blaxploitation film, and, along with Shaft, and Super Fly, remains one of the highlights of that genre. It's also an important film for African American in general (and African American films and filmaking specifically), and is also a fine example of super low-budget independent guerrilla filmmaking. It's not without it's controversies (and for good reasons), but it's an important film that needs to be seen regardless, especially for those interested in film history and blaxploitation films.
This is a wild, rough, and crazy mess, but it's also very interesting, entertaining, and just something where it's better to see it than to be talked to about.