Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

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Raw, jagged, and explosively angry, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is a landmark in American independent cinema. Melvin Van Peebles directed, wrote, produced, edited, scored, and stars as Sweetback, a passive bouncer raised in a brothel. Shot guerrilla style on a starvation budget on the streets of Los Angeles, it's a violent tale of Sweetback's journey from passive acceptance to political awareness and active defiance. He becomes the target of a manhunt when he kills two cops who beat up a young black activist, and he bounces from hideout to hideout before running for the border, all the while getting more booty than Shaft and Superfly put together. The movie was so inflammatory by conservative industry standards that it was "Rated X by an All White Jury," which the ads proudly touted. The unusual mix of agitprop and exploitation is directed in a jagged style that recalls Godard and set to a funky score performed by Earth, Wind & Fire, which Van Peebles intercuts with chanting Greek chorus-like slogans. Released independently, it was a huge hit and effectively spawned the blaxploitation genre, but none of the films that followed ever recaptured the energy, the anger, and the social politics of this breakthrough in independent cinema. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Good movie.......2007-07-17

One of the better 1970s action movies. Lots of nudity and bad language. Overall, I liked it but there could of been more plot development. Random things like the biker scenes happened during the film.

And so it begins............2007-04-21

This movie might be unreal for some but blaxploitation was born due to the help of "the Black Community" who were all tired of the "Man" holding them down.I sat down to watch "Sweet Sweetback" for the first time last night and was almost lost for a moment. The opening sequence, bordering on child pornography, would never slip by the protestors of today. Yet, in 1971, this movie made its debut in (according to the box) two theatres and endured a torrent of negative reviews before going on to gross $10,000,000. Go figure.

The movie breaks down like this -- Sweet Sweetback is a lover-extraordinaire (he nails just about every female in the film) that rises up against two white cops and beats them down while they are picking on a local militant leader. From here we watch Sweetback run... and run... and run... and run... and run... and run... and run, trying to make his way to Mexico before he gets caught. Along the way, Sweetback encounters various people that matter little to the story but are just there for the hell of it, it seems. Dialogue is sparse throughout most of the film -- how much time is there to talk when you're setting the world's record for the most profitable cross-country video on the market? -- making the story hard to follow unless you've merely dismissed it as a dude running from the long-arm of the law.

I rate this film 5 stars without even a second thought on the matter. "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song," although giving birth to the blaxploitation genre, has to be one of the most horrible films to endure by any one person. This movie is politically motivated, but is not political. The oppressive whites in the film are caricatures (and most, incidentally, are in the police); they torture Sweetback's allies for clues, threaten with guns, and are racially motivated. Sweetback's incriminating action -- murder -- is justified in this haughty racial context. Finally, 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.

One Man's Unvarnished Truth as he Sees it.......2007-02-18

Shoddy amatuerish moviemaking combined with appalling morals. Unapologetically and even brazenly rascist and misogynist. Pimping his own child is just sleazy, sick and criminal. I'm all for having an open mind but appreciating this movie would require a lobotomy. Van Peebles does deserve a couple of stars for honesty, no matter how misguided he may have been.

The best, most artistic blaxploitation film ever made..........2006-12-21

I've always liked this film. The plot is extremely simple. A black stud gets taken downtown, but they pick up a black activist along the way. Sweetback beats the crap out of the cops, then runs to Mexico. This film is remarkable in that it has a feel of a French New Wave film. Van Peebles had lived in Paris in the 1960's, and the influence of that country's films rubbed off of him here (which is a good thing). With jump cuts, double exposures, and various other visual tricks, Van Peebles made the most artistic blaxploitation film ever made. The fact that it doesn't seem concerned with plot either (many European films don't have as much plotting as American ones do) gives it an even more European feel to it. But the situation is strictly American. I love the soundtrack too. Van Peebles wrote the music, but it's performed by Earth, Wind, and Fire. I do feel that the slogan "rated X by an all white jury" is a bit silly. As another reviewer pointed out, Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, Peckinpah's Straw Dogs, and Scheslinger's Midnight Cowboy all got tagged with an X rating around this time, so it was a tad ridiculous. No doubt the tag line helped sell a lot more tickets. I admit I smiled when I saw that on the cover of the film, but then realised that it's really just a gimmick. Regardless, this is a very good film, provocative, visually exciting, and memorable.

What do you get when The Fugitive meets Dolomite = This Movie .......2006-11-01

If you can't appreciate someone else's extreme views don't watch it and shut up about it. Its not the plague it's a movie. People are all up in arms about it. Shut Up and get over it.

Now if I was to go off about how stupid I thought a movie like The Tenant is then it would be a big uproar against my review. Oh wait I already wrote that and plenty people disagree that it didn't deserve the zero stars I wanted to give it. A matter of fact it needs infinity negative stars. Thats not my type of movie or what I thought it might be. But thats my opinion.

This movie was made and played out the way Mr. Peebles wanted it. Get over it. It's his movie he can do what he wants with it. It is a movie like none other I have seen but certain aspects are similar to the other black explotation genre. Sticking it to the man basically.

I read too many negative reviews for this movie. It was time someone real spoke up and said it's great and you need to check it out if you are into these types of films. If you are not just go watch soemthing else.

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