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Sweet Sweetback's
Baadasssss Song (1971)
Rate:
9
Viewed:
6/17
6/17:
The title, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, may look strange to you, but it has an enormous reputation as a landmark
picture in black cinema history.
Hence, the tagline reads: "This is the movie the Man doesn't want you to see. Rated X by an all-white jury!" It's not the
first black film made but is, along with Shaft, credited with the creation of the
Blaxploitation genre that lasted through the 70's.
Shot on a $150,000 budget in nineteen days and released through two theatres in Detroit and Atlanta, the seminal
picture broke box-office records and made a total sum of fifteen million dollars. It was a watershed moment in black
cinema, causing the Hollywood studios to green-light the now well-known pictures of the genre such as
Super Fly, The Mack,
Black Caesar, and Coffy which were made by black filmmakers starring an all-black cast that's primarily
for black viewers.
Melvin Van Peebles wrote, produced, scored, edited, directed, and starred in Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.
More of an arthouse film than anything else, it's The Birth of a Nation of
black cinema with supplied music from Earth, Wind & Fire which became big afterwards. The beginning says, "This film
is dedicated to all the brothers and sisters who had enough of the Man." It's almost impossible for the modern viewers
to watch the film and think deeply about it, hence the nitpicking on the plot, dialogue, cinematography, and acting.
Melvin Van Peebles didn't care for most films hitherto that cast black thespians; hence, he decided to make his own to set
the record straight. In order to do it, he went guerilla and performed his job so unconventionally that he did his own
stunts and contracted gonorrhea as a result of one sex scene.
The theme is about racism, alienation, misery, persecution, police brutality, escape, and survival. At best, it's
surreal and, at worst, incomprehensible. The message was so effective that the film was a required viewing for all members of the
Black Panther Party, serving as a rallying call to justify the Black Power revolution. If the Academy Awards could be so
bold at that time, giving Melvin Van Peebles an Oscar nomination for Best Editing shouldn't be out of the question.
All in all, because of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Melvin Van Peebles proved that he could beat the White
Establishment at its game.