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Amazon.com: 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
Average Rating:
Rating: - weid movie
I only watch this movie because I love everything about the 70's, but this movie is not that good to me.
Rating: - The Quintessential Independent Blaxplotation Film Of All Time!!!
I know this film has been trashed by critics both black and white for its heavy content (i.e. stautory rape scene, and interracial sex scene), but this film was given an X rating. Melvin Van Peebles, who is highly regarded as the "Godfather of Modern Black Cinema" put everything he had on the line to get this film made, despite the Supreme Court, death threats. Bill Cosby even co-financed the film.
Ten years ago, I purchased "Sweetback" on VHS, and I was completely, blown away by this controversial, yet revolutinary, independent Black film. Bottom Line: If it weren't for Melvin Van Peebles raising the bar in filmmaking, there would be no Spike Lee or John Singleton.
Rating: - Umm...what can I say?
Ahh..., I don't know why this movie was ever made. It perpetuates the whole stereotype of "The Man," yet offers no solution or remedy. I applaude Mr. Melvin Van Peebles right to free speech and expression, but that's about it.
Rating: - Well.....
I think the first scene could have been left out; by today's legal standards, someone would go to jail in a heartbeat. By the 1995 law, this would be a felonious offense. It should be cut completely out of the movie as a consequence.
However, the rest of the themes in the movie were reflective of their times, albeit offensive to some communities. It was a landmark film that pushed the envelope.
I would just say.....clip the first scene completely and leave the rest intact.
Rating: - A Sign of the 70's?
Let's face it, if it weren't for the opening sequence of the film where the director, Melvin Peebles, showed his 12 year old son having sex with an adult woman, this movie probably wouldn't have received any publicity.
The movie follows Sweetback's life from that first encounter through his adult life. All the while Sweetback (adult character played by the director) is running from the police and having sex in front of other people in the film.
I didn't find this film overly entertaining. The quality of the film was choppy and the sound wasn't great at all. The film seemed to throw in whatever politically incorrect visuals it could; cops beating people, young boy having intercourse with adult woman, exhibitionism, and something that appeared to be the selling of the lead character towards the beginning of the film. Maybe I miss understood.
I actually found the DVD extras more entertaining than the movie, especially the interview with Melvin Peebles. Again, maybe this was a picture for the sign of the times....in the 70's. I'm not sure I could recommend buying this movie, although I didn't hate it. It was just something to see for me. If you can find it at a low price, go ahead...you've come this far already.
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