Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

source: Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

I saw this film on opening night in Philadelphia, Pa. The audience consisted of almost entirely young, Black men (mostly) and women who were obviously active in the civil rights movement,judging by the reactions of the men in the audience when Sweetback gave "the man" his definition of justice - beating the living crap out of them. His methods were quite original - especially with the pool cue. His sexual prowness was the main hit of the film for the ladies in the audience (I admit). The scene that really had me rooting for Sweetback was when he "popped" the white biker chick (in a most original manner) and she practically killed her biker boyfriend trying to join up with Sweetback in his quest. He merely cast her off like a used oilrag, which she was. Hilarious. There was a lot of anger among Black moviegoers at that time, which is why a lot of the blaxploitation films were successful. Our voices were heard loud and clear, especially in films, where our heroes were the victors against racist society and even more racist law enforcement, no matter how grisly, gruesome or violent the methods for dealing with them were. I had the pleasure of meeting Melvin Van Peebles at a screening and lecture of his work shortly after this film was made. His brilliance and genius were even more obvious as this man reflected on his determination to film, release and distribute this motion picture even though "white" America did everything they could to ban it, including slapping it with an "X" rating. I never understood the need for the "X" rating, as many of American-International's horror films were much more violent and graphic than this film (the "X" rating was not because of the sex)yet they were never banned or given that dreaded rating. I highly recommend this film to any student of filmmaking to view it not so much for the subject matter but to see the absolute genius in Mr. Van Peebles' work. Little money had he, but a lot of guts, brains and a wonderful and creative imagination made this film the success that it was.

THIS was the first of its genre and i was cast as the *white* deputy who found Sweetback in the woods toward the end of the picture. I felt privileged to be a part of this beginning. I believe it was showtime recently who did a retrospective on black films....it was weird to see what i looked like 30 or so years ago! lol

First, I must state that I love Mario Van Peeple's "Badass." It is a far better film than this joke of a movie. Mario gave this movie far, far more credit than it deserved. Horrible acting, dialogue, editing... Heck, everything was horrible. I would love to see this on Mystery Science Theater. This movie manages to insult just about everyone. Blacks, whites, hispanics, and women are not spared from some level of stupidity. This movie also proudly exploits children (Mario performing child *) and women (performing lots of *). The women in this movie are treated the same as they are in rap and metal videos. If this is Melvin's social statement, he doesn't think too highly of women. This movie may have started the blaxploition genre but that doesn't mean this was a good movie. This movie had such potential because Melvin was the first black filmmaker to attempt to address serious social issues but failed miserably. Mario's movie did a great job of addressing the social injustices of the time. In the end, this movie had no point. If this movie had been made by a white guy, it would have been called the most racist movie of all time.

...it takes just as long the other way around in this movie. I have a lot of respect for what this film represented to people in '71. And I celebrate what it did to pave the way for the ideals that changed this country and, I hope, are still changing it for the better. The black revolution in film, which I believe this must have been nearly the first of it's kind to be pretty widely distributed concerning the "brothers and sisters who had enough of the man," is to be honored. However, I found this film to be almost unwatchable. Almost. I can't help it. I was uneasy and twitchy the whole time. The 60'ish style of almost constant repetitive music, dialogue, and visual, made me feel like I was tripping out. And I assure you that I was not. I wanted to kick the skipping jukebox. I wanted to shout, "O.K.! I get it! Just get on with it ! FOR GOD'S SAKE LETS GO!!!" It takes some patience and sticktoitofness...but the message is clear and you'd better watch your back cracker... cuz he's coming for you!

Sweet sweetback's baadasssss song IMO should get an award as worst film ever made ,so Bad asssss it will make you physically sick, maybe the idea was to get stoned and then view it. Such films like ' "manos the hands of fate" in comparison seem classic.The films sound score contains a single song played monotonously throughout that doesn't make a soundtrack as for great camera work all vomit,the main character seems to always end up in meaningless orgies because of his sexual prowess but the scenes lack any imagination strictly missionary and aren't erotic, there's a meaningless chase scene which you cant really tell who he's running from.The film ends abruptly, the producer must have run out of money ,give a monkey a film camera and you'd end up with a better movie.I disliked this film because it seems devoid of developed characters and plot it felt as if the story was conceived as the filmed rolled. IF you want to watch a true blaxploitation classic I recommend "hitman."

1st watched 4/22/2001 - 8 out of 10 (Dir-Melvin Van Peebles): Important film for the black community because it portrays the realities of how in many places blacks were treated by whites. This had never been done before in the movies before Sweetback. Prior to this, Hollywood preferred portraying blacks as ok as long as they acted white(aka. Sidney Poitier), otherwise they were minor bit players or charicatures of how the white community saw blacks. The film is paced by the Director like a journey that we as the viewers are on as we follow Sweetback as he runs from the police and meets up with various friends, lovers etc.(not unlike a road picture) after he killed a couple of white cops who unfairly beat up a black brother. We become more interested in him than what he's running from and I believe that was the intent of the filmmaker. The movie is filled with unique styling and music that works with the movie, with chanting for the main character and motivation for him to keep on keeping on. To me this seems like Van Peebles pushing the black community to do the same. Well needed and deserved pats on the back should have been given by all people for this film to Van Peebles.

A powerful film whose impact is through a montage of images, music, and dialogue, alternating to disorient and reorient the viewer. It might be pretty confusing plot-wise (or perhaps it just doesn't have much of a plot) and the actors are mostly bad, but this film was well thought out and executed with a goal of excellence (something that can't be said for many films, underground or Hollywood). To boot, it is also entertaining and probably gave the exploitation crowd their money's worth in 1971 with some hardcore violence and softcore sex. Van Peebles created a unique experimental film that succeeds on its own terms. It is a classic for all time.

I had heard a lot about Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song over the years, but finally got to see it yesterday, 5-2-04. I have to say that I can see how it opened up a new genre..the Blaxploitation films. Whoa! It's powerful from the opening when we read about people in the black community oppressed by 'THE MAN' to the end when Sweetback escapes safely to Mexico (after killing hound dogs)! There is a lot of symbolism as well. Sweetback lapping water like a dog from the ground in the desert, having sex with an almost Amazon looking white woman till she has an * and calls his name 'Sweetback', Sweetback. Then she helps save him. One big question I was left with, A woman surrounded by a lot of children says she may have had a child once named Leroy. He was taken away by the state and she doesn't know what happened to him. Is Leroy, really Sweetback? After all the movie opens with a starving, mangy , dirty little boy (young Sweetback) wolfing down food in a brothel and watched by Prostitutes. They take him in and raise him. I take it as saying that the system fails black youth. The abuse by the white police was appalling, espceially when it came to searching for Sweetback. We hear the white police use the N-word liberally, and Black life is worthless. You can feel the anger of the oppressed black community in the film. The film may be considered rebellious but I think its a masterpiece. And obviously, Hollywood thought so because it started the era of Blaxploitation films.

SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAAD ASSSSS SONG has a reputation as a landmark film. Some hail it a masterpiece for depicting whites, and "The Man" as the oppressor. It is also called the first blaxploitation film (even though COTTON COMES TO HARLEM predates it). In spite of this reputation, few have actually seen it. The truth is that SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAAD ASSSSS SONG, in spite of the good intentions of its message, is poorly made pornographic trash. At the opening of the film we see an under-aged Sweetback have sex with a fat prostitute- and when I say we see it, I mean we SEE it. Not too much time goes by before we see grown up Sweetback (director Melvin Van Peebles) performing in a live sex show. The viewer is treated to a closeup of the star's member as he strips off a female disguise. Soon thereafter the "plot" starts. Our hero is arrested by the Oakland police. He witnesses them beating a young black man and kills them in his defense. The rest of the film is Sweetback running from the racist cops, sometimes stopping for graphic sex. The photography in this film is terrible. A number of scenes are shot at night without lighting, basically making the action invisible. There is very little dialogue and Sweetback almost never speaks. When people are talking, they are badly miked and their acting doesn't help matters. The chase scenes are done in psychedelic montage which is both ugly and confusing. There are a number of scenes where the cops are asking members of the black community (the film's real star) as to the whereabouts of Sweetback. These are taken from the cops POV and from how it looks, the filmmakers just approached random people on the street and asked them if they'd seen Sweetback. The editor somehow managed to cut off most of their answers. It's hard to tell what's going on half the time, since the camera work is so bad and the dialogue so hard to hear. At one point Sweetback winds up with some bikers. What's he do? He has a kind of sex-match with one of the female bikers. This scene features enough clumsy disolves to make you dizzy and enough genital shots to get the X rating for any ten movies. I can't tell why this mess is called such a great piece of work. It fails in every technical aspect, the "art" is bad even for an acid-head movie, and the story is nothing special. If anything, this movie hurts the cause of equality since it essentially depicts blacks as inhuman sex-addicted stereotypes. The whites are pretty much shown as monsters. This is the worst blaxploitation film I've ever seen and easily one of the hundred worst movies ever made. SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAAD ASSSSS SONG is no more than badly made violent * for the acid head. It's not a classic and it's not important.