Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)

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. June 3, 2008

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.

February 28, 2008

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. February 23, 2008

Good movie

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.

July 16, 2007

And so it begins.....

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.
April 20, 2007

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