Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song DVD

In Melvin Van Peebles's SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG, a black sex performer becomes a reluctant hero when he kills the two white cops who brutalized a young prisoner for racist reasons. Heading south of the border, he runs into plenty of quirky 1970s stock characters.

Putting black cinema on the map and ushering in the legendary Blaxploitation genre of the 1970s, Melvin Van Peebles's SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG is a thrilling work of entertainment as well as a historically and ideologically significant essay on the issue of race. The film tells the story of Sweetback (Van Peebles), an apolitical black sex performer who becomes a reluctant picaresque hero when he kills the two white policemen who brutalized a young prisoner for racist reasons. On the run to Mexico, Sweetback encounters all manner of provocatively stereotypical characters, including a shower-capped ghetto thug who won't help him, a hypocritical Baptist preacher, and, of course, a host of women who can't get enough of his supercharged sexuality. Working overtime as producer, editor, and co-composer (along with Earth, Wind and Fire), Van Peebles delivers a work that is the true definition of an independent film. Incorporating striking cinematic techniques into his production--including split screens, freeze-frames, and use of film negatives--he single-handedly created a new cinematic genre, proving that true innovation comes from individual human spirit, not assembly-line studio efforts.

Theatrical release: April 23, 1971 Melvin's son Mario makes a ubiquitous screen debut as the young Sweetback. Mario would go on to direct 2003's BAADASSSSS!, in which he recreated the event's surrounding SWEETBACK's production and stepped into the shoes of his legendary father. When Van Peebles realized that no studio would support his controversial vision, he turned to several notable black celebrities to help him finance the picture (including Bill Cosby). The film is dedicated to "Brothers and sisters who have had enough of the Man."

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song Reviews:

"...This is still endlessly fascinating, thanks to its circuit busting level of rage..." -- Mike Clark, USA Today

"[The film] inspired the genre....[Van Peebles] wrote, directed, produced, cast, financed, edited and starred, as well as decorating the sets and composing the soundtrack." -- Damien Love, Uncut

"[T]he film's political fury is complemented by a loose, funky soundtrack from Earth Wind & Fire, and a ragged, mercurial visual aesthetic..." -- Matthew Leyland, Sight and Sound

This is the only Simon Chuckster video. Stars also making their debut in this video: Rhetta Hughes, Hubert Scales.

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