Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

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Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

R

1971

1h 37m

Crime

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

73%

Tomatometer

30 Reviews

47%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

Sweet Sweetback (Melvin Van Peebles) is a black orphan who, having grown up in a brothel, now works there as part of a sex show. When the police need a patsy for a murder in the black community, Sweetback's employer gives him up to two white cops, whom Sweetback ends up killing. Suddenly the target of a massive manhunt, he decides to flee to Mexico. As he makes his way there, he is captured by, and escapes from, both the cops and a chapter of the Hell's Angels.

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Penelope Gilliatt

The New Yorker

01/29/2024

Impossible, haughty, not likable, but sometimes rather admirable in its context.

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Gary Arnold

Washington Post

01/29/2024

People who believe that all that smoke must indicate one hell of a fiery movie might be rather dismayed by the movie itself.

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Richard Brody

The New Yorker

01/31/2022

For all its horror, the film has an exuberant, hedonistic excitement (including a sexual showdown in a Hell's Angels den); Sweetback's spirit of outrage and revolt gives rise to bitter, exasperated ironies.

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Brian Susbielles

InSession Film

02/28/2023

Van Peebles' third film was a nuclear bomb.

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Sean Axmaker

Stream on Demand

03/12/2022

The unusual mix of agitprop and exploitation is directed in a jagged style that recalls what Jean-Luc Godard was doing in France and set to a funky score performed by Earth, Wind, and Fire...

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Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

07/06/2021

Farr more overtly political and experimental than anything subsequently bracketed in that ["Blaxploitation"] genre.

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Jazmine G

@jazminegonza 3d

I thought this film did a great job displaying how there could be power dynamics between white and black people. Two white policemen committed homicide yet they wanted a black person to take the fall for them. They basically utilized their superiority as a white person to shift the blame onto someone they view beneath and inferior to them simply because they had the power to do so. The white policemen didn’t care if black people got hurt as long as their reputation and standing didn’t get tarnished. In addition, I thought the film was very repetitive as it felt like I was watching the police go on a wild goose chase trying to capture Sweetback for thirty minutes. I understood that Sweetback was on the run, but I didn’t need to watch the same thing happen over and over again because it lost my attention.

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Wendi F

@wendydj Dec 18

I think this film depicts themes of racis and institution in an original way. I didnt love it or hate it

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Bnk 3

@TylerSalazar Dec 18

This film is two words Raw and Revolutionary for its time. The legendary cult film broke filming rules when it came to politics and style. The film felt a little documentary following a man on the run, exposing police violence and racism. The film was deeply influential with its power of influence coming from energy and resistance rather than its actual plot. great experience for first timers.

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Leandro O

Dec 17

It's a very gritty movie with a powerful meaning behind it. I was really confused at a first watch, but looking back, I understand what the movie was trying to tell, what message it was portraying. It portrays how police and people of authority treated people of color. And the gritty-ness behind it just shows how disturbing and difficult life becomes facing that type of authority.

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Jennifer D

@jen.d Dec 17

Its a film that brings attention to racism and authority. Its a film that really made a landmark in the black community.

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Britt P

@Brittbritt21 Dec 17

This movie is crazy and intense. Sweetback is always on the run, and it’s kind of messy but really powerful and revolutionary for its time.

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Melvin Van Peebles

Director

Melvin Van Peebles

Sweetback

Simon Chuckster

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Hubert Scales

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Synopsis

Sweet Sweetback (Melvin Van Peebles) is a black orphan who, having grown up in a brothel, now works there as part of a sex show. When the police need a patsy for a murder in the black community, Sweetback's employer gives him up to two white cops, whom Sweetback ends up killing. Suddenly the target of a massive manhunt, he decides to flee to Mexico. As he makes his way there, he is captured by, and escapes from, both the cops and a chapter of the Hell's Angels.

Director: Melvin Van Peebles
Producer: Jerry Gross, Melvin Van Peebles
Screenwriter: Melvin Van Peebles
Distributor: Direct Cinema Limited, Image Entertainment Inc., New World Pictures, Criterion Collection
Production Co: Yeah
Rating: R
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 23, 1971, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 17, 2020
Runtime: 1h 37m
Sound Mix: Mono

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