Review of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) by Anna B — 02 Jun 2004

A pivitol film which spawned the short-lived Blaxploitation era in film, Melvin Van Peebles wrote, directed, produced, edited and composed this film. Originally rated X, there is significant violence and sex in this film, however, looking past these taboos, Sweetback is a reflection of reality in the 1970s.

The opening scene disturbed many and without revealing what it is exactly that disturbed people, anytime you see something like that on film, the mainstream audience especially is going to react with horror.

But man, does it draw you into the film! If you want to compare this film to others as far as storyline, this is one of the few out there where the plot does not center around the protagonist trying to get the white man to stop pushing drugs in his neighborhood.

You will find with Blaxploitation that it reduced itself to this consistent storyline. The only thing that changed was the name of the protagonist and how many nude shots of women there are.