Review of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) by Art S — 25 May 2015

So, is it an experimental film with a Blaxploitation theme or a Blaxploitation film using experimental methods? (Or an experimental Blaxploitation film, as if such a genre existed?). Melvin Van Peebles uses every trick in the filmmaker's bag (and on a very low budget) to create a somewhat crazy meditation on our Black hero's trouble with The Man (he defends a brother who is being shaken down by two White cops) and his flight on foot from L.

A. to Mexico. Earth Wind and Fire provide elements of the soundtrack - or is it just that one riff played over and over and over? The rest of the soundtrack is, again, experimental and full of subjective effects and non-diegetic sounds.

Van Peebles himself plays Sweetback who is renowned for his prowess in the sack (he grew up in a brothel). Shall I mention that this film also breaks taboos and must have been rated X in its day (although would be seen as somewhat tamer today, though definitely laced with nudity/sex and a tiny bit of fake blood).

Nothing like Shaft or the mainstream Blaxploitation films (you have been warned); so, probably not worth your time if you wouldn't also enjoy plotless experimental fare. But otherwise great!