Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is a 1971 American blaxploitation film written, co-produced, scored, edited, directed by, and starring Melvin Van Peebles. His son Mario Van Peebles also appears in a small role, playing the title character as a young boy. The film tells the picaresque story of a poor black man fleeing from the white police authorities.
Van Peebles began to develop the film after being offered a three-picture contract for Columbia Pictures. No studio would finance the film, so Van Peebles funded it himself, shooting it independently over 19 days, performing all of his own stunts and appearing in several sex scenes, some reportedly unsimulated. He received a $50,000 loan from Bill Cosby to complete the project. The film's fast-paced montages and jump-cuts were unique features in American cinema at the time. The picture was censored in some markets, and received mixed reviews. However, it has left a lasting impression on American cinema.
The musical score of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was performed by Earth, Wind & Fire. Van Peebles did not have money for traditional advertising methods, so he released the soundtrack album prior to the film's release in order to generate publicity. Initially, the film was screened in only two theaters in the United States (in Atlanta and Detroit). It went on to gross $15.2 million at the box office. Huey P. Newton celebrated and welcomed the film's revolutionary implications, and Sweetback became required viewing for members of the Black Panther Party. According to Variety, it demonstrated to Hollywood that films which portrayed "militant" Blacks could be highly profitable, leading to the creation of the blaxploitation genre, although critic Roger Ebert did not consider this example of Van Peebles' work to be an exploitation film.
In 2020, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
A young African-American orphan is sheltered by a Los Angeles brothel in the 1940s. Working as a towel boy, he is seduced by one of the prostitutes. The women name him "Sweet Sweetback" in honor of his sexual prowess and large penis. As an adult, Sweetback performs in the whorehouse sex show.
One night, two white LAPD officers come in to speak to Sweetback's boss, Beetle. A black man has been murdered, and there is pressure from the black community to bring in a suspect. The police suggest arresting Sweetback to appease their superiors, blame him for the crime, and then release him a few days later for lack of evidence. Beetle agrees, and they arrest Sweetback. On the way to the police station, the officers also arrest a young Black Panther named Mu-Mu after some trouble. They handcuff him to Sweetback, but when Mu-Mu insults the officers, they take both men out of the car, undo the handcuff from Mu-Mu, and beat him. In response, Sweetback fashions his handcuffs into brass knuckles and beats the officers, putting them into comas.
Sweetback returns to the whorehouse for help, but Beetle refuses out of fear of being arrested himself. As Sweetback leaves, he is arrested and beaten by order of the police chief, seeking information about Mu-Mu's whereabouts, but escapes when a black revolutionary throws a molotov cocktail at the police car transporting him to the station for more severe interrogation. He next visits an old girlfriend, who similarly refuses him aid but cuts his handcuffs off in exchange for sex. Sweetback then asks his priest for help, but he refuses for fear of the police shutting down the church's drug rehab center.
Police officers interrogate Beetle, seeking to discover Sweetback's whereabouts, rendering him deaf by firing a gun against each ear. Sweetback meets up with Mu-Mu and black gangsters drive them through South Central Los Angeles to the outskirts. Stopping overnight at a seemingly abandoned building, they discover it is a safe house for the Hells Angels. Their helmeted president challenges Sweetback to a duel: asked to decide the weapon and discovering she is a woman, he chooses sex and is judged to win.
The bikers leave the men in their club to await a member of the all black East Bay Dragons who will get them to Mexico. During the night, the club is raided by two policemen with drawn guns. Sweetback resists arrest and kills both officers in self-defense, but Mu-Mu is badly wounded. The next morning, the Dragon arrives, but his motorcycle can only carry one; Sweetback asks him to take Mu-Mu, as the activist is their future.
