Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
March 31, 1971Release Date
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
March 31, 1971Release Date
Plot.
Where to Watch.
Currently Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is available for streaming online, rent, buy or watch for free on: Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video
Streaming in:πΊπΈ United States
Cast & Crew.
Simon Chuckster
Beetle
Melvin Van Peebles
Sweetback / Editor / Producer / Director / Screenplay / Original Music Composer
Hubert Scales
Mu-Mu
Mario Van Peebles
The Young Sweetback
John Dullaghan
Commissioner
John Amos
Biker
Lavelle Roby
Max Van Peebles
Sweetback - Young
Rhetta Hughes
Old Girlfriend
Norman Fields
Megan Van Peebles
Kid
Joe Tornatore
Mikel Angel
Curt Matson
Actor
Wesley Gale
(as West Gale)
Robert Maxwell
Director of Photography
Jerry Gross
Producer
Skip Karnas
Production Assistant
Chic Borland
Production Assistant
Jeremy Hoenack
Assistant Editor
Luke Wolfram
Sound Editor
Clyde Houston
Production Manager / Assistant Director
Cliff Wenger
Special Effects
Clark Will
Sound
John H. Newman
Sound Editor
Robert Maxwell
Camera Operator
Verdine White
Orchestrator
Nora Maxwell
Makeup Supervisor
Maurice White
Orchestrator
Jose Garcia
Camera Operator / Second Unit Director
Philip Bailey
Orchestrator
Priscilla Watts
Production Assistant
Media.
Details.
Release DateMarch 31, 1971
StatusReleased
Running Time1h 37m
Content RatingNC-17
Budget$150,000
Box Office$15,200,000
Genres
Last updated:
This Movie Is About.
Wiki.
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is a 1971 American independent blaxploitation action thriller 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".