Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

A stylish (?), incomprehensible mess. That ending made me want to punch my television.

While the movie was undeniably important and certainly left its mark, I was surprised at how painful it was to watch. Messy editing, incomprehensible scenes, overlapping music... I started to zone out after 20 minutes. Reading about the production of the movie is definitely more interesting that actually watching it.

Rated X by a jury of people who go hey dont film a kid having sex and make it your opening credits like a Bryan Singer birthday card. Aside from that opening scene that almost made me burn my television this is a tremendous work that I am no way thr audience for.

It's unique, I give it that. But unique doesn't mean good. It's mess of a film bordering on incomprehensible and incredibly tedious to watch. Occasionally creative with its visuals and the music, and daring with its depictions, but it just doesn't come together.

WTF did I just watch? This movie was mind-boggling, and not in a particularly good way. What a hot mess.

So how does one go about rating this unfathomable mess? It's unlike anything I've ever seen! No, too positive. It's... Different? Still positive. Hm. It's Cinéma Pur - An attempt to defy all rules of standardized art! Doubt it. I really don't know what to say. I was baffled and confuckupied all the same. Unfairly praised as so many "pioneers" for being "important", though it's not and why care when it's bad? This is NOT stylish as some mistakenly think but a horny amateur film. Fun with friends!

Entertaining and historically important. A radical message from a radical film-maker. Of course, the sexism bothered me, and the film is kind of goofy at times, but it ooooooozes style. The handcuffs scene basically rules.

Amateurish in an annoying way. On the second half of the movie, there's mostly filler, boring scenes. And I don't like these racist stereotypes, from both sides, black and white.

Melvin Van Peebles #1

Viewed January 23, 2022. A singular expression of revolutionary drive and fury, Van Peebles' assembles his film as a total sensory experience, a flurry of cuts and dissolves that move at an urgent pace. It hints at exploitation movie narrative beats and action sequences, but resolves them only through these disorienting visual passages. A movie about being on the run where you can't even get a sense of the road ahead of you.

Aside from the cultural significance of the film, the Earth, Wind & Fire score and choir songs were definitely the most notable aspect of the film's content, with overlapping tracks which were quite effective and interesting to hear. Surprised to find they actually hired a cinematographer given the numerous poorly lit, shaky sequences. The biker gang scene was just too much.

A deliriously wild film. Very entertaining.

What a load of crap, it's a mess

Started off interesting, but keeps losing steam until the end.

This is like the Breathless of Blaxploitation which involves a lot of jagged edges. I want to say I like the aggressive style which is assumed to be intentional. We're a long way from Watermelon Man.

Extremely interesting, stylistically. It may not be for everybody, but there's nothing else like it.

This doesn't work, but it's like nothing else I've ever seen, including the blaxploitation films that followed in its footsteps. It's really something.

The film that began the blaxploitation movement, Sweetback has been classified as many things. Is it a porno? Is it an action movie? Is it an art film? Is it a call to action? Who cares?! It's an entertaining movie with a unique aesthetic.

One of the most interesting things I've ever SEEN. Really, truly awesome.

Spontaneous combustion. Such a kinectic experience from start to finish. Sweetback is forced to ride along with some white cops to make them look 'nice'. When they beat up a Black Panther, Sweetback doesn't even hesitate. Fights, fucks and runs his way out for freedom, wandering around criminals, hippies, Hell Angels, brothers and sisters in such a jazzy, funky, beautifully paranoid and nightmarish urban ride through the crazy early 70s. What a wild sound design.

Amazing how some trippy camera work and a thumping funk score can almost redeem a far-too-long movie suffering from no real plot and an over-reliance on stereotypes. As the camera spun around yet another time out of focus giving me a headache, I actually started thinking, This guy could have made some powerful music videos.

Melvin Van Peebles directs and stars in this flick apparently funded with the aid of Bill Cosby. A lot of fun though quite politically incorrect, which is always a bonus when I'm watching a flick. And how cool does Van Peebles look in this flick??? Toe knee :-)

Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song estreava há 50 anos em New York. Sendo oficialmente o que é considerado o primeiro blaxploitation, faz um filme sobre a resistência negra e que originalmente seria uma trilogia, mas o diretor entrou mais ou menos numa lista negra e só voltaria a dirigir quase vinte anos depois. Para não dizer que o Bill Cosby não fez nada que prestasse na vida, foi ele que salvou esse filme emprestando 50 mil dólares para o Van Peebles terminá-lo e o resto é história.

Boring, sloppy and forgetful. Damn that editing is so bad

Well it lives up to it's name. It is both bad and ass, and yeah it veers close to being sweet (Cartman-style) at some points.

62.750

The pinaccle of film cool. Choose your weapon!

Mario Van Peeble's fable about the titular character's flight from the police through L.A. retains much of its power 40 years on, in large part due to Van Peebles' vivid direction, inventive editing, and Bob Maxwell's incredible cinematography. The story and characters are quite thin, and the acting is adequate at best, and the portrayals of gays and women seem problematic now. But flaws aside, it's a raw, powerful film. Superb (if repetitive) score by Van Peebles and Earth, Wind & Fire.

Glorified racist porno-activism. Nothing-else-like-it and thank God for that. PSI was 6 coz PC-fans.

It never recovered from the awful opening, even as I appreciate the way the anger does a kind of slow burn throughout.

Not a great film, but in a way refreshing because the filmmaker seems to not know or care about what one can and cannot do in movies.