jammasta-1 There are a few things you need to know about this film before you see it: 1) It includes pretty graphic sex scenes, one of them featuring the director's teenage son Mario (in the first few minutes). 2) It features a lead that barely speaks throughout the film. 3) It will be a nightmare to watch if you're in it for the action. "Sweetback" is a piece of history which talks about the meaning of race in the US. The film is not realistic, but a metaphor - its main character a "man without qualities," its setting a prototypical black ghetto, its story a mixture of fugitive slave narrative, black power pseudo-propaganda, and nightmarish action thriller. The story is pretty simple: a black stud performing in a sex show for white audiences in the black ghetto is routinely stopped by white police officers (to make up the numbers). Witnessing the cops beat a young black power activist, he uses his handcuffs to kill both policemen and elopes with the boy. All this takes about 20 minutes of the film - the rest documents Sweetback's escape. Sweetback's actions will evoke the worst of racism in the white establishment, while at the same time exposing the ideological malaise of the black strivers. The film is a pain to watch, and that's precisely what it should be. And it speaks against a reality that still exists - blatant white racism and unwillingness to address the issue of race, black conformism and political disaffection.

Boba_Fett1138 My goodness, this movie was a genuine trip. undoubtedly the film-makers were on something as well when they did this movie and I wish I could say it resulted in a great movie.The one and foremost reason why this movie is still considered to be a somewhat important one is because it is seen as the first true blaxploitation flick. And really, I absolutely love blaxploitation, no matter how bad and crazy those movies can get at times. It's because the movies are fun to watch, with its over-the-top characters and situations. I however got very little pleasure out of this movie. So while it perhaps was the first, it's also far from the best the genre has to offer.Maybe because it's the first, it's also obviously a far from polished and typical genre movie. Some classic blaxploitation ingredients are there, while the movie is also being filled with a ton of more stuff, that was completely redundant and helped to make this movie a way too odd one at times.This movie at times feels like a true psychedelic trip, with its odd scenes, crazy editing, visuals and music. It could had worked out if it helped to move the movie forward with but it really doesn't. The movie doesn't feel like its going anywhere and it really feels like a long sit as well, even though the movie is only about 97 minutes short. I most certainly was glad when it finally was over, since I was longing for the end, about 60 minutes in of it.Don't even ask me what this movie is all about. Yes, I know that Sweetback is on the run but why and for who exactly all remains a big mystery to me. I also really don't know what the character of Sweetback was supposed to be all about and why he got a movie based around him. The movie feels incredibly random with all of its scenes and developments. The movie has the occasional sex scene in it, no doubt all put in there so Melvin Van Peebles could allow himself to have some fun. He did not only played the main character but also directed and wrote the movie, among many other things. And believe me, at least some of the sex in this movie is real, since Melvin Van Peebles actually contracted gonorrhea from an 'actress' while shooting this movie.It was also weird seeing an 14-year old Mario Van Peebles having a sex scene in this, as a young Sweetback, with an adult woman. How did they ever get away with this? I doubt it was real sex they were having but still...they were obviously really naked and on top of each other.Because Van Peebles had to finance this movie himself, it most certainly isn't the most classy or best looking movie. The movie does not only has a cheap look to it but also a just plain bad look. At times it's really hard to say what's going on since the picture quality is too bad or a scene gets too dark at times to tell what's happening.I can most certainly appreciate and like a good old fashioned blaxploitation flick but this movie just isn't very good or fun to watch.4/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

momohund This movie, when first watched by people from my generation (Gen X), doesn't seem to be very coherent. Something strange and psychedelic from a weird era. However, if you watch this movie and then watch How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass, which is a movie about making Sweet Sweetback, you'll see why this was so damn revolutionary. This was the first time Black America told White America on screen that the days of "kissing up to Shirley Temple's ass" were over. It was a political movie about Black America and even Minority America being tired of whiteness, as well as stating that Black America now has its own identity and society. It took some pretty strong courage to make this move when you consider the time frame that it came out in; the early seventies, a period that saw a shift from "I have a dream" to "By any means necessary." I believe this film opened the doors to allow black artistic media to be critical about white America, society, politics and corruption that generally would have been censored before. Sometimes I wonder if this helped pave the way for people like Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and even Dave Chapelle. My father, a white man, told me that when he went to see this film back in 1971, the audience screamed and cheered during the opening scene when across the screen it read to "all the Brothers and Sisters who are tired of being held down by the Man." Nowadays people wouldn't really respond to that, not even black society I don't think, but back then it could have gotten you lynched, even in 1971. So when people screamed and cheered in the movie theater when they saw this, I think you can imagine how important a film like this must be in film history. No minority had ever dared to say that on the silver screen before.

hokeybutt SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG (3+ outta 5 stars) Perhaps of more significance historically than cinematic ally, I nonetheless found this a fascinating film. It was not a widely distributed film but in the limited markets where it was shown (mostly in "black neighborhoods" I would imagine) it was a HUGE success. Watching this film now (a bizarre, disjointed "experimental" film) it's hard to imagine what audiences made of it back in the 60s. It's certainly doubtful that it would have the same impact if it came out today... but back in the 60s the very *idea* of a film centered on a black hero on the run from some less-than-perfect police officers was enough to blow peoples' minds. The movie is very a much a product of its time (lots of weird color effects and editing tricks) but I think the "dated" aspects of the film help put the audience back into that particular time and place rather than distancing them from the movie itself. It's not a perfect movie by any means but it has a strength and a style and great passion... and, in my view, that trumps bland competence.