Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

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Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

R

1971

1h 37m

Crime

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

73%

Tomatometer

30 Reviews

46%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

Sweet Sweetback (Melvin Van Peebles) is a black orphan who, having grown up in a brothel, now works there as part of a sex show. When the police need a patsy for a murder in the black community, Sweetback's employer gives him up to two white cops, whom Sweetback ends up killing. Suddenly the target of a massive manhunt, he decides to flee to Mexico. As he makes his way there, he is captured by, and escapes from, both the cops and a chapter of the Hell's Angels.

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Penelope Gilliatt

The New Yorker

01/29/2024

Impossible, haughty, not likable, but sometimes rather admirable in its context.

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Gary Arnold

Washington Post

01/29/2024

People who believe that all that smoke must indicate one hell of a fiery movie might be rather dismayed by the movie itself.

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Richard Brody

The New Yorker

01/31/2022

For all its horror, the film has an exuberant, hedonistic excitement (including a sexual showdown in a Hell's Angels den); Sweetback's spirit of outrage and revolt gives rise to bitter, exasperated ironies.

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Brian Susbielles

InSession Film

02/28/2023

Van Peebles' third film was a nuclear bomb.

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Sean Axmaker

Stream on Demand

03/12/2022

The unusual mix of agitprop and exploitation is directed in a jagged style that recalls what Jean-Luc Godard was doing in France and set to a funky score performed by Earth, Wind, and Fire...

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Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

07/06/2021

Farr more overtly political and experimental than anything subsequently bracketed in that ["Blaxploitation"] genre.

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Marc G

@MarcG118 2h

The jazzy soundtrack was a treat, and those bursts of action were also nice, but the slow pace in between makes it something I would not watch again.

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Michael

@Michael3333 1d

It was ok. Overall I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. A few things I liked was the music and effects. It also felt slow at times.

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Jacqueline N

@Jnunez145 1d

The movie wasn’t bad but it wasn’t for me. I enojes how the film was shot and the sound effects

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Elias M

@Elias_miguel_502 2d

the entire story was quite gruesome, a tad bit at first, but once you entice yourself into the story that sweet tells, i seriously enjoyed the story. the idea of police brutality and mistreatment towards people of race was horrible to see, but also gave a extreme realistic portrayal of the reality. these kind of movies weren't something you'd find publicly simply due to it's message. It's like "To Kill A Mocking Bird" 's cousin, it's similar since both show the necessity of understanding racial injustice when it comes to people of power, but one is more well known with it's message than the other.

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Adrian A.

@Adrian_AU 5d

This movie is personally not for me. In my opinion the movie is slow and the only time it feels fast is when he is running from the cops. What I did enjoys was the different music that was being played throughout the movie. I liked how this movie portrayed violence against black people because it gives awareness to what happens in real life. I also did not enjoy this movie because there was not much talking.

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Dominick S

@Dominick118 Feb 10

The song was catchy i will give it that i dont really like the amount of anology thats in it but i do like how the director and composer perform in the song is not really my cup of tea but if you like a song that hits deep and a makes you think about the lyrics i recomend this one alot.

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Melvin Van Peebles

Director

Melvin Van Peebles

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Synopsis

Sweet Sweetback (Melvin Van Peebles) is a black orphan who, having grown up in a brothel, now works there as part of a sex show. When the police need a patsy for a murder in the black community, Sweetback's employer gives him up to two white cops, whom Sweetback ends up killing. Suddenly the target of a massive manhunt, he decides to flee to Mexico. As he makes his way there, he is captured by, and escapes from, both the cops and a chapter of the Hell's Angels.

Director: Melvin Van Peebles
Producer: Jerry Gross, Melvin Van Peebles
Screenwriter: Melvin Van Peebles
Distributor: Image Entertainment Inc., Direct Cinema Limited, Criterion Collection, New World Pictures
Production Co: Yeah
Rating: R
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 23, 1971, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 17, 2020
Runtime: 1h 37m
Sound Mix: Mono

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