Directed By: Mario Van Peebles
Starring: Mario Van Peebles, Nia Long, Joy Bryant
Tag line: "A father. A son. A revolution"
Trivia: Troy Garity appears uncredited as the singer Donovan
Melvin Van Peebles was the first African-American filmmaker to take on the system, and his 1971 independent movie, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, broke the Hollywood mold.
In most movies up to that point, African Americans were secondary characters, existing in an all-white environment. Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song invited its audience into the ghetto, focusing on an entirely different black experience. Thanks in part to a mobilization of the Black Panthers, which urged its members to get out and support the film, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song went on to become the top grossing independent movie of 1971.
In most movies up to that point, African Americans were secondary characters, existing in an all-white environment. Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song invited its audience into the ghetto, focusing on an entirely different black experience. Thanks in part to a mobilization of the Black Panthers, which urged its members to get out and support the film, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song went on to become the top grossing independent movie of 1971.
Baadasssss! (aka How To Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass) is a 2003 dramatized account of the making of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, taking us from the film's creative beginnings to its historic premiere at a small Detroit theater.
It proved a difficult journey for its director, Melvin Van Peebles (played here by his son, Mario). To begin with, the major studios wouldn’t touch Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, fearing it was far too radical for a mainstream audience. Even Melvin’s agent, Howie (Saul Rubinek), strongly advised him to drop the idea of a film about a black revolutionary.
Ignoring this advice, Melvin raised the money for Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song himself, only to have the initial financiers pull out once production had started. His back against the wall, Melvin had little choice but to put up his own money to complete the film.
Along with the financial burdens, Melvin also had to handle the editing of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, made all the more difficult by the fact he was rapidly losing vision in one eye.
It proved a difficult journey for its director, Melvin Van Peebles (played here by his son, Mario). To begin with, the major studios wouldn’t touch Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, fearing it was far too radical for a mainstream audience. Even Melvin’s agent, Howie (Saul Rubinek), strongly advised him to drop the idea of a film about a black revolutionary.
Ignoring this advice, Melvin raised the money for Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song himself, only to have the initial financiers pull out once production had started. His back against the wall, Melvin had little choice but to put up his own money to complete the film.
Along with the financial burdens, Melvin also had to handle the editing of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, made all the more difficult by the fact he was rapidly losing vision in one eye.
And if all this wasn’t bad enough, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song was saddled with the dreaded "X" rating by the MPAA. As a result, only two theaters in the entire country would play the film. Melvin Van Peebles had sunk everything he had into this movie, and if it failed he would more than likely find himself on skid row.
The rest, as they say, is history.
The rest, as they say, is history.
In 2003's Baadasssss!, Mario Van Peebles captures the creative energy and rabid determination of his famous father, yet because he's telling this story from an eyewitness’s point of view (as a child, Mario was on set for much of the making of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song), he also avoids many of the usual biographical pitfalls, refusing to paint Melvin as a saintly, larger than life individual.
Instead, Mario allows his father’s true personality to explode on-screen. As seen in Baadasssss!, Melvin Van Peebles could, at times, be nasty and overbearing, yet despite his flaws we ultimately recognize him as a true cinematic pioneer. Melvin Van Peebles may have had a short fuse, and was not the most loving father, but he had a vision, and just the right amount of drive and determination to make it a reality.
There was power in Melvin Van Peebles’s Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, and that power is successfully recaptured in Baadasssss! by his son, Mario. Often funny and occasionally sad, Baadasssss! is a must-see for all movie fanatics.
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