The first black director to break into commercial cinema, Van Peebles obviously feels deeply about black oppression. But he has chosen, paradoxically, to make the kinds of unrealistic films for which blacks have justly criticized white film-makers.
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
YOU BLED MY MOMMA. YOU BLED MY POPPA. BUT YOU WONT BLEED ME.
1971 · 1h 38m · R
Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Directed by
Melvin Van Peebles
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Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
Overview
After saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a black male prostitute goes on the run from "the man" with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
Most of the many vignettes are absorbing in themselves, notably an encounter with a white motorcycle gang.
A shrewd and powerful mix of commercial ingredients and ideological intent.
Totally uncompromising and grindingly repetitive, the film nevertheless accumulates a kind of hallucinatory groove, with unexpected shafts of bizarre humour and vigorous, experimental new wave direction.
Instead of dramatizing injustice, Van Peebles merchandizes it.
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