Rent Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
2.8 of 5 from 69 ratings
1h 37min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Having learned the ways of the world being brought up in a brothel, street hustler Sweetback (Melvin Van Peebles) has earned his name through his legendary sexual prowess, cementing his reputation night after night to an audience of hopheads and hipsters hungry for spectacle. One night on a routine cover-up job with two crooked cops, Sweetback watches a young black man get beaten within an inch of his life and decides to fight back. His action set in motion a journey through the dark heart of 1970s urban America still writhing in the flames of the race riots, encountering motorcycle gangs, back power militants, fascist public officials and a torrent of insatiable women every step of the way.
- Actors:
- Melvin Van Peebles, Simon Chuckster, Hubert Scales, John Dullaghan, Wesley Gale, Niva Rochelle, Rhetta Hughes, Nick Ferrari, Ed Rue, John Amos, Lavelle Roby, Ted Hayden, Mario Van Peebles, Sonja Dunson, Michael Augustus, Peter Russell, Norman Fields, Ron Prince, Steve Cole, Megan Van Peebles
- Directors:
- Melvin Van Peebles
- Producers:
- Melvin Van Peebles, Jerry Gross
- Writers:
- Melvin Van Peebles
- Aka:
- Sweet Sweetback
- Studio:
- BFI Video
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama, Thrillers
- Collections:
- A History of Films about Film: Part 1, A Brief History of Film..., Top 10 Films of 1972, Top Films, What We Were Watching in 1971
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- Not available for rental
- Run Time:
- 100 minutes
More like Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
Found in these customers lists
574 films by machotrouts
149 films by seen-1
Reviews (1) of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
Not a Film—A Firebomb - Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song review by griggs
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song isn’t so much a film as a cinematic Molotov cocktail. As a narrative, it’s all over the place—jagged, repetitive, and hypnotically slow in parts. With its long musical interludes and fractured structure, it feels more like a protest performance than a traditional story. But as a cultural artefact? Five stars, no question.
It’s a raw, experimental howl of political rage—defiantly Black, fiercely anti-establishment. Van Peebles made it entirely on his own terms, and it shows: rough, angry, and brimming with intent. That said, the early scenes involving his real-life son, Mario van Peebles, are genuinely uncomfortable. What’s framed as revolutionary ends up feeling exploitative—and frankly, just wrong. Still, the film’s impact is seismic. It’s not here to entertain—it’s here to provoke. And on that front, it delivers.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.