Wow! One of the first Black Neo Noir, a Soul Noir Masterpiece.
"This film is dedicated to all the brothers and sisters who've had enough of the man"
*do yourself a favor scroll down and groove to Sweetback's theme while absorbing the visuals.
Directed by Melvin Van Peebles a black man exploiting being black, with a story set in the black community. It's been called the first Blaxploitation Film preceding Shaft by a few weeks. Though often lumped in with Blaxploitation Films both Shaft and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song are actually very good Neo Noirs in and of themselves, they just happen to have predominately black casts, and are just onerously included, in my opinion, solely for that superficial reason.
True Blaxploitaion Films to me, are more tongue in cheek in a way tending to, for me anyway, almost burlesque the black community. Sweetback, Across 110th Street, and Shaft are more serious fare. There may be others I'm not aware of. I'm not familiar with all of them (there are over 350 films) but I've heard good things about Superfly (1972), I'll definitely check it out.
Van Peebles not only directed, scripted, and edited the film, but also wrote the excellent composite R&B, soul, funk, and jazz, score performed by Earth, Wind, and Fire, this is juxtaposed at times by a sort of Gospel funk Greek chorus.
The film, was funded somewhere in the vicinity of $100,000 + (I've read different stories) which in the end grossed $10 million. A Hit.
I saw this once on a big screen in of all places Missoula, Montana over 40 years ago, in the early 70s and never seen it again until a few days ago.
Van Peebles and his Yeah Productions, crafted a roughed edged work of art. Its a gift for Neo Noir lovers, a healthy visual helping of a lot of the old Classic Film Noir locations in The City Of Angels before most of them disappeared for ever. It was also shot at arguably the most creative, exploitative and exploratory decade in American Film History.
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| Young Leroy aka Sweetback (Mario Van Peebles) |
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| Hooker |
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| Hooker |
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| towel boy |
Hooker: You ain’t at the photographer’s. You ain’t gettin’ your picture taken. Move!
At first Leroy is a bit shy but soon gets busy with it. The whole whole sequence starts against the electrical hums of a clothes washer and ending in her multiple "oh God!, Oh God!" hallelujahs climaxing to a Gospel choir. He's so good at "endurance screwing" that his first woman christens him "Sweet Sweetback."
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| "oh God!" |
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| The Show |
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| The cops ask a favor of Beetle |
One night a couple of white LAPD detectives come by to ask a favor of Beetle. Beetle is the pimp who runs the house. A black man has been killed and the black community is putting pressure on the LAPD to do something. The detectives ask Beetle to let them arrest Sweetback to show that they are doing something, and they will then let him go in a few days for lack of evidence. This will appease their superiors. Beetle agrees and tells Sweetback the deal.
On the way to the station the detectives get a radio call to a disturbance. There they take into custody a young Black Panther named Mu-Mu (Hubert Scales). When Mu-Mu insults the detectives they stop the patrol car take his ass out of the car and viciously whoop on him. Sickened by the disrespecting of a brother, Sweetback attacks the detectives, Using his handcuffs like brass knuckles he beats them unconscious. He then gathers up Mu-Mu to his feet and splits.
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| Sweetback (Melvin Van Peebles) |
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| Sweetback and Mu-Mu (Hubert Scales) |
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| Beetle (Simon Chuckster) |
Beetle: Like you gonna have to kinda lay out, stretch out a little while, be real cool. Kinda lay dead. Ol' Beetle'll let you know what's happenin', what's goin' down. You don't have to worry about nothin'. If you need anything, anything at all, brother, just keep the faith in Beetle, ol' Beetle goin' to bring you through, cause this is just a skirmish. You know how the game goes, baby. But you keep the faith in me and you my man. You my favorite man. Can you dig it, baby? Together, you know, maintain....
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| Maintain..... |
Sweetback is knocked around a bit, then taken back to the squad car. He is about to be driven downtown when a Molotov cocktail hits the police car just as it starts to pull away. Sweetback escapes out a door into L.A. He hits up a black preacher.
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| Preacher |
Storefront Preacher: What are you doing here Sweetback? You're as hot as littler sisters twat.
When Sweetback finds out that the cops already know about the addict farm he runs upstairs Sweetback again hits the streets.
Storefront Preacher: I'm gonna say a Black Ave Maria for you.....
Sweetback hit's up a gambler hoodie for some bread. He stands with Sweetback over his poker game.
He has a great monologue.
Gambler: What's a dead man like you need bread for? Life's a real struggle, from the womb to the tomb.... Every dollar we make the Guineas get twenty, The po--lice get fourty. and the Goldberg's get fifty anybody can tell you that doan add up to a dollar, that doan add up to a dollar and a damn! That's why all us niggers are so far behind.
Gambler:You can't get outa this town by wing, wheel, or steal.
The Gambler at least gets Sweetback and Mu-Mu out to the Los Angeles city limits.
The rest of the film consists of visually interesting chase sequences towards the Mexican borders set to music through various parts of Los Angeles, that you can still identify from the 40s and 50s Noirs. These are interspersed with police interrogations of the "black community," and short vignettes of Sweetback's various encounters with assorted hoodies and others, an ex girlfriend, a storefront preacher and his flock, Mu-Mu, a gang of Hell's Angels, a hippy, and a peace, love, dove, commune.
Another sequence shows a motel where the cops get a tip about Sweetback shacking up with a white girl on on of the rooms. The cops break open the door and beat up the black man.
Cop One: It's not him
Cop Two: So what?
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| It's not him |
These, if they had filmed in a pedestrian manner would otherwise be mere filler. Van Peebles gives us a funkadelia panoply of slightly 60s psychedelic, Spaghetti Western rotoscope, Dutch angles, and the ever changing backdrop locations make them compelling to Noir aficionados providing a wonderful film montage of a downtown L.A. that is long gone accompanied by Earth wind and Fire. You'll groove/tune to it.
Gambler: Life's a real struggle, from the womb to the tomb....
Noirsville
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| Burbank Theater on Main Street L.A. |
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| Second Street Tunnel |
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| L.A. River |
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| Biker (John Amos) |
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| L.A. River |
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| Melvin has something for the ladies |
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| L.A. River |
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| L.A. River |
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| L.A. River |
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| L.A. Gasholders |
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| Mojave Desert |
Feets Do Your Thang!
Come On Feet
The Black Community
“the first truly revolutionary Black film.” Huey P. Newton
"a radical blaxploitation classic" Brad Stevens
"This is about as street as it gets well heavy and very bad."
taweakame
An interesting time capsule of fin de decade 1960s. Check out Simon Chuckster's hilarious monologue. A must watch with your noir tinted glasses or noir-dar on. Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is assuredly not PC, it's of it's time. 9/10
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