By Phil Schofield

I have recently been lucky to witness Melvin Van Peebles’ 1971 Blaxploitation film Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song (Sweetback) at a one off cinema screening. Hailed as the first film to be attached to the Blaxploitation genre, Sweetback’s original meaning and velocity is amplified to its maximum potential on the big screen.

As a film that’s content is often provocative, utilising both sex and violence, the cinema experience does not let the audience escape. With many shots under lit, out of focus and full of erratic movement, meaning is often lost and concentration wavers during a small screen’s rendition of already degraded film stock. The cinema is how the film was meant to be shown, putting the audience in front of this unabashed piece of provoking cinema.

Van Peebles’ himself is and was an active protagonist in black rights with a strong segregationalist point of view. Sweetback clearly shows this. From the opening dedication to ‘all the brothers and sisters who have had enough of the Man’, the film sets out to let the viewer know that the black population is dominant and the white population are seen as misfit, corrupt and “the bad guy”. The eponymous hero, Sweetback (played by Van Peebles), is seen as the silent, strong militant fighter. He speaks though his actions that, as violence, are utilised to free black people from the evil grasp of the whites. Also important is the sexual actions that Sweetback is involved in. Sex is used as a weapon by the man to envelope power over the woman. In Sweetback’s case he uses sex to make money, get information and, at one point in the film, to save his own life. With a clear misogynistic message, Sweetback excludes women almost as it does the white population.

The political inference Sweetback projects seems – in the current era – outdated and racist. Of course there are those who will still believe in the political sentiment of the film, this is not to be forgotten but since 1971 a lot (I hope) has changed. Despite its clear aversion to the white population Sweetback still holds its own as a good film. This is for two reasons. First, it’s attractive film style. Full of iconic images and bubbling dialog set to an original funk sound track, Sweetback fills your eyes and ears with intrigue and interest. The seemingly random visual montages leave your mind with a film that seems more like an ecstatic dream than it does with a neat coherent play. This is a special emotional response that is successful in immersing the viewer in the film. Secondly, and most importantly, this film has a strong defiant message, even if a negative one. This is of optimum achievement for an auteur like Van Peebles. He has said what he wants and only what he wants. I believe this ‘stand up and fight attitude’ is what should drive all filmmakers into creating their works. There is no bullshit and no hiding behind, though sometimes withholding, formal film technique.

Sweetback is needed as a film to show that cinema is alive and can do anything. Sweetback needs to be seen, learnt from and responded to. If you can’t see it on a big screen, see it anyway.

Rating: 8.5

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