"All the films about black people up to now have been told through the eyes of the of the Anglo-Saxon majority - in their rhythms and speech and pace. In my film, the black audience finally gets a chance to see some of their own fantasies acted out...rising out of the mud and kicking ass." -Melvin Van Peebles
Discuss the specific ways in which Van Peebles creates different "rhythms, speech, and pace" in Sweet Sweetback. Is he effective in creating an alternative to the traditional Hollywood film experience? Compare and contrast this film with one other that we have seen in class. How do you see this film fitting into David Cook's discussion of the blaxploitation subgenre of the 1970s (please make specific mention of the reading - pgs. 259-266)?
Discuss the specific ways in which Van Peebles creates different "rhythms, speech, and pace" in Sweet Sweetback. Is he effective in creating an alternative to the traditional Hollywood film experience? Compare and contrast this film with one other that we have seen in class. How do you see this film fitting into David Cook's discussion of the blaxploitation subgenre of the 1970s (please make specific mention of the reading - pgs. 259-266)?
52 comments:
Nicholas Naber
10.4.07
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is completely different from anything we have viewed thus far in our class. The way the entire film is shot seems arbitrary, shaky and amateur. The dialog sequences are quick and somewhat difficult to understand in the context of the scene taking place, especially when the Sweetback visits the man whose right out of the shower. Is Sweetback there to ask him to stay and hide or just to talk with him? The movie lacks long dialogs that narrate the story, it depends more on the visual elements. The visuals in this film tend to be dark, grainy, edited quickly and colorized. This way of shooting kind of reminded me of Easy Rider, although Sweet Sweetback is much more jumbled than Easy Rider in terms of filming. The use of music is extremely evident in this film because there is quite a lack of dialog the music really intensifies and makes you aware of what you are seeing on the screen. The use of music is likened to A Clockwork Orange that had an evident musical score to it.
As Cook discusses in our reading the Blaxploitation films deal with antiestablishment ideals, also the films dealt with race relations. These themes are painfully evident in Sweet Sweetback, the film is about Sweetback injuring two white officers after they beat up a black man. Then Sweetback run from the police who are the authorities in this film. The captain of the police force sends out more officers telling them to take any means necessary to catch Sweetback (he used the n word). That is an example of the still trying times between white and blacks in the seventies. The whole time Sweetback is running from the authority and killing anyone of them that get in his way. Sweet Sweetback falls directly in Cooks assessment of Blaxploitation films of the seventies.
Sebastian Juarez
Melvin Van Peebles created different “rhythms, speech, and pace” in Sweet Sweetback by using techniques associated more with avant-garde filmmaking than classic Hollywood. Near the beginning of the film we are given frequent shots with negative or false color. Peebles uses superimposition, repeating of shots, time shifting, stopping and stuttering of shots to create a different rhythm and pace. Shots go in and out of focus. The use of voice-overs, street slang, and Greek like choruses (narrating the action and emotion) creates a different type of speech in this film. The most affective use of guerilla-style filmmaking is in the interviews with people on the street asking them if they had seen Sweetback. This footage is interspersed between the last third of the film during the chase scene.
The subject matter of this film was controversial. A “male prostitute”/ “sex performer” agrees to go back to the police station as a suspect to make a couple of cops look good. On the way, they pick up a young black revolutionary but when they start beating him up Sweetback beats the cops with the open end of a pair of handcuffs. Sweetback is on the run for the rest of the film trying to reach the Mexican border. The film got an X-rating due to another controversial element of the film, the nudity and sex scenes.
Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song (1971, Van Peebles) is said to be either the pre-cursor or first “blaxploitation” film. It was independently produced for less than $500,000 and returned $4.1 million in rentals. It opened up the floodgates at the studios for more “blaxploitation” films. Shortly after the release of Sweet Sweetback came other “blaxploitation” films like Shaft (Gordon Parks, Sr., 1971) and Superfly (Gordon Parks, Jr., 1972).
Cook states, “thanks to “white flight” from the cities during the 1960s, blacks accounted for 30 percent of the first-run urban market.” Black-oriented films tripled between 1969 and 1971, rising from six to eighteen. “Blaxploitation” films became profitable to the studios. These films were made on a low budget and did not take much for the studios to make a profit. “Blaxploitation” films largely disappeared as a viable genre by 1975.
The film that I would compare Sweet Sweetback to is Easy Rider. Easy Rider was independently produced for $375,000 and returned $19.2 million. It started the rush of studios to make low budget films directed at the youth market. Sweet Sweetback started the rush of studios to make low budget films directed at black audiences. Easy Rider was filmed in an experimental way with the use of hand-held 16mm footage for the Mardi Gras scenes. It was about a group (hippies/ long hairs) outside of mainstream society. Sweet Sweetback also used experimental techniques and was about a group of people (Blacks) outside of white mainstream society.
Sebastian Juarez
Kelly Doucette
10.6.07
Every film thus far we have viewed in this class have been a part of the main-stream culture. The genre of blaxpoitation is anything but main-stream and Melvin Van Peeble's SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG is no exception. In the very opening scene, we see a young Sweetback (played by Melvin's own son, Mario) undergo his first sexual experience with an older African American woman. The very idea of a young child having sex and showing him nude, nonetheless, is a perfect example of how Van Peebles created different rythyms, speech, and pace for this film. With the very selective choice in music (as created by Earth Wind & Fire), he directly tells you how you should feel and react to what's going on onscreen.
While the extensive use of music is similar to A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, I couldn't help but be reminded of EASY RIDER while watching this film. When ranking the budgets of the films we have seen so far, EASY RIDER comes in just above of BAADASSSSS. While money doesn't really matter in this discussion, the low budget requires the filmmakers and cast solely on pioneering filmmaking and acting rather than special effects and major stars.
I see BAADASSSSS fitting into the period of blaxpoitation films because, like many blaxpoitation films, it involves a young black male (who eventually grows up) confronting the difficult urban realities of drugs, violence, sex, and crime, within a broader cultural spectrum of institutional racism. A great scene in the film features the whorehouse where Sweetback is parading around and when a white female spectator volunteers to have sex with him, the MC declines her offer, because blacks and whites, according to the film, are not equal and should not blur racial lines.
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, whether you enjoyed watching it or not, was unique. Director and star of the film Melvin Van Peebles’s experience in foreign cinema, along with the film’s short (19 day) shooting time, and the low budget gave the film an… interesting pace. Even as Sweet ran for his life and freedom, the rest of the world, as seen through abrupt cuts, wandered. The language, what there was of it, showed a variety of personalities not usually seen in Hollywood, and was strongly ethnic, somewhat at the expense, (willingly paid, one infers,) of the comprehension of a wider audience.
The film that this most reminded me of was in fact Easy Rider. It had some of the same pace and cuts, the heroes are both going South with a purpose, they both have a final confrontation with two good old boys, and the music in both had very good and painfully bad moments. The differences were that Sweetback survived his final encounter and succeeded in his goal, that while they both used sudden cuts, SSBAS used odd cuts in conjunction with overlay effects, and that Easy Rider didn’t have grown women screwing adolescents.
One aspect of the film that was more or less archetypal for Blaxploitation films, as mentioned in Lost Illusions, was the idea of masculine power. This was in fact almost a central theme for SSBAS. It has led to much of the criticism, as well as much of the cult appeal, of Blaxploitation films.
On a side note, I have to put this out there: Due to the overuse of disorienting camera effects, the bad lighting, the occasionally aggressively bad music, the exaggerated characterizations, the basic deviancy, the dead dogs, the child raping, the arrogance of putting “featuring the black community” in the opening credits, the unsubtly of the message, and a few other things that escape me, I really hate this film. Having seen other blaxploitation films, I can only say that I am glad they evolved. (If you haven’t seen Blacula, do so. Good film.)
Shiraz Bhathena
The sexual content in Sweet Sweetback was probably what stuck out as ‘different’ in this film from other films seen in class thus far. Cook mentions a ‘new attitude towards blackness and blacks in a white society’ being the main goal of blaxploitation. The opening shows Sweetback having sex with an older woman. While the scene has its own shock value without paying mind to the color of the actors’ skin, as we see a 13 year old boy having sex with a much older woman, most likely a relative of the household, there is still a shock value put in there with the way the scene is shot. It is filled with numerous close-ups of the actors, for the first time, black people are being seen on screen in a manner never portrayed. The shots include a hand squeezing a piece of flesh, arms, backs, and even bare breasts and buttocks. Using a 13 year old boy and a 40 year old woman to do the scene provides the viewer with the first test on screen of whether or not race is an issue for them. While Sidney Poitier has run around with his nose stuck up for 15 years at this point preaching equality through every metaphor possible (building a church, helping a blind girl, coming to dinner, etc.), his test is not as strong as the question asked in this exploitation scene- what is more disturbing to the viewer, the fact that a 13 year old boy and a 40 year old woman are having consensual sex on screen, or the fact that two ordinary black people, both of which are probably from the ‘bad part of town’ that people always fear when it comes to the black people, are having consensual sex on screen? The question doesn’t ask whether a person minds seeing black people on screen or believes in equality. Instead, it asks the viewer to self-evaluate himself on his own views and beliefs, and asks how true he sticks to them when placed in a situation such as this one five minutes into the film.
Regarding the discussion of the sex scene between the older woman and the younger boy that begins the film, it is interesting to note that the child in the scene is actually 13-year-old Mario Van Peebles - Melvin's son and director of films such as New Jack City, Panther, and Baadasssss! (a fiction/documentary hybrid film about the making of Sweet Sweetback wherein he plays his father). It has been rumored that, like his character, the younger Van Peebles lost his virginity while filming this scene. Without going too far afield into the ethical implications of this choice, does it affect your reading of the scene/film?
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song is a hyper, stylized vision of the blaxploitation genre of the ‘70s due to its narrative, filmmaking techniques, and statements on African-American culture of the time. What separates it as a whole is the fact that it is experienced completely through the eyes of African-Americans. With this Peebles was able to create a film that is all about representation. The film abandons the traditional qualities of dialogue and relies more heavily on images, which speak for themselves. Peebles uses fast techniques such as jump cuts, quick pans, and a hyper zoom. The soundtrack, which corresponds perfectly with the images, consists of hip beats that reminded me somewhat of disco music of the ‘70s. The pacing of the film is slow, as it takes its time to feature the world in which these people live. In these respects Peebles succeeds wholly in creating a film that strays from the traditions of cinema. Instead, he opens our eyes to a world we’ve never seen or experienced before. For this reason I liken the film to Easy Rider, which is also representative of an independent, unconventional counterculture. Easy Rider also presents its way of life through a series of unique filmmaking techniques.
As far as Cook’s comments on blaxploitation, I feel that Sweet Sweetback is a prime example of what African-American filmmakers were striving for at the time. On this particular film each person involved was African-American, and its perspective is limited to that culture only. In his book Cook cites Newsweek magazine when he writes, “Talented black actors, directors, and writers were suddenly plucked out of studio back rooms, modeling agencies, and ghetto theaters, and turned loose on new black projects” (Cook 263). This was a time when films were financed on shoestring budgets, a sort of guerilla filmmaking. Sweet Sweetback was made with practically no budget, which put into effect the participation of not just filmmakers, but the whole black community. It seems to me that that’s why these films are worth remembering in the context of the ‘70s.
In Sweet Sweetback, Melvin Van Peebles establishes his "rhythms, speech and pace" through visuals, editing and dialogue. The pacing of Sweet Sweetback seems to be some sex, a little violence, the plot (which took all of 10-15 minutes of the film),more sex, running, more violence, and running, lots of running. The film is very amateur, but it has a lot of style: color saturation, bold cross dissolves (the legs running over Sweetback running full body), the music (especially the long song towards the end) and the language used (his friend who exits the shower does all the talking in a very "jively" fashion). It is definitley an original work, more so than any film we've seen in class. Sweet Sweetback I would say is closest to Easy Rider as far as the aesthetics of the film go. It is shot very grainy at times and most of the more obscure style used is throughout the film is capsuled in Easy Rider's acid trip/cemetary scene. Both films make some sort of statement about the outsider, Sweet Sweetback uses the black community while Easy Rider is the hippie counter culture. However, Peebles is making a similar point about "the man" as is Easy Rider, only "the man" he refers to is "the racist white man" holding down the blacks.
Regardless of it's X rating "by an all white jury" (which was true since CARA had no black members at that time), the film spawned many reincarnations of the same ideas and style. Shaft and Superfly were followed Sweet Sweetback and were very successful, each eventually having sequels. Sweetback had a more radical, stick it to the man feel, as opposed to the other blaxploitation films of Fred Williamson who usually played some type of bruiser or killer. The head of the Hollywood branch of the NAACP was against the exposure of black kids "to a steady diet of so called black movies that glorify black males as pimps, dope pushers, gangsters, and super males." Sweet Sweetback kind of created the monster of "blaxploitation" films by laying the ground work with style and statements, but goes against the stereotypical black man as gangster/pusher/pimp because his crime could be justified, and it showed the reprocutions of his actions as opposed to glorifying them as in The Mack or Black Ceasar.
Melvin Van Peebles’s style and construction of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss song is influenced by the French New Wave style of filmmaking in which incorporations of voice over speeches and avant-garde visuals sprinkle their way in-between scenes. These raw aesthetic interruptions would routinely remind the audience what kind of film they were watching through means of propagandist’s spoken word or vibrant splashes of color and music making it a very different film experience from that of normal Hollywood narratives.
The film most reminds me of Easy Rider with its routinely inserted avant-garde moments and also shared the same character positioning about outsiders against a majority. Both were also great depictions of social/cultural politics in America during the 70’s and featured lots of nudity drugs sex violence and great music to drink it all down with. However Baadasssss specifically jumpstarted a completely new cultural genera of film that David Cook references as Blaxploitation or what Hollywood called “Black Action.” Cook encapsulates the genera as a focus on young black males confronting the tough urban realities of drugs, street crime, and violent death, within a broader cultural context of institutionalized misogyny and racism.” One last thing, about that scene with Melvin Van Peebles’s son Mario, aside from an ethical consideration, the artistic message remains the same with me: Young black men are forced to grow up fast in unconventional ways. As we watch the scene pornographically progress a quick cut transforms the young boy into a fully grown man ready to take on the world.
"Regarding the discussion of the sex scene between the older woman and the younger boy that begins the film, it is interesting to note that the child in the scene is actually 13-year-old Mario Van Peebles"
Holy crow, and I thought Kyra Schon having to pretend to eat her own father in Night of the Living Dead was the worst example of movie makers aggresively trying to screw up their kids with acting roles I could find. Whew!
"I hurt."
Sweet Sweetback’s baad asss song was a fore runner in the blaxploitation films. It was revolutionary for presenting a black film that was not only presenting a black main character (Mario Van Peeble), but also being directed by a black man (Martin Van Peeble). Because of this it is the only film that has been mandated for Black Panther initiation. I think this film is most similar to Easy Rider, not only because it shot in a guerrilla style – i.e. not typical Hollywood gloss, but rather the grainy, quicker shots with less smooth transitions, much like that of the Mardi Gras scene in Rider, but it also is not driven by character developments, but rather events that transpire. The pace of the movie is rather slow and the dialogue limited. The score, written by Van Peeble, and performed by Earth wind and Fire narrated a lot of the mood of the film, rather than relying on dialogue.
The themes of sex and violence that prevailed in this are of course present in this film, though I felt that this violence had more of a purpose than in other films, being that it was in response to the violence a race had suffered and Sweetback just became an icon to rise against the machine. Cook mentions that this is not unlike what men of this era suffered, living in situations of drugs, violence, street crimes, and growing up under dire circumstances. This is not unlike Sweetback’s situation as he is ensconced by the white police to act as a scape goat for a crime he didn’t commit. This in turn leads to him witnessing a hate crime as the same cops proceed to beat a young black man. Sweetback feels obligated to help him, but wants nothing to do with the man after they escape. It seems as though this isn’t so much of a political statement but rather a moral one.
The fact that Sweetback escapes in the end was monumental. Until this point, no black man had ever gotten the best of the white man, but rather the black man was always conveyed as the “bad guy”.
--Jennifer Campbell
Christian Turckes
Van Peebles created a movie, that was erratic, because there wasn’t to much to the movie. It didn’t have much dialogue, and what little there was wasn’t exactly easy to understand, the film was really gritty and left something to the imagination, but of all the movies we watched in class, I think that this is probably the most realistic of the movies we watched, in the sense that this possibly happen in real life, although I’m not sure if they would go to such lengths to find one person. If I had to pick any movie we watched, that this film resembled, it would obviously be Easy Rider, because it was also produced independently, and had the same gritty feel to it that Sweet Sweetback’s Bad Ass Song did. This film had many flaws, and I didn’t like it, but I give credit to Van Peebles, because he made a movie that did well in such a short amount of time.
This film would fit as blaxploitation, because it showed the black people’s view of society in the 70’s, and it shows how the black man can stand up against the oppressive white man. It shows this I think in the beginning of the movie when Van Peebles seems to be sending a message to his black audience when it says the this film is for all of those people who are sick of being put down by the man. This I think is explained in Lost Illusions, because Cook says that blaxploitation in all about anti-establishment dealings, and racial issues.
Joe Evrard
I don't know what to say about this movie other than how awkward I felt at the first scene. I don't think I've ever seen a sex scene between an older lady and a young boy before this and honestly I never want to again. After the beginning, an older Sweetback is having sex in the middle of a group of people watching and I still felt awkward. When the movie got going it still was wierd. I might have missed it but why did the white police need to arrest a black man for there reputation? I guess that is one of the points Peebles is trying to show by being different but I still don't get it. I understand why Sweetback did the things he did like stopping the police brutality to another black man and rescuing him and then running from the police but the end was really anti-climactic. Films in the present would have the main character in this senoario make a final stand and go down in a blaze of glory or fight and win. Look at Bonnie and Clyde and Easyrider and Clockwork Orange. Peebles could have made a better ending then, "he got away, but he'll be back." I am NOT asking for Sweetback to be killed but the movie could have ended a lot more spectacular.
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is definitely quite stylistically and structurally different from any traditional Hollywood fare. The difference lies mostly in the way its story was told. In a trad. Hollywood film, classic European plot structure is used (three act structure, with rising action, a climax, and falling action), and information is imparted through simple verbal exposition. In Sweet Sweetback, the emphasis is on a snappy rhythmic editing and the images themselves—maybe the storyline itself isn’t as important as the political issues or the feeling of running away, or survival. I think these differences come from deep-seated cultural and linguistic differences between whites and blacks—differences in how we express ourselves and what we are interested in expressing.
The speech is very strange—in most films written by whites, even today, African American Vernacular English is heavily whitewashed for understanding, unless it is used for [Anglo-centric] comic effect. In Sweet Sweetback, the speech of the black people had phrasing and words that were not intelligible to me. The white people in the film spoke like robots, and didn’t even sound good when cursing.
I’m gonna compare it to Straw Dogs, in that it presented a fatalistic us-and-them situation with no hope of reaching a non-violent understanding of each other.
Peebles brought a whole new type of film to audiences’ eyes and ears. He brought street slang to the big screen which we weren’t accustomed to hearing in the mainstream. Peebles’s use of music is also an interesting aspect of the film, as he uses it to narrate key actions and situations. Sweetback is unlike any film I’ve ever seen, let alone any action film, but for an action film, it had a really slow pace which was surprising and unexpected.
Peebles certainly was effective in creating an alternative to the traditional Hollywood film experience. The style and topic matter was unlike any traditional Hollywood film. Movies weren’t being made specifically for black people until then, and its success “opened the floodgates of blaxploitation at the studios” (Cook pg.260).
Easy Rider is the first film that comes to mind out of those we’ve seen in class that correlates somewhat with Sweetback. I’m mainly thinking of the Mardi Gras scene where hand held cameras were used which created a raw, gritty, real feel, much like that in Sweetback. Both films also feature their main characters adventuring on the road.
Sweetback was one of the founding fathers of the blaxploitation movement. Its success proved there was a substantial market for this genre, and its low budget made for incredible payoffs. Cook mentions that hundreds of low budget blaxploitation films followed Sweetback in an attempt to capture similar success. This growing trend can be seen as one of the driving forces in pulling Hollywood out of their recession, as these films catered to an untapped audience which led to a major resurgence in the box office.
Van Peebles creation of (rhythms, speech, and pace) not only shines through the sound track but also by editing, overlapping of shots/scene on top of each other, fast talking, rough camera movements and repeats of certain lines as well as using child for sexual scene. Some of the editing is similar to that of Easy Rider in that we get a glance of the up coming scene, and that one repetitive scene of the women and a couple of kids saying that they never seen SweetBack. The camera movements were extremely jiggling that it was hard to see what was happening even after the movie has ended; it took a while for my eyes to adjust back to normal. Most of the lines were difficult to understand due to the rate that they were saying it especially the scene when SweetBack was meeting with this one guy in the restroom. Yes this was effective not just because of his style but also of his child usage in sexual scene as well as his (black) side of the story. For instance, when SweetBack was arrested just to make the white cops look good and after that everything went bad after he helped one of his “brothers” by killing those cops whom unjustly abused him. Also, when that one black male was brutally beaten just for looking not even close to SweetBack, nothing was done. Also, the racial issues that has brought up by this film deals with what’s happening at the time. For instance, SweetBack’s friend lost his hearing for not knowing where he is and the police chief lying to the media regarding their capture of SweetBack just to get good publicity, as well as using the N word even though there were two Blacks on his police force.
Xiong Koua
Sitting through this was not a pleasure. I understand the floodgates it opened for the film industry, but I really didn’t care for this movie as a whole. This is due to the director’s pace, rhythm, and speech. If an experienced director took the idea of showing the realities of the black culture and put it on the big screen, I would have probably been able to watch it much easier. It might not have been as raw as “Sweetback” but something more attuned with trained film (If there is such a thing). The actor’s speech patterns are mumbled and unintelligible to the viewer. The pace is odd, but not annoying. There are frequent scenes that are slow but at other times fast. The raw color and acting I know are due to lack of funding.
Like some have said, this film reminds me a lot of the filmmaking done in “Easy Rider”. I think the graveyard scene in “Rider” has a lot of the similar camera work as Sweetback’s run in the desert. That distorted raw view.
The blaxploitation was certainly present from start to finish, right from the credits reading “This is a film for all the brothers and sisters” to ending reading about Sweetback’s return to kick ass. It does help get the message across that blacks are sometimes being wrongfully accused of crimes by THE MAN.
In almost all of the films we have watched so far this semester have all been about the white culture and havent seen much of the black culture. In the movie "On Sweet Sweetbacks's Baadassss Song" the culture is all black. Just from the open scene you can already tell what culture the film is going to revolve around. You can almost get a feel of how it is going to go from the opening scene too. In the opening scene a young lady takes a little boy in the room and strips him down and lets him experience his first sexual encounter. That is an example of a way Van Peeples shows rhythm, speech, and space.
In this film Van Peebles presents the main character as sort of like a fugitive. Like in the movie he is either in a sex scene with a white girl or hes on the run. He never really says anything. It is always everyone else yelling his name as he runs by. That could be represented as rhythm or pace in the movie. I can see this film fitting into David Cooks discussion of blaxploitation he discusses many different topics on blaxploitation in this time period. "Even though most 1970s black action films were created by whites and concentrated on negative themes of crime and drugs in the inner city."(pg. 265) This film shows some of those things that Cook mentioned in this section of his book.
Jordan
Peebles is definitely creating a different cinematic experience than Hollywood...poor cinema with a strong social comment. Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss Song has some of the worst cinematography(in tradition of other 70's cult films, see early John Water's) and acting I have ever been privy to. Merging experimental art house techniques with the desperation to tell a story the misrepresented black population of the 1970's want to see is a clearly different cinema for viewers to go to other than Hollywood films of the era. It utilizes the B movie and also pornography to tell a story directed at black audiences; that in it self is a political statement.
I would definitely consider Melvin Van Peebles to be successful in creating an alternative to the traditional Hollywood film. The whole experience of the film seems more involved with the audience, most likely due to the use of hand held cameras when filming. The pace of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song seems faster than that of, for example Straw Dogs, although it also seems like a more relaxed film in terms of events, despite a number of things happening during the 97 minutes. The quality of the image is not always particularly great which reminds me of the acid sequence in Easy Rider as the images are jittery and not always completely clear.
Cook’s description of blaxploitation films is movies that “feature predominantly black casts [and] were made by black filmmakers; and all revealed a proud new attitude towards blackness and the role of blacks in white society.” Sweet Sweetback fits into this description as it provides audiences with an insight into black community and introduces us to a new style of film and way of living. The film reminded me of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989), which has also been considered a blaxploitation film, in the way it is paced and focused around a specific community.
Junius Griffin, head of the Hollywood branch of the NAACP, decried the exposure of black children "to a steady diet of so-called black movies that glorify black males as pimps, dope pushers, gangsters, and super males" (Cook, 263). His remark was made in response to the fact that many of the black actions films of the early 70s were written, directed, and produced by whites. However, I personally found his comment fitting for SWEET SWEETBACK. Sweetback is presented as an uber-sexual male craved by women in the community. Cook describes him as a "young ghetto pimp." I found the dialog to be choppy and disjointed. I often times had trouble understanding the actors. In fact, maybe this is the reason I had trouble feeling compassion for any of the characters in the film. SWEET SWEETBACK had one major thing going for it in my opinion - the music. Much like EASY RIDER, the music provided the film with rhythm and propelled many of the scenes that lacked dialog (i.e. all of the chase scenes). Similarly, the rock music used during the open road scenes served as an anthem of sorts for the guys in EASY RIDER.
Viewing the film thirty years after it was made, it was easy for me to be cynical. I am curious how the black community felt about the film when it was released. The last line of the film really turned me off ("Watch out! A baad asssss nigger is coming back to collect some dues"). It seemed to belittle everything the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement stood for. Both movements focused on equality and respect - not revenge. In fact, I thought it was a ridiculous statement, but maybe I wasn't supposed to take it so seriously. I feel like there was something I seriously missed in watching this film; I'm not super sensitive but I found it pretty offensive...
Kevin Stephan
10.09.07
Now as soon as i saw we were viewing a film like sweet weeback's badassss song, i new we were in for something odd and new. Now i didnt get the pleasure of seeing it in class, i however was able to get a copy from a friend and i found the film very confusing and hard to understand. Especially the first scene really threw me off, and i kind of wanted to stop watching right there, the style that they used was the quick dialogue that i could not follow and the dark atmosphere where i really didnt know what was going on....it kind of reminded me of easy rider just from the fact i was confused most of the movie. Is this an alternative to traditional hollywood film it is but its not a style i like, i can see how people like it because of how different it from hollywood, and different filming style, it seems to me it was short more like a indepdant film style then a hollywood style, but i much prefer hollywood style more. but from what cook said, i really feel thats how some african americans wanted us to see how they felt there lives were like, plus i dont know how much money they had to make the film, but from seeing it, i believe prolly not a lot, so they tried there best with what they can do, now am im going to say this was a bad movie, no it was wayyy different from what i thought it would be so i dont really think it was bad.....but more like weird.
This film is different from those that we’ve watched so far in class. There are a lot of abstracted things here and there like the music that sometimes sounded like nothing but a whole bunch of things just banging together, but that is what makes it interesting because it was jazz and it was the music of the people. I feel like the music is supposed to show how Sweetback is feeling and all the confusions that he is creating around him. There is a constant usage of repetition of certain lines like when the black lady was talking to the cops, and the repetition of certain actions. The cuts are very choppy and different from the other films that we’ve watched in class. This film is effective in creating an alternative to the traditional Hollywood film because it has all the sex and violence but in a street form. It shows the ways of the black people and their ways of the street. “There were bold attempts to test the limits of the new ratings system with regard sex and violence” (Cook: page 259). This is a great jump from the traditional Hollywood because it was at the time pushing the CARA rating systems because of the numerous sex and violent scenes that was being viewed in the film. It is a mainstream black film that featured black actors.
Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song made its mark on history on blaxploitation films within the first couple minutes of the film to the very end. The idea of a 13 year old having sex with a 40 year old is essentially morally wrong whether they are white or black, however looking at the time this came out it was definetly trying to make a point by showing sexual intercourse between african americans. Even today African Americans in movies are almost portrayed as the antagonist. This movie showed the trials and tribulations African Americans faced in America. The different cuts, close ups and music made this film revolutionary and unique as well. With the frames sometimes being black and white then color it showed that there is and maybe always will be a fine line between what is ethnically acceptable and what is not.
To compare this to another movie I would have to agree with most of the other students and say it is alot like Easy Riders. People not being socially accepted on a quest to find themselves, with a rocking soundtrack, scenes of sex and drugs and violence in both. However it might be sad to say that Sweet Sweetback's Badassss Song is not very known by the mainstream as is Easy Riders. Many might say because it was an independent cheap film. That may be true, but Easy Riders was also the same. Just as Easy Riders had good direction and actors the same can be said for SSBS. The sad thing to say is maybe Easy RIders is more widely known than SSBS because of the racial differences and I believe this movie is making the point about the struggles African Americans are making the box office at that time proves it.
Paul Hart
Sweet Sweetback was the one that really started it. Rough around the edges and vigorously anti-establishment, yet wildly successful, this was the film that took blaxploitation from novelty to legitimacy. Here it was, these things that existed but were heretofore unseen...a worldview, a viewpoint. I love that this thing was shot in 19 days with a budget under half a mil and an all-black, non-union crew. Different pace, different rhythm...yes...made from a wholly different element. It's not entirely successful (pacing in particular...the film drags to a crawl at certain points and not just where it's thematically appropriate), but it's entirely genuine, and that's why it lasts.
Also, if I can say a thing, I'm going to take personal umbrage with Victor Vernon's comment...specifically his disgust with "the arrogance of putting “featuring the black community” in the opening credits". One, it's awesome, and two, if you think it's arrogant you've got no sense of history. Unrelated to content, the film's use of still frames and titles to deliver specific messages in a laid-back cultural vernacular is one of the fresher things in the film, a thing that came to be associated with the genre and has the funk and the verve to transcend it (Tarantino and Guy Ritchie have done fabulous things with it)
Also, if it's true that the junior Van Peebles lost his virginity at the age of 13 in the process of making this film...the primary feeling I get from that is shame and regret at the fact that it took me exactly twice as long. Damn it.
Melvin Van Peebles creates rhythms, speech, and pace differently than we have seen so far in class. The other films in class have associated with mainstream society. This blaxpoitation films strays away from the mainstream and focuses on one subgenre. Rhythm in this film is used extensively. This is portrayed with Sweetback constantly on the run. We see him visit a person or place for a short period, and then he is off running again. We also see rhythm and repetition repeated with the sexual active by Sweetback. This is shown to us from the start of the film with him as a young child to the near end of the film with Sweetback having sex in the grass. Rhythm is also used with the police officers as they continually question and injure people while chasing after Sweetback.
Speech is used simply and abrupt in this film. Dialogues are short and often scratchy. The viewer does not always know everything that is going on and the minimal speech helps to clarify these thoughts. Most of this film is about imagery, rather than speech. The film is highly dependent on what is going on, rather than how is saying it. Sweetback is always the content of the conversations. We never learn much else about any other character in this film.
The pace of this film is often shaky, switching from slow paced conversations and scenes to fast paced running and sped up sex scenes. This film is dirty and dark in its filming style. The pace is exaggerated even more with the drastic change of lighting during the progression of the film.
I think that Melvin Van Peebles is effective at straying away from the traditional Hollywood film experience. This independent film has similar characteristics of indie films today. It does not rely on perfect lighting and perfect even voices. It relates on the images and message to come across. In comparing this film with others shown so far, I think that this film matches A Clockwork Orange in the way that sound plays an important part. In A Clockwork Orange the music was used to enhance the idea of the film. The same thing is done in this film with the use of music. However, in Sweet Sweetback the music is not consistent in tone and volume as it is in A Clockwork Orange. Both films involve two men running away from their past.
Sweet Sweetback is a great example of a blaxploitation film. This film deals with the anti-establishment spirit of the radical youth. This is seen when Sweetback gives up his ride on the motorcycle for the rebellious youth that will create change. This film is also a blaxploitation film in the ways that it deals with discrimination through the eyes of an African American director, rather than a Caucasian. The film is more gritty and unpolished through Melvin’s eyes.
Tegan Olness
Furthermore, re: the Mario Van Peebles-losing-his-virginity-in-the-movie-at-the-age-of -13 thing, not only did it take me twice as long, but I failed to get it on film or otherwise make a work of art out of it. Actually, I'm really regretting it now...should've saved that for a special occasion.
-tw hansen
Every film that we have viewed up until now has not only made a bold statement itself, but has also had an impact of some sort on the movie industry. SWEET SWEETBACK’S BADASS SONG was a movie that gave blaxploitation a name and opened up opportunity for similar films. The fact that Van Peebles puts a child that young in such a controversial position shows that he is definitely trying to make a statement, but to find out afterwards that it was his own son to me is going a little too far for a low budget film. The dim lighting and dark scenes could be because it is an amateur film, but the fact that the majority of the characters are black makes me think that Van Peebles did that on purpose to blend them into the background. Half the time it was almost impossible to tell what was going on. Sweetback seemed like such a calm, quiet man at first, and then all of a sudden just starts killing and hurting people left and right. However, as opposed to STRAW DOGS, you don’t see the anger and rage in his eyes that David has when he is killing or hurting someone. Also, unlike both A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and STRAW DOGS, sex is used in a good way and not to be violent or harmful.
Blaxpoloitation films were black action movies during the Civil Rights Movement. They were use to make a statement and basically sand up for the black community. Cook relates SWEET SWEETBACK as a film that “resembles blaxploitation in its focus on young black males confronting the tough urban realities of drugs, street crime, and violent death, within a broader cultural context of institutionalized misogyny and racism (pg. 265).” In the end of the film there is a statement made that “a badass nigger is coming back to collect some dues”, referring to the blacks coming back for revenge on the white people. Because Van Peebles is black and he is the main character the film is seen through his point-of-view and makes a bolder and more controversial statement.
One specific way in which Van Peebles creates “rhythms, speech, and pace” in Sweet Sweetback is his editing. What he does with his editing is make it of the times, it is psychedelic, it is trippy, and you travel with the movie. Sweetback is running for his life, and the editing is done in a way that makes it feel urgent. The addition of music is also instrumental to the story telling, Earth Wind and Fire’s music adds and urgency to the film that wouldn’t have been easily conveyed without it.
Another important part of this movie is its content; it is, like most other movies of its time, unafraid to say what it wants to. There is sex and there is violence, I think to an extent we have not yet seen in this class (Van Peeble’s actually contracted gonorrhea during the filming of this pictures many sex scenes). As Keng Xiong mentioned, its sex and nudity pushed the CARA rating system. Obviously this wasn’t very “traditional Hollywood” as “their” major motive is making money, and making money means making a rating that will allow your film to be shown in a wide range of theaters. Van Peeble’s film was about a voice, and a different voice than that of the mainstream of the time, which Cook refers to as this coinciding with “anti-establishment spirit of the more radical youth-cult movies.” (259)
Sweet Sweetback Baadassss Song was a film we have yet to experience. To me this movie was very weird and unusual. The opening scene of the movie where the older woman has sexual encounters with the young boy was what stood out to me the most. This was something that just usually did not happen. One other thing that stood out to me was the man having sex out in public in front of everyone. This is just something most people do not come in experience with and would be very unusual if you did.
This movie reminds me a lot of Straw dogs due to the fact of the music playing in the back round of both movies. The music like you know what was going to happen. In Sweet Sweetback I thought it played a great role during the movie. It kept the movie going to could predict what was about to come.
Blaxpoloitation which were black actions movies. This movie represented this concept very well because it showed us how this community lived. What they were experience in during this day, dealing with drugs and crime mostly. In here they encountered many of these experiences and how hard it was to cope with everything going on around them.
Kelly Grzybowski
The film borrows greatly from the avant garde in its storytelling and imagery; the layering and the color rendition in some of the montage sequences bring to mind the films of Kenneth Anger, while the storytelling is simply a jumbled mess, as if to encourage the viewer to recognize the beauty of its parts, and not the whole, which was another prominent aspect of avant garde such as Luis Bunuel. The effectiveness pertaining to creating an alternative to Hollywood, however, is in it's glorification of black culture, specifically its involvement in bringing their activities into the limelight instead of whites, who are actually portrayed negatively.
The experimental nature can actually be akin to Bonnie and Clyde: both attempt to blend experimental and traditional narrative structures, imagery, and aesthetic choices, specifically violence and sexuality. However, they differ in their cultural agendas in that, given that they were both made in around the same time period, Bonnie and Clyde specifically caters to this “counterculture” phenomenon, and Sweetback specifically caters to black culture, and even though this seems quite obvious, it is worth mentioning because Sweetback set more precedent on a purely historical standpoint. Because of this precedent, Sweetback, as Cook explains, “completely opened the floodgates of blaxploitation at the studios,” which means it almost singlehandedly popularized the subgenre and served as an example for its later films.
Van Peebles uses unconventional methods to create different rhythms, speech, and pace. He uses repetition throughout the film. At some points, a line of dialog or scene is plays over and over with slight variations to get a certain effect. Several plot devices are also used in repetition. Such plot devices include police officers abusing black people, Sweetback running away, or random sexual encounters. This is very affective in creating something that is alternative to common Hollywood film. In “Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song” rapid edits were used much in the same way as “Easy Rider”. However, the context of these edits is different. The edits in “Easy Rider” were used to illustrate a drug trip. Yet, in “Sweetback” the edits were used in many instances creating more of a style than function in the film. This movie is pure blaxploitation. The majority of the cast is black (obviously). The film also deals with race equality and has a an overall antiestablishment feel as the Cook book mentions. The low budget and independent distribution also makes this x-rated film fit the subgenre.
Brian Cooney
Because of the music and the quick edits, this is one of the fastest-paced films I have ever seen. Like Sweetback himself, it just keeps going and going and going. I think this film is not really a completely different film from most Hollywood films. It just seems like an ultra-low budget Hollywood film. It still has the fight scenes and the over-the-top violence, and, although quite awkward, plenty of sex scenes. This film reminds me most of Easy Rider because of the music. While Sweetback is running, the audience is giving nothing more than this one repetitive song. The story is told strictly visually through the landscapes in the background, exactly like the riding scenes in Easy Rider.
The main thing this film exploits that Cook mentioned is the relationship and problems that still existed between the races. Sweetback was defending a black man being abused when he hurt the two white cops. He also had a run in later on in the film with some hick types. The white man and the police were the bad guys in this film. What better way to end racial tension than to make a film where every character of caucasian descent is evil.
Melissa Neumann
October 10, 2007
I have seen many different sex scenes in movies, and the scene with the young Sweetback and an older woman is the first that I have to admit shocked me. I read how the movie got an X rating for its nearly pornographic sex scenes, and I can definitely see why. And after reading how Mario might have lost his virginity during this scene, my opinion doesn’t change, but I am further shocked. But it did look really real, so that’d make sense.
In “Sweet Sweetback,” the soundtrack is what had the greatest effect on me. The music really caught my attention. It was very unique. The other movie where the music caught my attention was actually in “Easy Rider.” I hadn’t heard songs like that before. Both films looked non-conventional, were independent, and featured the theme of fighting “the man.” But in “Sweetback,” the black man was fighting the white man. Black people in films were not often depicted in a positive way. “Sweetback” did tell truth to how it was, with the fact that black people weren’t treated equally. Van Peebles gives a film to what he believed African Americans wanted. It was a film by the black community for the black community. I can see how this led to more blaxploitation films. According to Cook, “talented black actors, directors, and writers were suddenly plucked put of studio back rooms, modeling agencies, and ghetto theatres, and turned loose on new black projects” (P. 263). There was a boom of these movies, and many more followed and found great success.
Van Peebles creates different “rhythms, speech, and pace” in the movie by through the music, the language, and how it is shot. The language is meant for the black community, not the white community. And the shots are not impressive, very badly shot. The movie doesn’t look all that great, but it did keep me pretty entertained.
My overall response to this film addresses the controversial sex scenes and the overall feel of the film. First off, the sex scenes in this film were incredibly powerful. The first sex scene involving a 13 year old and a middle aged woman was especially powerful and quite controversial. Also, the fact that these characters were African American, and given that this was during the 1970s, I feel the audience was rather shocked by this scene and this film. This is a unique film. I feel that it is an important film to view, since it seems to be one of a kind, or rather, first of its kind. One other aspect I'd like to address, it the overall feel of the film. I feel that the film primarily deals with the main character running away. The film was about his constant escape from being caught. I suppose I could relate this aspect to Bonnie and Clyde. Bonnie and Clyde were also running away from being caught. In conclusion, this film was one of a kind, had a good sense of rhythm, which was suggested through music and editing, and a fair amount of controversial subjects, which seemed to be a popular subject in the 1960s and 1970s.
Allison Waller
Colin Stone
Van Peebles, in a sense of creating a unique vision, was successful. As far as creating an effective alternative to the hollywood style of cinema, his success is limited by the production value and target audience. A mainstream audience probably wouldn't consider this (or many blaxploitation films) much of an alternative simply due to the perspective and aesthetic of the genre.
I think much of Van Peebles work in this film screams amateur and low budget as it pertains to the general aesthetic. Much like in EASY RIDER, it has a very hand-held quality in combination with choppy editing and grainy texture. Granted, I find this to be much more extreme. I do, however, appreciate the idea of keeping the dialogue and speech in line with the audience he is trying to connect with. Even though this limits the audience, I think that was the purpose...it was never meant to be mainstream. I was shaken by the jarring quality, as the pace and rythm were, at times, somewhat difficult to follow. Again, even though there is a purpose and tendency towards the fast pace and choppy editing/story, I can't help but see it as a detraction in production value. EASY RIDER has similarities with some of the choppyness and cross cutting, but seemed to hold a linear and flowing structure better.
Cook illustrates how the blaxploitation subgenre focuses almost solely on race relations and the idea of taking down the establishment and crushing "the man" so to speak. Obviously, this was the main idea behind SSBS, as this film I think could be seen as the "poster child" for blaxploitation films of that era. It defines itself through those very ideas and became helped define both the aesthetic and genre.
Nathan Pratt
Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song shows many differences from any other film we have viewed in the class thus far. The rhythm of the film is way different because it is fast paced and lacks long parts of dialogue. The speech in this film is very hard to understand in most parts of the film, an example of this would be when sweetback goes to the mans house when hes in the shower, much of what the man said is mumbled and hard to understand. The use of music to set the tone is very evident in this movie because what the characters lack of speech doesnt tell you the music does. The films fast paced action gives the viewer the feeling of how sweetback feels during the whole thing, as if he's rushed.
I believe that Van Peebles succeeded in creating a film unlike any other. Using A Clockwork Orange as an opposite we see that in this film the characters explain themselves through speech and that the film has a much slower pace while Alex is going through all of his problems, compared to sweetback who is just introduce and then on his way running the whole movie.
According to Cook Blaxploitation films deal with antiestablishment ideals and race relations. This is shown when the captain uses the N word as a reference to sweetback showing how races clashed during these times.He is in trouble because he stood up for a black man getting beat up by the cops for no reason which is evidence enough to show how people reacted to this type of treatment. As Cook also describes Blaxploitation films usually involve a young black male who is faced with violence,sex, and drugs which is exactly what Sweetback was faced with in this film therefore this film fits right in with the Blaxploitation genre.
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is very different than the films viewed in our class and different from a lot of films being made at the same time. The Film creates a different feel than other films, while watching the film one cannot get over the amateur filming, amateur editing, and amateur storyline. Ultimately there was little to no plot or storyline. Sure he was running south towards the border, but there was nothing other than that, no substance, no point. It created a new feel using the elements other than dialogue. This film was extremely hard to follow because the dialogue did nothing for the story and typically was not fluent. The filming was just as bad, grainy, shaky, and the color was all off. But the film used music to drive the story and tell the audience when the intense parts came and went. One could say that he is indeed creating an alternative to Hollywood however films being made in Hollywood had a sort of viewing quality, something people wanted to watch, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song just was not entertaining, viewers would get more out of Easy Riders, a film very similar to Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. In both films the character is traveling south to find some sort of meaning. Regardless of race, one could rant about the lack of blacks in Hollywood, but really Easy Riders and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song are the same story, one done well and one done horribly, thus not an alternative to Hollywood, rather a downgrade cheap version of Hollywood.
Sweet Sweetback is exactly what Cook calls Blaxploitation. Sweet Sweetback is considered the first film to begin the Blaxploitation and would lead they way for many films to follow. Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song shows the growing up of a black male; growing up surrounded by drugs, sex, and violence. The line is clearly drawn between whites and blacks. As a man-whore refuses to have sex with a white female, and kills two cops after beating a black man. This is exactly how Cook said Blaxploitation films would depict blacks during the 70's.
Van Peeples easily creates a different feeling of "rhythms, speech, and pace" in Sweet Sweetback. The film is shot to look very amateurish, grainy, and shaky. In a way it looks more real and down to earth than over the top Hollywood movies. The dialog help with this feeling as well with the very natural talking and use of slang. All of this is completely different from Hollywood. Hollywood usually has everything perfectly placed and some things can just feel over the top, but Van Peeples uses gritty realism. The best movie to compare Sweet Sweetback to is Easy Rider. Both of these movies attempt to be more gritty and show what's really happening if life. They are trying to show it as it is. The music also plays a huge role in that both movies play lots of music that is directly related to the main subject and their general community. The major differences would be who the subjects are-black community and the hippie community.
This fits in with Cook that the movie is against establishment. Not only are the majority of the cops shown to be crooked in the movie,but some are also killed. Then there's the fact that the movie is showing a different story and life than the normal white majority. It really goes off on a tangent from normal movies of the time.
Van Peebles creates definite rhythms, pace, and speech in Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. When Sweetback visits the man whom just gets out of the shower, he's confusingly quiet, leaving the man to perform a monologue. The way the man speaks has its own flow and rhythm which is actually pretty interesting to follow. He talks on and on about being Sweetback's man while he performs more bathroom activities for a while and it's like a speech with the pace he maintains. Another way this shows a difference in speech is that he keeps calling Sweetback "baby" and other things that the Anglo-Saxon wouldn't typically say. That particular scene reminded me of Easy Rider after Jack Nicholson is murdered and Wyatt and Billy are eating in the fancy restaurant. After some music with shots of eating, Billy encourages Wyatt to accompany him to the whore house, which is then followed by a musical pause of Wyatt's indecision while they both take another bite. With the same rhythm, the music stops and Billy urges Wyatt to go again. It was a fun pattern, but was different from the Rhythms of Sweetback's as it was short and Billy referred to Wyatt as "man" instead of "baby." More fun expressions of rhythm and pace were the scenes of Sweetback running. Composed of funky camera angles, visual effects such as trippy colors, and fun, spirited music, Sweetback would run for five minutes or so around the city in an adventurous fashion never done before in Hollywood films. Van Peebles was very effective in creating an alternative to the traditional Hollywood film experience.
Blaxpoitation films, according to Cook, were mostly composed of black actors and had black directors that "revealed a proud new attitude towards blackness and the role of blacks in white society.” This film is the epitome of this definition. There was a lot of pride for all the black characters and the film was mostly composed of them. The intro of the film stating that it was intended for those fed up with the Man clearly stated the role of blacks in white society as blacks viewed it.
Dylan Statz (301-004)
Van Peebles created a film different than any other we've seen in class through the look of the film, the camera work and the acting. From what I can remember the whole film seems to be handheld, creating a shaky environment, but at the same time it had rhythm. Like he says, the black community is shown through the movie, not just through the actors, being as how most are black. Music is a big part of the black history, from jazz and songs made famous by slaves working in plantations, its always been different, so it makes sense that a film made by a black man reflect the community just like the music. Also was the sexuality shown, almost as a test to the audience. Although Van Peebles made this movie for the black audience, you also can't help but wonder if he made this to shock the rest of the world. I don't think it was a big reason for him to make the film, but like you mentioned, he used his 13 year old son for the scene, and most likely had lost his viriginity while doing that. I remember when his docu 'Badassss!' came out, I never saw it, but after seeing plenty of interviews with the younger Van Peebles it shows that it didn't neccessarily affect him negatively because he views it as art. Van Peebles was making this film as art, but at the same time was testing the waters of a white audience who was not used to seeing not only an all black film, but black people in those situations. Cook writes, "There were bold attempts to test the limits of the new ratings system with regard sex and violence" and Van Peebles does just that.
Another film I can compare this one to is 'Easy Rider.' Both were indepentantly produced, made for little money but brought in a lot more, which made studios change their minds about what movies to produce. Also, both were visually different than films made before. Easy Rider had more organic scenery and followed the characters more from a distance, while Sweet Sweetback's was visually different with the film itself, colorizing and changing the look of the film. And lastly both had characters that didn't fit society's idea of what a person should be like. When the three men in 'Easy Rider' were in the diner they got stares and whispers because of the way they dressed and acted. In Sweet Sweetback's the black people themselves were being singled out.
I can see this fitting into Cook's description because it was considered the first Blaxpoitation film and like Cook writes, it "features predominantly black casts [and] were made by black filmmakers; and all revealed a proud new attitude towards blackness and the role of blacks in white society."
Marisa Marcus
Perhaps one of the most unconventional techniques found in Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is the unconventional visual style. The fast paced editing and unique camera angles help define the film itself. However, the content of the film is also unconventional, not only its subject matter of racism and political activism, but also in its portrayals of sexuality and violence. The film’s content and style is also different in the sense that the movie contains minimalist dialogue and subversive character depictions. The original music also creates a different sensory experience than you would find in movies that have elaborate orchestrated scores. The film’s style, content, and the music all lead to a raw and intense viewing experience that is different than most Hollywood films. In this sense, the film is successful in creating a film that creates an alternate viewing experience.
It is probably easiest to compare this film to the movie Easy Rider that was also viewed in class. Both movies are low budget films and ultimately create a similar viewing experience when comparing the two film styles. While both films are noticeably different, there are also similarities that can be viewed between the two films. For instance, both films contain stories that revolve around a main characters’ journey. This being the focus of each film, there is minimalist dialogue found in both films. Also, the camera styles in both films can be considered quite unique when viewing directorial choices, and the subject matter in both can be considered controversial. The popular music chosen to each film also highlights one of the unconventional tactics found in each film. All these tactics can be found likewise in both films, which probably explains why both these films are considered so innovative.
One aspect of blaxploitation that was mentioned in Lost Illusions was the fact that many race films of the early seventies were written, directed, and produced by whites leading to accusations that these films contained overtly stereotypical black characters and semi-predictable plot lines. So, a film of this nature which was created by a black director, and which directly references its aim at a black audience must have a radical impression on minority portrayals in film. Another aspect of blaxploitation that was mentioned in Lost Illusions was the changing in the rating system, which had an influence on this genre, and explains the graphic sexual content seen throughout the film.
Sweet Sweetback is on "another level" then most films in the 1970s or any period including current. What I found on screen was a confusing yet linear story about the black race kicking ass. The amatuer style of camera work really brings you into this world of white oppressive cops and racist ways. It sometimes was hard to understand the action at hand or to even see whats going on in the scene, but i guess this just adds to its charm. Another way the typical pace was offset, was the dialog, some characters were so heavy in there accent that it was hard to undersand them but it captured the language of the period, also things were not laid out for you as most hollywood films, the speach was sparatic and usally only enhancing the scene at hand, even the main character didn't talk much a few one liners throughout the entire movie. The music was also mixed and chopped to where the overbearing rythems of two or three songs made the action more intense, but overall the score was lighthearted and never took its events too seriously. In the terms that cook set blaxplotation films of this period were all about sticking it to the man, and race relations, this is clear obviously in all the cops that feel they can abuse you if your black, and how sweetback gets praise for every cop he puts down. hell, he even kills three attack dogs at the en wit his bare hands. This film is complex in terms of camera and themes but the concept is just one simple thing, kick the mans ass.
Like many of my fellow classmates have said, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is completely different from anything we've seen in class thus far. It reminded me a lot of Easy Rider. It had a similar pace and cuts. I think the pace of the film was unique because of the 19 day shooting time, the low budget and the content of the film. The film showed a variety unlike that seen in Hollywood at the time. The language at times was hard to understand, at least for me.
I think the film would fit as a Blaxploitation film because it did what Van Peeble wanted to do. It showed the black people's view of society in the 1970's. This I think is futher explained in the Cook book when he says that blaxploitation is all about anti-establishment dealings, and racial issues.
~Tara L. Vickery~
Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song took a perspective that had been unused in Classic Hollywood. The camera focused on a black star, Sweetback, and was shot with the intent of appealing to a black audience. Consequently the film has taken a different feel than any other thus far viewed in the class. Dialogue between characters was quick, and difficult to understand. Characters talked, but lacked significance behind their words, and thus the viewer has to rely mostly on a visual story telling. Yet the visuals featured quick edits, and lots of colorization. The scenes sometimes became to cluttered and distorted to find context in, which became distracting and detracted me from the film.
Sweetback's musical score, composed by Earth Wind and Fire, had strong relations to A Clockwork Orange. Both films utilized music to influence the opinions the audience forms around the visuals they are being shown. Peebles used the score to gain support from the audience to the black side of the issues he presents, while A.C.O. asks for sympathy towards Alex. The constant use of montaging gives Sweetback another correlation with Easy Rider.
Sweet Sweetback was a prime representation of Cook's blaxploitation assessment of films in the seventies. Sweetback aids a fellow black man by beating up two officers. And for the remainder of the film is pursued by the authorities. The black, white relations are unstable and characteristic of the those shaky times.
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is very different from every other movie that we've watched so far. The whole style of the movie was different and unique. Following in the footsteps of Easy Rider, the musical score was a modern, popular band (Earth, Wind, and Fire) which differed from the symphony scores many other movies used and still use. The rhythm was different altogether than any other older movie I'd ever seen. The movie was fast paced for the majority of it and the songs would play along to Sweetback on the run. They didn't really use a montage, but they showed him running to and from different places to try and get away. Another thing I saw as strange was that Sweetback, the main character, did not have all too many lines, which is different for a main character. The filming of the movie seemed odd when they would color a whole scene with basically one color. It seemed that either the scene was real dark or everything was the same. Chris Krombach
brennan olena
Sweet Sweetback's Badassss Song is an interesting film. As Van Peeble's wished, he created a his own rythyms, speech, and pace. All of this is evident simply from the Earth Wind and Fire soundtrack. The way the film moves is different from most any Hollywood movie, as it is like a road movie where the road is replaced with south western desert landscape. This gives makes it easiest to compare with Easy Rider. In both movies there is no reason for the characters to move on except when they no longer feel comfortable or safe. As far as speech they are also similiar in the fact that it is not textbook english in either film. In Sweetback the speek is jive/ebonics like while in Easy Rider it is Hippie/counterculture slang. This helps to further classify who the viewer should be. Neither film is one that you would watch with your grandparents or people of other generations because they may not completely understand the rhetoric and language. There is however dicourse in the pace of each film. In Sweetback the film is modertly slow with burst of excitment (sex/violence) Where as in Easy Rider the movie is very slow and the viewer is just along for the ride The excitment that happens rarely ever left the viewer happy, as Sweetback did.
This film did help to create an alternative to maintstream cinema, regardless of its misdirection. This film showed the urban youth (as Junius Griffin confirms in the text) the glorification of pimps as Sweetback was, showing the bad cops and the black man "Kicking ass" as Van Peebles states. The genre could howver more possitvly shown black role models legally overcoming these stereotypes by getting out of the cycle, but that is a different topic. Sweet Sweetback fits in well and i would say best defines Cook's discusion of blaxploitation . This movie saw commercial success ($4.1 million in rentals) and critic's scorn (Vincent Canby's comments calling it a psychotic..political explotation film), as did most movies of this genre.
brennan o'lena
This film in itself was indeed unique. The speech was different as the characters throughout the film used slang to communicate with each other. The psychedelic special effects seemed to remind me of Easy Riders, however the music itself was unique capturing the cultural aspects of the community.
This film in itself was indeed unique. The speech was different as the characters throughout the film used slang to communicate with each other. The psychedelic special effects seemed to remind me of Easy Riders, however the music itself was unique capturing the cultural aspects of the community. The film itself seemed to be very rapid in tempo, I think this was relative to Sweetback's clashing with and attempting to escape from authority.
-Brian Shea
Sweet SweetBack’s, is a movie all about the blaxploitation, and the oppression blacks had endured throughout history. Here we have a black male who barely talks throughout the whole movie, seems to not even participate in sex, and is exploited by his own boss because of “the man.” Every inch of this man’s life is decided for him, until he takes his life into his own hands when he decides to run from the law.
Cook says that most films about blacks during the period were about antiestablishment. In Sweet Sweetback’s, the law mostly portrayed by the white majority (the establishment) is trying to oppress Sweetback throughout the entire movie. However Sweetback rebels, killing two white officers and continually running from the law, producing this antiestablishment theme.
How Peeble’s adds his own touch is by introducing new stereotypes from the black population that did not surface in any other film during this period. Sweetback was not your typical woman seducing black male character with an afro and a gun on him at all times. He was an oppressed man that tried to endure a life that was choosen for him. You are also introduce to jive (slang used by Sweetback’s boss), the black males large male organ (for which the white female could not endure), and the religious service where most of the gospel is sung (I believe during this period movies mostly represented the typical catholic style service).
The Godfather was considered as one of the best American film because of all its rich qualities. The cast consist of several rising stars of the time combine with several elements to create such a well define film. The suspense sort of storyline was slowly building up to the end. The character development of Micheal was very interesting because at the beginning he said that he’s not like his father and will never be, but after the attempt murder of his father, he gunned down the men who tried to kill his father. His character sudden changed into the head of the family and he started running the family business. Even though they are violent, they still have a moral side with integrity and respect.
According to Cook, The Godfather was one of Coppola’s “most financially successful films in industry history to date” (Cook: 136). The success of the Godfather had helped Coppola further his directing career and started his own studio.
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