Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song has a very interesting history. It was the third film by director Melvin Van Peebles. Peebles, who was born in Chicago in 1932, graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University and later moved to France. While living abroad he wrote five novels, one of which his first film Story of a Three-Day Pass was based off of. This film deals with an interracial love affair between a black American soldier stationed in France and a white Parisian shop clerk. The weekend that they end up spending together ends up becoming complicated because of their different ethnicities. This film received mixed reviews from America but there was an encouraging repsonse from the critics.
Watermelon Man and Sweet Sweetback Put Peebles on Map
His second film, Watermelon Man now ranks, according to Donald Bogle in his book Prime Time Blues: African Americans On Network Television, as the classic tragic mulatto story of this time period. This film did not have great success but it was a defining film concerning social issues prevalent during the time period. It was his third film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song that brought Peebles out as a defining director of this time period. The film focuses on Sweetback, a very calm and laid back man who works in a sex house. The film really picks up when he is handcuffed to another black man who is being beaten by two white cops, he decides to step in and he kills both policemen with their handcuffs. The film follows Sweetback as he evades the law and tries to stay alive. The film ends on a very optimistic note for on top of all the violence that takes place both directly to Sweetback and in his surroundings he is able to retain his freedom and thereby his identity.
Response to Sweetback
This film was very popular for a variety of reasons. It was a very loud voice for a lot of the frustration being felt in the black community towards American society at the time. In addition, it is important to note the acclaim Peebles received for his film work, in particular Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song. Here is a director who is black, receiving acclaim in a majority white media for his films. For something like this to take place at this time in American history speaks of the both the talent of the Peebles and also the power of cinema to break barriers.
Sweetback's Comment on Society
Sweetback contains very strong discourse as pertaining to the black community. Opression is a very strong theme in this film. Peebles spells this out very plainly throughout. There is a scene towards the beginning when two white cops come into Sweetback's place of work and tells the owner that they "need one of his boys" so they can take him to the station and make themselves look good. The black male in this instance is being used as a pawn to make these white cops appear as if they are doing their job. Scenes like this hold strong implications for how the black male related to society, particularly from a law versus citizen perspective. His film is ultimately a statement about the black man's status within American society. Whether positive or negative, he spells it out as he sees it and through this many others who felt the same now had a vehicle for both their frustrations and hopes.
Sources
Bogle, Donald. "Prime Time Blues: African Americans on Network Television." New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.
Toms, Coon, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films. 4th ed. New York: Continuum, 2003.
