Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song

Director: Melvin Van Peebles
Year Released: 1971
Rating: 1.0

Van Peebles sets out to make a revolutionary statement about removing not just any man but rather The Man's foot out of your proverbial rectum, but instead makes an experimental film that touches on white fear of black virility. This is clear from the very beginning where a 12-year-old Sweetback (Melvin's son Mario) 'pleasures' a considerably older woman; older Sweetback (Melvin) screws girls at parties to the amazement of others. The rest is just the title character running endlessly from shady white cops and excessive use of blurry shots layered over each other (accompanied by Earth, Wind and Fire's unbearable score); as the forerunner of blaxploitation movies, it's more important for its place in cinema than for its quality, since it's actually a sloppy, amateurish production.