Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was a 1971 blaxploitation film. Unusually for the genre, it was directed by a black director, Melvin Van Peebles, who also starred, wrote, produced, and co-wrote the score with the then-unknown group Earth, Wind & Fire. The film, which was funded and distributed outside of the Hollywood system, broke conventions with its visual style, as well as its content. The film's fast-paced montages and jump-cuts were novel features for an American movie at the time, although it is likely that Van Peebles was influenced by the avant-garde films of Jean-Luc Godard, since he was living in Paris and studying to be a director during the mid-1960s.

Related Topics:
1971 - Blaxploitation - Black - Melvin Van Peebles - Earth, Wind & Fire - Hollywood

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Because Van Peebles had refused to submit the film to the MPAA, the film recieved an automatic X rating, and thus, the film was released with the tagline: "Rated X By An All-White Jury!" The film made $10m off a meagre $500,000 budget, a testament to both the financial clout and political awareness of the black-community at the time. Surprisingly, Bill Cosby was among the financial backers of the film. Infamously, when funds ran low, Van Peebles made extra money by applying for worker's compensation after he contracted gonorrhea when filming one of the film's numerous hardcore, unsimulated sex scenes. The scheme paid off, and Van Peebles used the money to further fund the project.

Related Topics:
MPAA - X rating - Bill Cosby - Worker's compensation - Gonorrhea

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Following the success of Sweet Sweetback the Hollywood studios attempted to cash in on the genre, most notably with films such as Shaft, Superfly, and Coffy. Other studios catered to fans who found humor in the film's extravagant sexual content and Mandingo stereotyping by releasing parodies such as the Dolemite films.

Related Topics:
Shaft - Superfly - Coffy - Mandingo - Dolemite

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In 2004 Melvin's son Mario Van Peebles made a biopic based on the filming of Sweet Sweetback entitled BAADASSSSS!

Related Topics:
2004 - Mario Van Peebles - BAADASSSSS!

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