| Blaxploitation trailblazer Melvin Van Peebles’ ’71 cult oddity Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song is a film many herald as paving the way for the best of black underground cinema. Indeed, it’s a captivating film, one charged with the antiauthoritarian chic of the day coupled with a bizarre sense of humour. The opening sequence is particularly noteworthy (and a clear-cut breach of our kiddie porn law). Our young protagonist is seen as a boy of about nine years of age, as a naked woman pulls his body over hers and they begin to have sex. (She screams in orgasmic delight as the sexual prowess of Sweetback is unleashed.) The young Mario Peebles (Melvin’s son) stars in this scene, his big-screen debut, one which he has undoubtedly described to a couple of therapists since the film’s debut. The
adult Sweet Sweetback (played by the director-writer himself) is soon
on the lam from the white cops, who beat up and savage anyone they decide
is in their way (i.e. brothers and sisters). Much of Sweet Sweetback’s
is an episodic, meandering film, but you can certainly sense why it
was so powerful and why it has proven so influential since. My favourite
scene comes when the cops bust into the room of a man in the middle
of the act of bestiality-with a kitten on one nipple and a rabbit on
the other. : |