B Movie Nation

Foundational Cinema

B Movie News

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)

A powerful film whose impact is through a montage of images, music, and dialogue, alternating to disorient and reorient the viewer. It might be pretty confusing plot-wise (or perhaps it just doesn’t have much of a plot) and the actors are mostly bad, but this film was well thought out and executed with a goal of excellence (something that can’t be said for many films, underground or Hollywood). To boot, it is also entertaining and probably gave the exploitation crowd their money’s worth in 1971 with some hardcore violence and softcore sex.

Van Peebles created a unique experimental film that succeeds on its own terms. It is a classic for all time.