Baadasssss!

Released 2004
Stars Mario Van Peebles, Joy Bryant, T.K. Carter, Terry Crews, Ossie Davis, David Alan Grier, Nia Long, Paul Rodriguez, Saul Rubinek, Vincent Schiavelli, Khleo Thomas, Rainn Wilson
Directed by Mario Van Peebles

I want to show all the faces that Norman Rockwell never painted. -- Melvin Van Peebles

It would be nice if movies were always made the way they are in Truffaut's "Day for Night," with idealism and romance, or Minnelli's "The Bad and the Beautiful," with glamor and intrigue. But sometimes they are made the way they are in Mario Van Peebles' "Baadasssss!" -- with desperation, deception and cunning. Here is one of the best movies I've seen about the making of a movie -- a fictionalized eyewitness account by Mario of how and why his father, Melvin Van Peebles, made "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song," a landmark in the birth of African-American cinema.

The original 1971 movie was scruffy and raw, the story of a man born in a brothel and initiated to sex at the age of 12, who grows up as an urban survivor, attacks two racist cops and eludes capture. That Sweetback got away with it electrified the movie's first audiences, who were intrigued by ad lines like "Rated X by an All-White Jury." Although it was not an exploitation film, it was credited by Variety with creating "blaxploitation," a genre that gave us Pam Grier, Shaft, Superfly and a generation of black filmmakers who moved into the mainstream.

Summary from Roger Ebert

It's a little hard to connect to a movie that has a goal of sticking it to the man, when, by the film's definition, I am the man, but "Baadasssss!" is a very good film. This movie was made in the spirit of the original using techniques from American Splendor, and it's very successful. It shows the passion that drove his father, as well as the lengths to which he was willing to push everyone. He had a goal in mind, and nothing was going to stop him. "Baadasssss!" is the pinnacle of Mario Van Peebles' career, just as "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" was the pinnacle of his father's film career. Someday will Melvin's grandson return to Sweetback for his turn? --Bill Alward, October 30, 2004