Throughout the years there were numerous endeavors made by a few producers in both Hollywood and free silver screen, to counter the variety of negative pictures of African Americans in film. Maybe a standout amongst the most brave, radical moves made accompanied Melvin Van Peeple's 1971 film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. The film was created autonomously by Van Peeples who acquired cash from a few sources including $50,000 from Bill Cosby. For Van Peeples, Sweetback was to be a solution for Hollywood's conventional way to deal with dark centered stories. With the ascent of Black Nationalism, changes in the social and political scene, and the proceeded with disappointment with Hollywood's general treatment of dark accounts in America, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song rose as a disputable yet reviving true to life leap forward for dark aesthesis in film.
The Web site Time Out says about this movie: “Arguably the most important black American film of its age, yet it's remained virtually unseen in Britain. In part that's because it is truly independent, shot on a shoestring and determinedly flouting Hollywood conventions of self- censorship” (Time Out Web). Unquestionably while considering Sweetback it's vital to comprehend the authentic hugeness of the film. As of right now in American history African Americans had become progressively disappointed with Hollywood's obtuse accounts including blacks. I will likely concentrate on the social/political/social conditions that are spoken to inside of the story talk of the film. In particular, I will concentrate on the impact of social developments, for example, the dark force development in the late sixties and seventies and in addition the Civil Rights Movement that went before it. What's more, the paper will investigate Sweetback as a "dark film" through its delineation of the experience of a dark society saint in the story. The New York Times states about this film: “With the exception of perhaps a dozen scenes, the movie is composed almost entirely of the sort of fancy montages with which television the goal” (Canby Web).
This movie has created challenges for the strategies that have been used towards African American people. The discourse in the discussed movie is strictly related to cultural social and political environment that was in America in 1970s. The opening scene happens to be very revealing and striking. It shows not only the movie but the whole idea that the movie has. For instance, a viewer can see how women feed a boy who also happens to be African American. There is no dialogue in this particular scene. Although, we can see that the relationship between these people is being highly emphasized. This scene portrays the significant role of relationship between patriarchal and matriarchal figures in African American society (MVP Movie Web).
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was a unimaginable and chronicled leap forward for filmic representation of African American experience. The film's story serves as a social/social/political report characteristic of the strained racial pressures and Black Nationalist developments that commanded the early part of the nineteen seventies. Sweetback, notwithstanding its feedback and dreary pictures of the dark group, I contend, is built as a very adapted and exploratory dream picture whose account concentrates on a society story that allegorically shows the filmic social and political tone of ghetto dark life in America.
Works Cited
Canby, V. Sweet Sweetback s Baadasssss Song (1971).Sweetback': Does It Exploit Injustice?:'
It's a Funny Old World'. The New York Times. Web.
<http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9801E2D71F3BE73ABC4153DFB366838
A669EDE>.
MVP Movie. Melvin Van Peebles and Blaxploitation. Web.
<http://www.mvpmovie.com/?Blaxploitation>.
Time Out. Sweet Sweetbacks. Web.
<http://www.timeout.com/london/film/sweet-sweetbacks-baadasssss-song>.
