Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song

Melvin Van Peebles' groundbreaking classic. A young hustler's aimless pleasure seeking turns to radicalism after witnessing the beating of a black revolutionary by two white cops. Driven to a state of blind rage, Sweetback takes brutal revenge on the cops, forcing him into a desperate life on the run.

Despite a humble opening at only two theaters followed by a torrent of negative reviews, SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG mushroomed to $10,000,000 at the box office, landing it on Daily Variety's list of top-grossing independent films. It is credited as the film that kicked off the so-called "Blaxploitation" film movement.

"[SWEETBACK] accumulates a kind of hallucinatory groove, with unexpected shafts of bizarre humor and vigorous, experimental new wave direction." - Geoff Andrew, Time Out

"A series of stark, earthy vignettes, Van Peebles evokes the vitality, humor, pain, despair and omnipresent fear that is life for so many African-Americans." - Kevin Thomas, The Los Angeles Times