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19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
On the run from an all-white jury..., June 12, 2001
In 1971, Melvin Van Peebles managed to get this little gem released by Cinemation Industries, a low-budget exploitation distributor and launched into theatres, consequently launching what would come to be known as Blaxpoitation at the same time. True, there were other black films before this one, but never one like it, and really, there never would be again.Melvin van plays Sweetback, a professional stud who works live sex shows, who is picked up by the cops to help them look as though they are working on a murder case. But when, the cops stop to rough up a revolutionary, Sweetback suddenly develops revolutionary ideas of his own and beats up the cops with his own handcuffs and goes on the run. That's essentially it, and what may seem boring, dated, disgusting and/or silly to most people, was some radical stuff back in 71. [...] It's radical enough now, you ain't ever seen a film like this! During his travels, Sweetback encounters all kinds of opposition (cops, biker gangs, posses etc), sees all kinds of places in the ghetto (baptist churches, rat-infested tenements, and finally the dessert)and is subjected to all kinds of experimental film making (colour tints, subjective shots, weird angles, freeze-frames etc.) What makes this film so different and exciting for me, is that having obviously been made with private money and many, many miles away froma studio, it can and does push the politics and revolutionary rhetoric right in your face and believe me it does! It is little wonder that Huey Newton (supposedly) made this required viewing for the Black Panther Party and that within a short time films like Shaft, Superfly and their clones were filling the cinemas on 42nd Street. Unlike the legions of films that followed this, which became more and more watered down copies of the central idea of this film (that a black man can take on his oppressors and actually win), this film is the REAL DEAL and power to van Peebles for having the guts and wherewithall to get his vision splashed across the screens.
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