Baadasssss!

Reviewed by:
Paul Ulane

Before Quentin Tarantino knew he wanted to be a black filmmaker, Melvin Van Peebles knew he was tired of seeing black filmmakers cornered into making the same Hollywood movie. But in 1971 nothing was going to change unless he took it upon himself, and Baadasssss! is the true story of what happened when he did. Mario Van Peebles plays his dad, fighting through an unrelenting string of complications, ranging from constant budget fallouts to on-set arrests to an unwarranted X-rating tacked on by da Man in an effort to compromise ticket sales. (Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song still wound up being the #1 grossing independent film of 1971.) The whole ordeal is handled with humor, and its triumphant ending underscores an achievement that the whole film world should still appreciate. If that's not enough, think of it as a primer on all those blaxploitation flicks that Samuel L. Jackson keeps remaking.