Hubert Scales

  • Melvin Van Peebles – Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song (1971)

    1971-1980BlaxploitationDramaExploitationMelvin Van PeeblesUSA

    After saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a black prostitute goes on the run from “the man” with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels.

    “Run, motherfucker.”

    Quote:
    “Sweetback was politically unacceptable on the one hand, but it made a lot of money on the other. And I thought it was a stroke of genius to suppress the political aspects and highlight the cartoonish aspects, and there you’ve got your blaxploitation. In essence, blaxploitation ushered in a bunch of counterrevolutionary films….The upside was that because the films were so markedly “urban”–and I’m using the code word–they had to use minorities in central roles. So a lot of people got to learn a craft that had always been denied them.”Read More »

Back to top button