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RACISM ON THE RUN

Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Melvin Van Peebles'

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)

This X-rated chase/polemic film was very experimental for its time.

In this case, the word 'experimental' could be a euphemism for amateurish and on the cheap.

There are lots of double exposures and montages and repeats of the sound track. There is a lot of running with the camera. There are jump cuts. It was done on 16mm and some of the sections are sound dubbed.

That said, I didn't skip any of it. Neither did I succumb to liberal guilt by watching it. It is a very angry picture.

Also very silly in a lot of levels. I wonder if it was white folks doing the do whether we would laugh at it.

I don't know.

I am seeing it through a few different lenses.

I didn't like some animal cruelty in it as I am pretty sure that what there is was not faked.

No one had ever made a film about blacks like this before. On the other hand, it opened the door to the genré of blaxploitation. Shaft was not too far behind this.

I read a long New Yorker piece on Spike Lee. It didn't mention these films particularly. I think that the stream hit a dead end. There is no doubt that they are important. But not so much.

I will give it a 2 for my personal reaction and I suppose it could be upgraded to a 3 for being a historic breakthrough.

Labels: best films