Filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles (Mario Van Peebles) faced some Herculean challenges deciding the direction of his career in 1970 after making a film in France (Story of A Three-Day Pass) and then a Hollywood comedy (Watermelon Man) that were successful at film festivals and commercially. When his diligent agent (Saul Rubinek) hears him talking about making a film about a real street brother that will include all the faces that Norman Rockwell never painted — the story of a fugitive black man that he will call Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song — he begins to get worried that Melvin has lost touch with reality.
The filmmaker comes up with the idea for the film while in the desert with his son Mario (Khleo Thomas). Melvin enlists a laid-back friend Bill Harris (Rainn Wilson) to serve as producer and gets some crucial help from Clyde Houston (David Alan Grier), who as a maker of pornographic films has discovered ways of cutting corners and breaking the strict rules that prohibit filmmakers from doing their own thing apart from the studios and the Hollywood system.
A multiracial crew is gathered, and Mario decides not only to direct the film but to play the lead role of a fugitive from the white establishment. When some promised financiers drop out, the filmmaker decides to use his own money to get the movie made. Also starring are Ossie Davis as Melvin's father, Nia Long as his long-suffering wife, Joy Bryant as his voluptuous secretary, Terry Crews as a security guard, Paul Rodriguez as the cameraman, and T.K. Carter as Bill Cosby, the comedian who comes through with money just when it is needed most.
Mario Van Peebles has made a madcap movie about all the confusion, conflicts, disappointments, pressure, and pleasures of the creative process. Playing his father, the director does not cover-up some of this driven man's character flaws, such as using people for his own ends and exploiting his children. But we wind up cheering for Van Peebles who is determined to make a film that his people will savor and appreciate for its truth-telling.
And they did. Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. It went on to become one of the top grossing films of 1971. One factor contributing to its tremendous box office success was the soundtrack music of Earth, Wind and Fire.
The DVD Special Features provide solid background on the importance of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song to the development of black cinema. The audio track on the film has Mario and Melvin Van Peebles discussing the original film and the making of the story about it. A featurette "The Birth of Black Cinema" includes insights from Mario Van Peebles, Bill Cosby, Michael Mann, Ossie Davis, and others, and a featurette shot at the premiere provides more comments from the actors and principals. A final feature is an "American Cinematheque Q&A" with Melvin Van Peebles about both films.
