IMDb RATING
7.3/10
5.3K
YOUR RATING
Mario Van Peebles' half-documentary/half-homage to his father Melvin Van Peebles' movie Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971).Mario Van Peebles' half-documentary/half-homage to his father Melvin Van Peebles' movie Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971).Mario Van Peebles' half-documentary/half-homage to his father Melvin Van Peebles' movie Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971).
- Awards
- 3 wins & 11 nominations total
Ralph P. Martin
- Tommy David
- (as Ralph Martin)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDuring a July 2004 interview with Terry Gross on the National Public Radio program "Fresh Air," Mario Van Peebles explained that he did not want to put any child actor in the same position he was put in on the set of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971), especially because he felt like, as a thirteen-year-old, his father had given him no choice but to participate in a sex scene with a much older woman--partly by threatening to confiscate the bicycle he had received as a Christmas present if he didn't perform. "I didn't enjoy it at all. I didn't want to be in that scene. I didn't want to have to give that bike back--that bike had a banana seat!...I didn't want to make anyone do that scene twice, so in Baadasssss! (2003) I just used the original footage of me as a kid in "(Sweet) Sweetback('s Baadasssss Song)" during that scene. So the kid I cast (to play the younger version of me, Khleo Thomas) wasn't going to have to do anything like that. And that's just something that I wanted to do--I said, 'well, I'm not going to repeat, do unto someone else what I didn't like having done unto me. ' But I did want to show the scene because I thought it was a point in my life, and it just showed something interesting about Melvin, that he was sort of like that 'Great Santini-esque' father--almost that which does not kill in a Friedrich Nietzsche-esque way you makes you stronger."
- GoofsWhile in the "D"...Detroit, The DJ announces the radio station's call letters beginning with "K" Call letters for radio and television stations in that area of the country start with "W".
- Quotes
Melvin Van Peebles: Is this something negative, Priscilla? Because if it's negative, I can't even deal with it right now. I'm a broke, pissed off nigger from Chicago, and I'm down to my last cigar.
- Crazy creditsReal-life participants of the production of "Sweet Sweetback's..." give testimony during the closing credits, including Earth, Wind & Fire founding member Maurice White, who confirmed the "bounced check" story. Melvin Van Peebles himself appears onscreen when the credits finish.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Anatomy of a Scene: Baadasssss (2004)
- SoundtracksDamn All the Fallacies
Performed by Tree Adams
New Dog Old Trix Publishing
Written by (c) Adam Hirsh
Courtesy of Treehouse Music Inc.
Featured review
I had been putting off seeing this, and then was pleasantly surprised.
I didn't know much about Mario Van Peebles, nor of his father ("Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song" came out 2 years before I was born) but after seeing this homage to Mr. Van Peebles and seeing how much he risked - everything from finances to his family and his own health, for his dream of "the world" to really see life from the African American point of view, the way it really is, is well impressive to say the least.
The unimaginable struggle, the pressure and the sheer will that Mario portrays in his father is a touching tribute. Mario reveals his father's motives for making "Sweetback" in a moving and heartfelt way, documenting how Hollywood portrayed races other than white - if you are not white, then you are the white man's servant - how at that time - no one and no other film had film portrayed a Black Man as a hero or the struggles that he or any other race faces. It is a tale that is bigger than him and despite the risk and struggle, he fights to tell it. This is a fitting homage to a pioneer of a Genre and a Father.
"Baadasssss!" It also depicts the rugged world of guerrilla film-making and the rabid fight involved in making an indie film from inception to distribution. After seeing this I take a much greater heed of the Van Peebles Name, "Baadasssss!" is worthy film as a Drama in its own right, an Homage to a Pioneer and Father and as a Documenty Tribute to a Piece of Film History.
I didn't know much about Mario Van Peebles, nor of his father ("Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song" came out 2 years before I was born) but after seeing this homage to Mr. Van Peebles and seeing how much he risked - everything from finances to his family and his own health, for his dream of "the world" to really see life from the African American point of view, the way it really is, is well impressive to say the least.
The unimaginable struggle, the pressure and the sheer will that Mario portrays in his father is a touching tribute. Mario reveals his father's motives for making "Sweetback" in a moving and heartfelt way, documenting how Hollywood portrayed races other than white - if you are not white, then you are the white man's servant - how at that time - no one and no other film had film portrayed a Black Man as a hero or the struggles that he or any other race faces. It is a tale that is bigger than him and despite the risk and struggle, he fights to tell it. This is a fitting homage to a pioneer of a Genre and a Father.
"Baadasssss!" It also depicts the rugged world of guerrilla film-making and the rabid fight involved in making an indie film from inception to distribution. After seeing this I take a much greater heed of the Van Peebles Name, "Baadasssss!" is worthy film as a Drama in its own right, an Homage to a Pioneer and Father and as a Documenty Tribute to a Piece of Film History.
- stefanie-10
- Jan 16, 2005
- Permalink
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Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $365,727
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $45,331
- May 30, 2004
- Gross worldwide
- $365,727
- Runtime1 hour 49 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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