Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
Cinemation Industries | Release Date: April 23, 1971 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Film ThreatChuck Foster
Blends the uncanny staging of home movies with a French New Wave perspective on iconography and metaphors. Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
A landmark in Black filmmaking in the U.S., this angry, extravagant, loud, belligerent movie reaches a high pitch early on and stays there. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineClayton Dillard
Over 40 years after its release, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song still retains its shock value, but even more so, it remains distinct as a work that cannot be squarely placed within a singular category. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Corliss
Without question or competition, the most influential movie by a black filmmaker. Read full review
80
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
Totally uncompromising and grindingly repetitive, the film nevertheless accumulates a kind of hallucinatory groove, with unexpected shafts of bizarre humour and vigorous, experimental new wave direction. Read full review
80
Rolling StoneDavid Fear
It's a revolutionary movie in more ways than one. Read full review
75
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
A shrewd and powerful mix of commercial ingredients and ideological intent. Read full review
60
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
Melvin Van Peebles produced this film, edited it, wrote the screenplay, composed the music and played the leading role. He comes out ahead in all but one category: there are some serious problems with his screenplay. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen Holden
If Sweet Sweetback is unforgettable, it is also deeply flawed. The acting is mediocre at best. And in depicting women as grotesque, flailing sex machines serviced by the indifferent stud hero, it matches today's gangsta rap in arrogant misogyny. Read full review
40
Village VoiceMichael Kerbel
Does for the black movement what Getting Straight did for the student movement: reduces it to escapist entertainment, cinematic stylishness, and near nonsense. [13 May 1971, p.68]
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