Baadassss

Films/DVD Asylum

Movies from comedy to drama to your favorite Hollyweird Star.

This film has received many accolades, and so it was with some anticipation that I watched this last night. Must say that I absolutely agree with those that praised the film.
For those who do not know, and many not familiar with black cinema would not, this is Mario van Peebles film about his father, Melvin van Peeble's early seventies film named "Sweet Sweetback, How to Get the Man's Foot Out of Your Ass," unseen by me. Melvin was hot off a successful film, "Watermelon Man," and his agent (played by Saul Rubinek, the journalist in Unforgiven) was hot to get him a multi-picture deal, and to do so, pushed Melvin to get a another idea, preferably a comedy, before Watermelon Man was released, in the event that Watermelon Man was a bomb.
Melvin takes a trip to the dessert, and has an epiphany. Apparenly, the dessert is good for such things, as Jim Morrison also had one there. He decides that Hollywood has repeatedly shown black people as buffoons, idiots, and second class citizens. He will make a film in which the black hero fights back by killing corrupted cops and fighting a corrupted system, and gets away with it. His agent is aghast.
He tries to get funding. He turns to a producer played by Adam West (batman). Adam West is willing to finance the film, but wants something in return, which includes, but it probably not limited to, a skinnydip in the pool. He then goes to a producer who wants to be silent, and gets his financing. Right before the shoot, his financier is arrested. No financing.
So he must finance the film himself. Because he cannot pay actors union scale, he begins filming with a scene which mirrors a black pornography scene, knowing the union representative will be visiting on that day. Apparently, porn actors are not part of the union guild, and so do not require union scale. They are convinced it is a porno, and then leave him alone.
The film is largely about the process of making a film when there is no money, and about a personality who was so consumed to make his film, that he would not let anything stand in his way. He puts Mario in the film, as a 12 year old in a love scene, despite protest from the crew. When his editor tells him he is quitting, he beats up the editor, telling him that only he knows the film as well, and quitting is not an option. The stress causes him to loose eyesight in his left eye, and the doctors telling him he needs to rest else he will loose his sight in the right eye does not deter him.
Melvin is so consumed with making a film using people that Rockwell never painted. His crew is more than 50% minority, and includes people who never worked on a film, learning on the job. Part of his crew was arrested because police suspected that they stole their equipment. They spent the weekend in jail because Melvin felt it more important to spend energy filming.
His secretary was dating a member of a young group named Earth, Wind, and Fire, and so they did the music for the film on the cheap, eager for an opportunity to play. His check to them bounced. In a desperate move, he goes to Bill Cosby, who lends him $50,000.00 to complete his film.
The film gets completed. But the all white jury gives it an "X" rating. Melvin refuses to edit the film to an "R". There is one company, in bankruptcy, that is willing to distribute the film, but can only get it to theater in Detroit and Atlanta. The theater in Detroit will only play it as the middle film of a three picture showing. He flies to Detroit, and makes a deal with the owners to play it as a feature.
Turns out that with the help of the Black Panthers, the film becomes the highest grossing independent feature of 1971. We learn as the credits role that Shaft was going to be a white film, and when this film took off, Hollywood changed it to a black film. We also learn that this was the first film to be made by black people, starring black actors, and made with a largely minority crew, which then started the black cinema movement. It became an historically significant film. The end credits run over interviews with the actual crew, and Hollywood, they are not.
Mario van Peebles does a very good job of balancing the making of the film, the trials and tribulations, with the passion that consumed his father. He shows that passion, good and bad. He does not hide the warts, and is willing to show the dissatisfaction he felt with his father, as played by the child that played him in the film.
I learn from Roger Ebert that Melvin van Peebles also made films in France, won the French Legion of Honor, was a Wall Street trader, and won 11 Tony awards on Broadway. Highly recommended, particularly for those interested in learning a side of filmmaking that is usually not shown, and for using subjects and subject matter that are rather common now, but were revolutionary not too long ago.

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Kimber Kable

Topic - Baadassss - jamesgarvin 07:41:57 05/02/05 (0)

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