Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (film)
| Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (film) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Year Released: | 1971 |
| MPAA Rating (USA): | X |
| Director: | Melvin Van Peebles |
| Starring: | Melvin Van Peebles Hubert Scales John Dullaghan Mario Van Peebles |
With Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) director Melvin Van Peebles created the "Blaxploitation" genre. The low budget was eked out by Van Peebles writing, co-producing, scoring, editing, directing and starring in the film, including performing his own stunts and sex scenes, some of which were not simulated. Van Peebles' then fourteen-year-old son Mario plays the young version of his father, including full nudity and simulated sex. Assistant editor Jeremy Hoeneck would go on to edit the 1972 The Genesis Children. The film was shot over 19 days, and Van Peebles financed the film with his own money and a $50,000 loan from Bill Cosby, and went on to gross over $15 million.
With full nudity and simulated sex by a minor boy, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was far better treated than the nearly contemporaneous The Genesis Children, which had only simple nudity, and which shared at least one production person, and likely a similar budget. Sweetback had its inital "X" rating reduced to an "R" three years after release. Sweetback appears in a 2019 reference book published by the Museum of Modern Art to commemorate key works of art in its collection. (Wikipedia) The Genesis Children DVD and VHS appeared as two of the top ten best-selling films at Insider Video Club, raided by the Postal Inspection Service.
Juvenile sex scene
An IMDB review describes the sex scene:
In the opening scene a 13 year old boy, played by Peebles' son Mario, makes love with a hooker. This scene runs 3½ minutes.The boy is shown nude primarily from the rear, much of this time on top of the woman. Split-second views of male frontal nudity occurs a couple of times.The hooker is shown fully nude, front and back, but her pubic hair is visible only briefly.
Mario had previous acting credits, including the soap opera 'One Life to Live', and while he did no acting for a decade after 'Sweet Sweetback', he did get a BA in Economics from Colombia in 1978. He went on to a successful career as an actor and director, and in 2003 filmed "Baadasssss!", originally titled, "How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass", a "half-documentary/half-homage to his father Melvin Van Peebles' movie Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)."[1], in which Mario plays his father. An IMDB review claims:
Mario's reluctance about being forced to be in a "sex scene" in his dad's movie is one of the film's highlights. The moment works thanks to a nicely subdued and thoughtful performance by Khleo Thomas as the young Mario.[2]
Possibly Mario presented himself as being only 11 at the time. Screen caps show Khleo been made up to appear as Mario did in 'Sweet Sweetback', including mangy hair, but another review informs that the scene was not re-enacted in 'Baadasssss!', jumping from preparation to watching the 1970 scenes on a video monitor.
The scene appears in a number of lists of controversial sex scenes, reviewers variously giving Mario's age as 11, 13, or 14 - as the scene was filmed in 1970 and the younger Peebles was born in January, 1957, the calendar favors 13. One review puts the actress as in her 40s. Mario is sometimes described as being "practically forced" to perform the role. Mario has stated that the scene was not real but simulated. (needs source).
Rating
Van Peebles released the film with the slogan, "Rated X by an all-white jury", though sources vary as to whether he self-rated the film, submitted the film for rating, or whether the MPAA rated it without being submitted. The MPAA database shows only that the film was rated "R" in 1974.[3]. For other films where the rating changed, such as the contemporaneous "Midnight Cowboy", only the final rating appears in the database.
Wikipedia claims of a 2005 British DVD edition, "The Region 2 DVD release from BFI Video has the opening sex sequences altered. A notice at the beginning of the DVD states "In order to comply with UK law (the Protection of Children Act 1978), a number of images in the opening sequence of this film have been obscured." [4]
Other ratings include: Australia:R Canada:R Canada:R (Alberta) Canada:(Banned) (Nova Scotia) Canada:16+ (Quebec) Germany:Not Rated Netherlands:18 (original rating) New Zealand:R18 United Kingdom:18 (video) United States:R (1974) United States:X (1971) [5]
Editing
Marvin Van Peebles is credited as editor, with Jeremy Hoeneck as assistant editor. Wikipedia claims the editing was praised. Hoeneck would go on to edit 'The Genesis Children' and three other films, however he has no editing credits after 1974 except for a 1978 film where he is also director and producer, but IMDB list 253 credits in sound through 2018.
