As the decade of the 1960's came to a close, America was in the midst of a radical social, political, and artistic movement. Students were rising, women were fighting for equality, and for the first time in history, the voice of the country's African-American community was beginning to be heard. The Black Nationalist Movement delivered empowering messages of a need for black power, unity and representation. An artistic response to this political and social uprising emerged in the form of black popular musical acts, and soon spread to the world of cinema. The "Blaxploitation" film had arrived.

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's was supposed to end institutional racism in American society and allow the African American community to obtain social, economic, and political equality, yet; the majority of the black community was still

Hollywood was soon producing "Blaxploitation" films at a rapid rate. They bombarded audiences with countless pictures following the same blueprint, but with different actors and titles. Black Caesar, Boss Nigger, The Legend of Nigger Charlie, Bucktown, Blacula, Shaft Goes to Africa, Shaft's Big Score, and Willie Dynamite were just some of the titles that poured out of Hollywood studios. These films lacked the originality and energy of the genre's pioneers, and even worse, were often sordid white attempts to appeal to black audiences.

Scene 3: Crane shot. Camera tilts down to expose a major, populated city. Zoom-in to a huge, downtown metropolitan movie theater. Spotlights illuminate the sky. A long-line composed of black and white ticket-holders stretches down the block. The glowing marquee reads: Richard Roundtree is SHAFT!

Mario Van Peebles' Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song clearly introduced a new cinematic style, which entranced the anticipating black audience. This was Van Peebles' third picture. He had experienced the rough life of black man growing up in America, and was now trying to become a successful director in the US and Europe. His first two films received mixed reviews, and little positive reception from American critics. However, with Sweetback, director, producer, writer, and lead actor Van Peebles discovered not only his audience, but his style and subject too. No studio would help produce the film because of its vicious, uncompromising inaccessibility to whites script. Van Peebles response was to shoot the film under the pretense of making a porno, therefore, he was able to use a non-union crew and bi-pass the Hollywood system completely. Van Peebles found a budget of $500,000 ($50,000 of which came from Bill Cosby) and shot the film in nineteen days with Cinemation picking it up for distribution (Bogle 238). The movie focuses on a wicked black stud named Sweetback, played by Van Peebles, who agrees to help two white "acquaintances" in the police force by being a suspect to an old murder. After witnessing the police beat-down an innocent black teenager, Sweetback turns on them, interferes and splits open the heads of the cops with their own handcuffs. From then on the brutal buck is on the run through the dark ghetto, escaping numerous chase scenes and engaging in many sexual adventures. He eventually embarks on a quest to Mexico for his freedom. The fact that a black man met violence with violence, was openly sexual, and triumphed over the white establishment was a signal event in film (Baxter 1). It brought the weight of the Black Power movement to the silver screen. In an interview w

Some common words found in the essay are:
Van Peebles, Black Power, Song Popular, Van Peebles', Rights Movement, African American, Sweetback Hollywood, Sidney Poitier, Nationalist Movement, Baaaddderrr Scene, black power, van peebles, black community, box office, power movement, civil rights, civil rights movement, black power movement, van peebles', rights movement, sweet sweetback's baadassss, sweet sweetback's, called black, messages black power, sweetback's baadassss song,
Approximate Word count = 1788
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)