Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
Directed by Melvin Van Peebles
After saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a black male prostitute goes on the run from "the man" with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels.
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What critics compared Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song to
Films such as "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" and "Shaft" kicked off the genre in 1971.
And it will surely be a harder pill to swallow for some of the audiences who cheered at Inglourious Basterds' skull-bashing Jewish avengers, who might here feel the same white panic 1971 moviegoers suffered when confronted with Melvin Van Peebles's Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, arguably the first black superhero movie.
The accepted comparison, I suppose, would be to Melvin Van Peebles (the early 1970's Van Peebles of "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song") or to Woody Allen, for their comic stance and their work as writer-directors, or writer-director-actors.
The jokes are hit-or-miss and Lee has a difficult time marrying the Austin Powers and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song color palettes into one singular aesthetic, but it’s impossible to fault a film with ideas this big.