Baadasssss! (2003) on Netflix
In 1970, Melvin Van Peebles has finished Watermelon Man and wants his next film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, to show a Black hero on screen. No studio will back it.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb7.3/105,423 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes91%
Trailer
Plot summary
Melvin Van Peebles has just finished Watermelon Man for Columbia Pictures. His agent, Howie Kaufman, tells him to follow up with a comedy. Instead Melvin, after a brainstorming trip to the Mojave Desert, settles on a film that has to be entertaining, commercially viable and representative of the Black community. He calls it Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song and sends Kaufman a treatment; Kaufman questions its anti-police themes. Melvin's friend Bill Harris agrees to arrange financing but refuses Melvin's wish that half the union crew be Black. An investor named Bert offers money, and Melvin backs out of the deal after Bert exposes himself by his pool. At a nightclub, Melvin and Harris meet a hippie named Donovan, who agrees to put up financing. Melvin auditions actors for the title role and hires Big T for sound and security.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Baadasssss! (2003)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bill Cosby loaned the production $50,000, part of which Melvin Van Peebles used to bail out crew members arrested for alleged grand theft.
- To save money on Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Melvin Van Peebles shot some scenes on 16 mm and cast his young son Mario, which angered his girlfriend Sandra.
- Melvin Van Peebles tricked the Screen Actors Guild into believing Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was a pornographic film so he could make it independently.
- On set, Priscilla's boyfriend Maurice White asked Peebles to write the score so his then-unknown group Earth, Wind & Fire would get attention.
