Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song - Legacy

Legacy

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is considered to be an important film in the history of African American cinema. Hollywood studios were led to attempt to replicate the film's success by producing black-oriented films such as Shaft and Super Fly. Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was credited by Variety as leading to the creation of the blaxploitation genre, largely consisting of exploitation films made by white directors. As Spike Lee states, "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song gave us all the answers we needed. This was an example of how to make a film (a real movie), distribute it yourself, and most important, get paid. Without Sweetback who knows if there could have been a She's Gotta Have It, Hollywood Shuffle, or House Party?" In 2004, Mario Van Peebles directed and starred as his father in BAADASSSSS!, a biopic about the making of Sweet Sweetback. The film was a critical but not commercial success. The animated series The Simpsons parody the name of the movie with their episode "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song". The film is also referenced in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode The Castle of Fu Manchu, where Joel, leaving the theater, mourns "Fu Manchu will be back in 'Sweet Sweet'-oh, who cares?"