tlavideo.com

Review

Van Peebles wrote, directed and stars in this trendsetting work -- which initiated the "blaxploitation" film cycle of the 1970s -- about an African-American on the run from "the Man." Violent and told with a discernable rage, the film is in some ways rather dated, with its long montages of Sweetback running and running (complete with split-screen, super-impositions and freeze frame), wall-to-wall, loud '70s jazz, and some stereotypes of its own (mostly women and gays). But the film has lost little of its power in depicting the brutal effects of racism, and even the film's dated score and technical aspects add to Sweetback's nightmarish quality.