Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song is an American independent ‘blaxploitation’ action thriller film directed by and starring Melvin Van Peebles.
The film tells the story of Sweetback. Raised in a brothel and initiated sexually at a young age, whilst working as a performer in a sex show, the club is raided by the police and Sweetback is taken for questioning. On the way, he witnesses the police beat up a black man and retaliates, beating up the police before fleeing the scene. The remainder of the film follows Sweetback’s journey as a fugitive, his attempt to reach Mexico and his attempts to avoid pursuing police, as he is driven to increasingly violent means to stay free.
Classification issues
- Sex
- The film contains scenes of strong sex involving full-frontal male and female nudity.
- Additional issues
- Other issues include strong language (‘f**k’, ‘motherf**ker’) and the use of racist terms (‘n****r’), as well as scenes of violence and drug references.
Video classification
Although Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song was made and released in the 1970s, it was not submitted to the BBFC for classification until 1996.
The film's opening sequence shows a young Sweetback, aged 12 or 13, being sexually initiated and named Sweetback by a much older female prostitute. In the scene, viewers could see what appears to be a young teen, well under the age of consent, lying on top of an adult actress, miming sex. The younger man‘s buttocks, back and chest are shown along with his face.
Concerns were raised along with the possibility of cuts under the Protection of Children Act 1978. The Act prohibits the possession or creation of an indecent image of a child. A ‘child’ is a person under 18 and ‘indecent’ is defined as lewd or indecent as decided by a jury.
The BBFC suggested to Melvin Van Peebles that he should consider re-editing the opening sequence to remove the footage of the boy miming sex. The BBFC then received a letter from the production company and two sets of signed consent and contract information from someone claiming to have been playing the part of young Sweetback and one other part and confirming he was over the legal age to participate (18 years old). These assurances were accepted and the video released uncut in 1996.
Resubmission and cuts
In 2005, the film was resubmitted for cinema and video classification.
This was preceded, in 2004, by the UK release of a documentary, Baadasssss! How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass, directed by Melvin Van Peebles’ son Mario. In the documentary, Mario tells the audience that the actor playing young Sweetback in the opening scene of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was, in fact, himself aged 13.
Following this new information, when Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song was resubmitted to the BBFC in 2005, advice taken from senior legal experts was in no doubt that the opening scene of mimed missionary sex between two naked people, one of whom was now known to be a child, would likely be considered indecent and lewd by a UK jury. As such, The Protection of Children Act 1978 applied and cuts or other means of obscuring the image were required. The film was classified 18 with cuts to remove shots showing the young Mario Van Peebles realistically simulating sex with an adult female.
