Movie review - "Badass" (2005) ***

The story of the making of Sweet Sweetback is inspirational on one hand- a black filmmaker overcame the odds to create a blockbuster (well, indie blockbuster)... but on the other hand is kind of a nightmare because his struggle was so hard, and came close to falling over so often, it's kind of exhausting to watch. Soon after the film came out Hollywood was throwing money at anything vaguely black (blaxploitaton was the one sure bet at the box office in the early 70s - not rom coms,not Westerns or war films or musicals or even comedies, but black films,and the studio clung on to them like a drowning man clings on to a floating esky... until around the time of Jaws when they started breathing easier again) but that wasn't the case when Melvin Van Peebles was seeking finance. He destroys his health (he loses sight), spends all his own money, wrecks his home life (this film was made by his son but Mario doesn't spare dad) as he walks over glass to get the thing financed, made, distributed then shown. Even then its only at the last minute, when Black Panthers start to attend the film does he get home.The glamour of show biz! The elder Van Peebles never made the number of films you'd think he would have after Badasss... but maybe he was just too buggered.