Black Heroes and Anti-Heroes

By: Gabby Niko There are distinct differences between the two films The Spook Who Sat by the Door and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song: we have a hero in a modernist film with linear storytelling and an anti-hero story filmed in an abstract, post-modernist style. However, both Sam Greenlee and Melvin Van Peebles aimed to achieve a theme of solidarity against the man or the system. During the 70s, it was the beginning of the post-civil rights era in the United States, when Black Americans were still exploited and discriminated against despite gaining rights. Themes of invisibility, tokenism and police brutality circulated as the films progress, but solidarity to go against the system is pivotal. Both producers play with concepts such as the black identity fights (fighting)against the system and is (being) successful. The Spook Who Sat by the Door is one grand "what if the black community fought back?" Sweetback also dances with what-ifs throughout the film using space,“The space of Sweetback, however, feels disjointed. Many of the most pivotal moments of the film take place outside of homogeneous space” (Wiggins 34). Viewers notice that light and space become complex and unclear whenever Sweetback fights against the police. Wiggins suggests that “Van Peebles moves into the realm of the imaginary to illustrate what should be done in the realm of the real.” (34) The Spook Who Sat by the Door is optimistic in its pursuit while Sweetback is more focused on the individual Sweetback himself. Although Sweetback is a blaxploitation film, it uses stereotypes so often categorized to emphasize its harm. “[Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song] not only ushered in the lucrative style now loosely labeled blaxploitation, but also introduced the idea of a sexualized black male character as the central focus, with the story told from his perspective as the criminal being hassled and hunted by the cops” (Yaquinto 11). On the other hand, we have Dan Freeman, who from the start was a brilliant man who played the role of a wolf in sheep’s clothing to help the big picture of black nationalism. Two very different protagonists, with different goals and developments, both end up with hopes of freedom with unresolved or unfinished endings in their stories. These parallel endings are also intentional. The producers understood that their audience would be majority black and that was what they had hoped for, so they leave left their audience with the thoughts of “what-if.” Dan Freeman’s main goal is to be free from the system; “Greenlee insists his film is about freedom, in this instance, “it just happens in this case it’s color-coded.” The same concept has been applied around the world, Greenlee explains, citing contemporary conditions in Libya and elsewhere: “They’re all the same . . . fed up with being oppressed and dominated” (Yaquinto 15). And although Sweetback didn’t have the same mission as Dan Freeman, his forced involvement as part of the black community has forcibly put him in a position to flee the police, which is not a coincidence that Sweetback gains freedom once he crosses the border from America to Mexico.

Works Cited Wiggins, B. (2012). "You talkin' revolution, sweetback": On sweet sweetback's baadasssss song and revolutionary filmmaking. Black Camera, 4(1), 28-52,271. Retrieved from http://proxy.library.cpp.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest- com.proxy.library.cpp.edu/scholarly-journals/you-talkin-revolution-sweetback-on- sweet/docview/2619133264/se-2 Yaquinto, M. (2014). Cinema as political activism: Contemporary meanings in the spook who sat by the door. Black Camera, 6(1), 5-33,240. Retrieved from http://proxy.library.cpp.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly- journals/cinema-as-political-activism-contemporary/docview/2630357205/se-2