was a difficult thing for me to know how to categorize, which blog to put it in but I decided that film or video came the closest. I am afraid I can't risk this turning up in my course material but on the other hand, I felt strongly positive about it. First I thought to myself, you can't write about this. This is too scandalous. I often think that these days. I thought to myself would they dare to follow the territory of the film? Because the film was scandalous. I remember exactly how scandalous it felt to be sitting in the movie theatre watching that film way back in 1971 when I was all of 19 and when it broke new ground in the black film world and I was still just a little pup.
Looking back at it years hence one of the things that made me particularly uncomfortable was Van Peeble's performance in the role. I didn't know much back then about real people playing roles in movies so maybe I just couldn't make the necessary leap of imagination. It kind of reminded me of Richard Wright playing himself in the film of Native Son, which really didn't work for me either. In that case, Wright was much too old to be convincing in the part, and maybe too invested in making the material work. Maybe Van Peebles wasn't exactly the most convincing actor.
Somehow it just wasn't working whereas the strapping young man who plays Sweetback in the opera production is just perfect, one of those real beauties with long lashes (I can imagine). It's a type. There was this wonderful actor who played the lead role in Native Son in the stage productions of that period in the West Village. Maybe his name was Beau Rucker. He continued to turn up in productions of August Wilson's plays. Anyhow it is that type.
I was told by my teacher at NYU (Village Voice Film Critic par excellence Jim Hoberman) that Sweet Sweetback was a film that broke all kinds of records because the white industry doomed it to failure and yet the black community turned out en masse to see it (as Van Peebles the younger does such an excellent job of describing in Baadassss!--2003, Sony Pictures, his biographical film about his father). Well I was, myself, part of that black audience that turned out. But then I went to see anything with black people in it back then. I saw it all, just as a matter of course.
So I thought I will just take a little peek since it is right there on the web because truth be told I had adored Van Peeble's stage shows even at the time-- Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death and the other one, both of which I saw from orchestra seats when they first opened on Broadway. Saw a revival of Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death at the Harlem Repertory Theatre a few years back that was absolutely wonderful wonderful wonderful but the material is such that you just can't mess it up. Somehow I think it has escaped the notice of many people what a wonderful thing musical theatre can be. Don't know how the Orchestra made the leap but however I hope they will be able to continue. Of course this production was staged in France, no surprise because it would be difficult to do such a thing in the United States, still I think. Yet Peebles has that knack.
But Sweet Sweetback, well that was another matter all together. I think it was a sexist film, a humiliating experience for a young black woman such as myself who encountered lewd propositions on almost every corner of Harlem that I crossed. It was a crazy crazy time so far as that goes, and exhausting. I was never either raped or assaulted in the streets of Harlem, perhaps because I knew my way around pretty good. It was afterall my home. But in my view back then Sweet Sweetback had no redeeming qualities except that a black man made the film industry pay him. Rape has no redeeming qualities--regardless of the gender of the victim-- so far as I am concerned. That's just non-negotiable, the bedrock of being a feminist, which is what I was then and am now.
But the odd thing is that the translation to the stage is somehow irresistable. I had, in fact, begun to notice that musical theatre, for instance in opera, can support almost any kind of outlandish content provided the music and the sense of spectacle is there. The same problematic content is there in this production of Sweetback (they didn't skirt it) of what I can only regard as the sexual exploitation of a minor as the centerpiece but yet it is so beautifully and brilliantly performer by the Archestra that I have to give them a shout out. I can't defend it and I won't make any apologies. Nobody asked me whether it was a good idea. Nobody ever would but if you should happen across this note, then you'll know that my recommendation would be that you take a look for yourself, be careful about minors because the content is risque but if you can handle that-- with all the ridiculously bad pornographic crap floating around these days--to get a look at this, or a listen anyhow. Thanks Greg Tate.
Added Notes: rehearsal notes and comments on the production by Melvin Van Peebles at http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JIq2FSg8TH8#!
I was told by my teacher at NYU (Village Voice Film Critic par excellence Jim Hoberman) that Sweet Sweetback was a film that broke all kinds of records because the white industry doomed it to failure and yet the black community turned out en masse to see it (as Van Peebles the younger does such an excellent job of describing in Baadassss!--2003, Sony Pictures, his biographical film about his father). Well I was, myself, part of that black audience that turned out. But then I went to see anything with black people in it back then. I saw it all, just as a matter of course.
So I thought I will just take a little peek since it is right there on the web because truth be told I had adored Van Peeble's stage shows even at the time-- Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death and the other one, both of which I saw from orchestra seats when they first opened on Broadway. Saw a revival of Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death at the Harlem Repertory Theatre a few years back that was absolutely wonderful wonderful wonderful but the material is such that you just can't mess it up. Somehow I think it has escaped the notice of many people what a wonderful thing musical theatre can be. Don't know how the Orchestra made the leap but however I hope they will be able to continue. Of course this production was staged in France, no surprise because it would be difficult to do such a thing in the United States, still I think. Yet Peebles has that knack.
But Sweet Sweetback, well that was another matter all together. I think it was a sexist film, a humiliating experience for a young black woman such as myself who encountered lewd propositions on almost every corner of Harlem that I crossed. It was a crazy crazy time so far as that goes, and exhausting. I was never either raped or assaulted in the streets of Harlem, perhaps because I knew my way around pretty good. It was afterall my home. But in my view back then Sweet Sweetback had no redeeming qualities except that a black man made the film industry pay him. Rape has no redeeming qualities--regardless of the gender of the victim-- so far as I am concerned. That's just non-negotiable, the bedrock of being a feminist, which is what I was then and am now.
But the odd thing is that the translation to the stage is somehow irresistable. I had, in fact, begun to notice that musical theatre, for instance in opera, can support almost any kind of outlandish content provided the music and the sense of spectacle is there. The same problematic content is there in this production of Sweetback (they didn't skirt it) of what I can only regard as the sexual exploitation of a minor as the centerpiece but yet it is so beautifully and brilliantly performer by the Archestra that I have to give them a shout out. I can't defend it and I won't make any apologies. Nobody asked me whether it was a good idea. Nobody ever would but if you should happen across this note, then you'll know that my recommendation would be that you take a look for yourself, be careful about minors because the content is risque but if you can handle that-- with all the ridiculously bad pornographic crap floating around these days--to get a look at this, or a listen anyhow. Thanks Greg Tate.
Added Notes: rehearsal notes and comments on the production by Melvin Van Peebles at http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JIq2FSg8TH8#!
2 comments:
will do, you inspired me
your concompromising yet complex honesty such a gift -- and your enduring commitment to feminism.amd to chronicling evolutions of feminist thought
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