Recommend me some quality...
Mike_Bell
5,736 Posts
Melvin Van Peebles movies.thanks in advance. 
Mike_Bell
5,736 Posts
Comments
Sweetback
co-sign
absolute lunacy. have either of you two accidentally swallowed a thermometer lately? painting with lead based enamals? using 'street' drugs?
Watermelon man is the best movie in Van Peebles catalogue. Godfrey Cambridge is an underrated comedic genius
Sweetback is overblown hype. Being labeled as the "first blaxploitation movie" gave this film some sympathy acclaim.
"we don't understand it so it must be brilliant"
Sweetback is decent movie to watch when I'm in the mood for it. It's something that I don't watch all the time. Co-sign on what Guzzo and the Non said about it being disorienting at times. I showed it to a friend of mines and he thought Van Peebles took heroin before making the movie.
I started this thread because I was curious about shit like Don't Play Us Cheap, The Story of A Three Day Pass and any other obscure shit that y'all might be up on. Thanks for the feed back though.
Has Don't play us cheap been released on DVD yet?
I remember seeing it in a class once.
I fell asleep
cosiney
they use to play "watermelon man" on dc tv all the time back in the 70's
use to have a heap of the soundtrack sealed from that
sweetback is best viewed on under heavy influence
i liked the music & surreal qualities (liked a f-ed version of "jo jo dancer")
seemed like the sound was out of sync with the visuals
"don't play us cheap" was on the cable a bunch 5-8 years ago
maybe it was a better live stage production
it was a trip seeing all the familiar sit com faces in very different rolls
thread hi jack
who has seen & or liked "Putney Swope" ??
Oh really. I'll check for it.
Yeah I got that. I like that movie as well and I kind of agree with you as far as it being more interesting than the original
No doubt.
Not true. Watermelon man and Sweetback have totally different directing & editing styles. As does DPUC
this is the typical answer I hear. I don't like sweetback all that much, but its still great/ important/ brilliant/etc.
WHY?
Oh and Mario cannot direct worth shit. The only reason that film came out ok is cause he was telling his own story.
New Jack City, Posse don't hold up and all his skinamax flicks aren't going to really show a proud legacy.
It's the first American film written, directed, and produced by a black person.
It's the first American film to make a majority of it's revenue from black patrons.
It's the first American film to employ black people in apprenticeships so that they could garner vocational skills protected by white unions.
It's the first American film that attempted to portray black folks independent of their relationship to white people.
those are no more than trivia facts (except for the last one which can be debated. Cabin in the Sky & Slew of other films from the 40's also did this).
none of that makes the film any more watchable.
me. one of my favourite films ever. still nothing even remotely comparable has been made.
the borman six girl has GOT to have SOUL!
I'm not really trying to get into this. If you care there are plenty of books you can read.
I have, I've been going to school for the last several years in order to get my Film degree and I'm going for a minor in african american history, and I'm not trying to turn this into an argument either. Just stating that I didn't like the film and when I ask others about it I always get the same answer (I didn't like it, but I think its brilliant/ genius/ etc.)
IMHO a lot of this comes from people just accepting what critics have said and not allowing their own tastes to be expressed.
This is just not true at all.
cosign.
We'd have to go back several decades to find that
Let's hear some examples here...
well there werent too many intergrated films up through the 60's. I'm sure you've heard again and again that the only roles really given to black actors in non-black films were that of a mammy, butler, and other servant type roles.
there was however films made for black audiences going back to the turn of the century
I mentioned Cabin in the Sky earlier in this thread and Dr*w, I highly recommend you go out and rent this. It just came out on DVD about a month ago and has some nice extras
Granted, at times, the film is down-right unwatchable and borderline incomprehensible, but so is Maya Deren and I???d rather watch Sweetback any day over that ??? cause as ???art??? as it it is ??? it does not take itself too seriously. It???s fun, fucked up, sexy, dirty, surreal, messy, political, DIY and I like it.
**ie Van Peebles got gonorrhea from one of the actresses during one of the sex scenes. He applied for compensation from the Directors Guild because he ???got hurt on the job??? and used the money to buy more film.
And as for this one, we can probably go back even further, but for a genuine maverick
and influential artist, there is Oscar Micheaux, who was producing/writing/directing films as early as 1919.
He did all three on Body & Soul in 1924.
And his films
I know I shouldn't but somehow I feel
good research I'm about to look more into Mr. Micheaux's films
LOL the guy that wrote the reader review on that page
was channeling 3rd Bass:
cable has been playing a great documentary about him (maybe an encore or ifc channel)
& i think mr van peebles is the narrator
yeah I've seen that documentary before. Really good. They don't make heroes like that anymore
Dude had a rough life. Amerikkka had a hard on for him.