Synopsis

You should never simply re-tell the story of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song when analysing the movie in the exam. Instead, you should focus on key contextual features and showing an appreciation of important critical approaches and the critical reception of the film (both at the time of release and today), using key sequences from the film to illuminate your points.

Nevertheless, it may be useful to read the synopsis of the film below, to familiarise yourself with the key narrative events of the film and the order in which they happen.

Sweet Sweetback is a male prostitute working in a brothel. He is the star performer of theatrical sex acts, and has been since he was a young boy. The film opens with young Sweetback losing his virginity whilst working as a towel boy; he gains the name Sweet Sweetback in honour of his sexual prowess and large manhood.

As an adult, Sweetback is performing in a sex show in which both black and white female members of the audience are eager to join him, when two LAPD officers appear at the brothel. The white, seemingly racist, cops need a token black man to take in to question for an unrelated crime; a black man has been murdered and there is pressure from the black community to bring in a suspect. The cops visit the brothel to ask Sweetback's boss Beetle if they can 'borrow' one of his employees as a stooge to placate the community and to make them look efficient, before releasing him a few days later when there is a lack of evidence. Beetle offers them Sweetback, who is in the process of engaging in sexual acts in front of a large audience.

On the journey to the police station, the cops arrest another black youth, a young Black Panther named Mu-Mu, on a disturbance charge and handcuff him to Sweetback. On the journey, the cops stop the car in an isolated area and proceed to beat and pistol-whip Mu-Mu while he is in their custody. In response, Sweetback beats the cops into a coma using the handcuffs he is wearing as a weapon.

Sweetback flees the scene, and Mu-Mu, and goes on the run; the narrative follows his relentless flight through South Central Los Angeles towards the Mexican border.

As Sweetback runs through the night, the police raid the brothel but find no sign of him. In the morning Sweetback appears at Beetle's apartment; Beetle tells Sweetback that he will protect him but insists that he must lay low for a while so that Beetle can maintain the brothel's relationship with the police.

Upon leaving Beetle's apartment, Sweetback is captured by the police. Seeing Sweetback's handcuffs they assume that he is the suspect that they're after.

The police call the Commissioner, who has a group of reporters in his office desperate for information, and in an attempt to appear in control of the situation the Commissioner orders the patrolmen to violently interrogate Sweetback until he reveals Mu-Mu's whereabouts. The patrolman attack Sweetback before driving him to a more isolated location.

The police car bursts into flames when it is attacked by a group of black teenagers. As a riot breaks out, Sweetback is cheered by the crowd as he manages to escape as the patrolmen try to extinguish the flames.

He visits a woman who agrees to cut off his handcuffs in exchange for sex. With his handcuffs removed Sweetback continues to make his way towards the border but is captured by a gang of Hell's Angels bikers...