In the 1980s, Van Peebles turned to Wall Street and options trading.
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Van Peebles then got involved on Broadway, writing and producing several plays and musicals like the Tony-nominated "Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death" and "Don't Play Us Cheap." He later wrote the movie "Greased Lighting" starring Richard Pryor as Wendell Scott, the first Black race car driver. I'm number one at the box office - which is the way America measures things - and I did it on my own. "I've whipped the man's ass on his own turf.
"I'll only work with them on my terms," he said. Barry Jenkins, the "Moonlight" director, said on Twitter: "He made the most of every second, of EVERY single damn frame."Īfter his initial success, Van Peebles was bombarded with directing offers, but he chose to maintain his independence. On Wednesday, a younger generation of Black filmmakers mourned Van Peebles' death. Among the genre's 21st century fans was Quentin Tarantino, whose Oscar-winning "Django Unchained" was openly influenced by blaxploitation films and spaghetti Westerns. In fact, civil rights groups like the NAACP and the Congress of Racial Equality coined the phrase "blaxploitation" and formed the Coalition Against Blaxploitation. "The colored intelligentsia were not too happy about it." "What Hollywood did - they suppressed the political message, added caricature - and blaxploitation was born," Van Peebles said in 2002. Many of Hollywood's versions were exaggerated crime dramas, replete with pimps and drug dealers, which drew heavy criticism in both the white and Black press. Van Peebles, who complained fiercely to the Motion Picture Association over the X-rating, gave the film the tagline: "Rated X by an all-white jury."īut in the wake of the its success, Hollywood realized an untapped audience and began churning out such box office hits as "Shaft" and "Superfly" that were also known for bringing in such top musicians as Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye and Isaac Hayes to work on the soundtracks. The New York Times, for example, accused Van Peebles of merchandizing injustice and called the film "an outrage." Made for around $500,000 (including $50,000 provided by Bill Cosby), it grossed $14 million at the box office despite an X-rating, limited distribution and mixed critical reviews. "So I said 'Ba-ad Asssss,' like you really say it." Melvin Van Peebles poses next to the beach closet dedicated to him on the Promenade des Planches during the 38th Deauville American Film Festival on September 5, 2012, in Deauville, France.
"I could have called it 'The Ballad of the Indomitable Sweetback.' But I wanted the core audience, the target audience, to know it's for them," he told The Associated Press in 2003. "All the films about Black people up to now have been told through the eyes of the Anglo-Saxon majority in their rhythms and speech and pace," Van Peebles told Newsweek in 1971, the year of the film's release. With its hard-living, tough-talking depiction of life in the ghetto, underscored by a message of empowerment as told from a Black perspective, it set the tone for a genre that turned out dozens of films over the next few years and prompted a debate over whether Black people were being recognized or exploited. The low-budget, art-house film, which he wrote, produced, directed, starred in and scored, was the frenzied, hyper-sexual and violent tale of a Black street hustler on the run from police after killing white officers who were beating a Black revolutionary. He later became a successful options trader on the stock market.īut he was best known for "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song," one of the most influential movies of its time. Sometimes called the "godfather of modern Black cinema," the multitalented Van Peebles wrote numerous books and plays, and recorded several albums - playing multiple instruments and delivering rap-style lyrics.