Alas! I mean, hurrah! there exists a furiously tasteless picture called "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song." It was made by a black man for blacks, and it is turning into a phenomenon of the industry…. "Sweetback" is a terrific fable. It is also a boot in the face for the wishes of moderates, black and white, who are likely to come away reeling….

"Sweetback" is presumably the first of a line of films. The next ones will get gentler, with luck, and better characterized, and signed with a clearer authorship than this, but they can never be anything like "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," or lose the tongue they have found here, which is a shock in the cinema. It is a language of energy, stamina, cheek, fury, blue jokes, clan loyalty, swagger, and a murderous skepticism. The film's whole style of overstatement is grating, and is meant to...