Sadly we lost the maverick auteur Melvin Van Peebles, just the other day on September 21st, 2021. The groundbreaking American actor, filmmaker, playwright, novelist, and composer's body of four, essential, films are fittingly done justice in this new Criterion Blu-ray set ironically released less than a week after his passing. R.I.P. Melvin.

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (September 2021): Criterion have transferred four Melvin Van Peebles' films to Blu-ray as part of their Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films boxset that includes The Story of a Three Day Pass (1967), Watermelon Man (1970), Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) and Don’t Play Us Cheap (1972). They are cited as being "New 4K digital restorations of all four films, approved by filmmaker Mario Van Peebles".

We had previously reviewed Watermelon Man last year (2020) on Blu-ray by Indicator HERE and compared Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song - the Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray to the BFI DVD HERE. We've added comparative screen captures to the ones on this Criterion set below. To add: The Story of a Three Day Pass looks marvelous. It was made in 1967 in France in the 1.66:1 aspect ratio and the image quality is superb - consistent, clean, textured and has Criterion's usual hallmark of outstanding contrast. There is a strange issue comparing Watermelon Man the Indicator to the Criterion 1080P. One image is slightly askew horizontally (one side lower than the other) - so the images are no parallel - and I don't know which is more accurate. The Criterion has cooler skin tones and is overall brighter. I suspect they are from different sources but I might give a marginal edge to the Criterion. Both look great. Okay, now Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. The Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray is also 4K-restored and that presentation starts with "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss song was photographed in a variety of formats. While just over half the film was shot on 35mm negative, roughly 40% was shot on 16mm color reversal and was blown up to 35mm to be edited into the negative, at which point the 16mm footage was discarded. Due to the variety of visual effects used throughout the film, the blow up process was performed in different ways and on different stocks. Some of these blow-up stocks were, unfortunately, very unstable and have severely faded over the past 45+ years. The affected sections only make up a few minutes of runtime and have taken on a slightly solarized look. While every effort was made to minimize this effect, it could not be fully removed." The solarization effect is discussed in the Peebles commentary. The two 1080P transfers compare well with minor differences and the if forced to choose - I might again go for the Criterion as it seems to export a shade more depth, slightly more natural colors although the image still has a green leaning. I had never seen Don’t Play Us Cheap and it is saturated with vibrant colors and inky black levels. The HD presentation is consistent. This 'rich' look totally suits this lively musical. 

NOTE: We have added 80 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Criterion use linear PCM mono tracks (24-bit) for The Story of a Three Day Pass, Watermelon Man, and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. This reflects an authentic flat audio but clear and consistent with some production-related scattered edges in Sweet Sweetback. Don’t Play Us Cheap has a DTS-HD Master 3.0 channel track (24 bit) in the original English language. It has some pleasing separation giving life to the, often animated, performances. For all the films the scores are by Melvin Van Peebles - with Earth Wind & Fire collaboration (Peebles paid them with a check that later bounced. To this day, the band has still not been paid for their contribution.) on Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Peebles's talents are exercised for Don’t Play Us Cheap which includes his own Quittin' Time, Don't Play Us Cheap, You Cut Up The Clothes In The Closet Of My Dreams, Break That Party And Opening, The Eight Day Week, Saturday Night, (If You See A Devil) Smash Him and other songs performed by the cast. Despite the inherent weaknesses of these all sound strong. Criterion offer optional English (SDH) subtitles - and an English option for the French on The Story of a Three Day Pass - on their Region 'A' Blu-rays.

The Criterion Blu-rays offer plenty of supplements. On The Story of Three Days Blu-ray - we start with a short introduction by Van Peebles from 1968. There is a 23-minute episode of the French television show Pour le plaisir features interviews with director Melvin Van Peebles and actors Harry Baird and Nicole Berger, conducted on the set of The Story of a Three Day Pass. It originally aired on February 1st,1968, it was directed by Peter Kassovitz. We get a 5-minute episode of Black Journal from August 14, 1968, where the television program features an interview with director Melvin Van Peebles, who was promoting the U.S. release of his first feature film, The Story of a Three Day Pass. Criterion include a, 20-minute, remotely recorded conversation between film producer Warrington Hudlin and music historian Nelson George as they discuss Melvin Van Peebles's defiant filmmaking style. On this disc are included three short films from early in Melvin Van Peebles's directing career. Made in 1957 in San Francisco, Sunlight is about a man who commits a petty crime out of love for a woman and features Melvin's son Mario Van Peebles as the couple's baby. Later that year, the director made Three Pickup Men for Herrick, about a group of day laborers vying for work. In 1961, now in Paris, he made Les cinq cent balles, about a boy who tries to retrieve a five-hundred-franc note from a gutter. They each run around the 10-minutes. Lastly, is a trailer for The Story of a Three Day Pass.

On the Watermelon Man Blu-ray is another introduction by director Melvin Van Peebles who shares stories about how he made Watermelon Man his own way. It was recorded in 2004. We also get the feature length How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It). It is a, 1.5 hour, 2005 documentary, directed by Joe Angio, tracing Melvin Van Peebles's filmmaking career from his feature directorial debut in France through his foray into the Hollywood mainstream to his revolutionary turn with Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song. It features interviews with Van Peebles; filmmakers Spike Lee, St. Clair Bourne, and Gordon Parks; and many others.

On the Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song Blu-ray we get the audio commentary by Melvin Van Peebles from 1997 originally on Criterion's LaserDisc. It's very clean and audible. He's honest and affable - enjoying his production while relating stories of the cast and his attempt for a rougher documentary feel - not trying to appease the critics ('going fro broke'), using non-union actors etc.. There is another introduction recorded in 1997, where director Melvin Van Peebles shares the four goals he set for Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. We get new 24-minute conversations between Mario Van Peebles and film critic Elvis Mitchell, recorded by the Criterion Collection in 2021. Mario shares anecdotes about his father, director Melvin Van Peebles. There is an interview from 1971 with Van Peebles on the television show Detroit Tube works, Melvin promotes his film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song on the occasion of its Detroit opening weekend, for 13-minutes. Included is a 25-minute, 2021 conversation, recorded by the Criterion Collection, with film scholars Gerald R. Butters Jr., Amy Abugo Ongiri, and Novotny Lawrence discuss the film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song and its impact on Black film. There is a 24-minute episodes of the television show Black Journal, from October 19th, 1971, featuring interviews with director Melvin Van Peebles and journalists Clayton Riley, Francis Ward, and A. Peter Bailey. Lastly on this disc is a trailer.

On the Don't Play Us Cheap Blu-ray we get a brief introduction, recorded in 1997, by director Melvin Van Peebles who recalls the encounter that gave him the idea for Don't Play Us Cheap. There is also another episodes of Black Journal. This 1/2 hour June 6th,1972, episode of the television program features an interview with director Melvin Van Peebles in which he discusses the Broadway production of his play Don't Play Us Cheap.

Criterion have a fifth Blu-ray - a bonus disc. It has the 1-hour 50-minute Baadasssss!, a 2003 fictional feature film based on director Melvin Van Peebles’s diaries from the making of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, directed by and starring his son Mario Van Peebles, with commentary by father and son It is in a quasi-documentary-style - a saga of the production of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. There is an optional audio commentary track featuring both Mario and Melvin was recorded in 2004. The Story Behind “Baadasssss!”: The Birth of Black Cinema, is a 2004, 22-minute, featurette about the making of Baadasssss! features interviews with director Mario Van Peebles and members of the cast, including John Singleton, Ossie Davis, Rainn Wilson, and others. Melvin Van Peebles: The Real Deal, is a 22-minute 2002 interview with the director Melvin Van Peebles where he recounts his memories of making his film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song as he strolls through Paris, in this interview from 2002. There are also 3/4 of an hour of excerpts from a 2004 interview with director Melvin Van Peebles, conducted by his son filmmaker Mario Van Peebles, recorded in 2004 for the 'Directors Guild of America's Visual History Program'.

The package has a book featuring essays by film scholars Racquel J. Gates, Allyson Nadia Field, Michael B. Gillespie, and Lisa B. Thompson and it sports a new cover illustration by Emory Douglas, with design by Slang Inc.

Criterion's Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films Blu-ray boxset is a treasure. Talk about an artist ahead of his time! Peebles created a wonderful European art film - my favorite of the set - a mainstream, occasionally ribald, comedy, plus a Broadway musical and his masterwork; a no-holds-barred politically charged social observation on the Black experience that he financed himself, with a $50,000 loan from Bill Cosby. It grossed over $15 million. Very sad to have lost him at this time of Criterion's exceptional Blu-ray celebration package of his work. The world needs more Melvin Van Peebles. We give this our highest recommendation! 

Gary Tooze