Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (Melvin Van Peebles, 1971)

***
USA

The ode to all the "brothers and sisters who have had enough of the Man" that was "rated X by an all-white jury" and opened in two theatres to a torrent of violent reviews before earning $15m and breaking several barriers for black and antiestablishment cinema. Beyond its social and historical context, it's mostly unwatchable, though writer-director-producer-star-composer-editor Van Peebles does come up with some arresting visuals - particularly in the closing third.