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

[knives]

Between the US and BFI disc which is the better?

[Graham]

Without checking, the BFI disc is probably cut.

[antnield]

Yes, the Child Protection Act meant cuts of one minute and 15 seconds to the opening sequence. Van Peebles approved the cuts, which involved obscuring any sensitive material with a black screen. The audio remains intact.

The BFI disc is also an NTSC-PAL conversion resulting in the expected ghosting issues, etc. However, it does also contain an eight-page booklet (two reprints and newly commissioned introduction by Kodwo Eshun) plus the bizarre featurette 'The Real Deal (What It Is...)' in which we see MVP take a dump, recreate the opening sequence with his 'secretary' and inform us how he tried to get compensation from the Director's Guild of American after catching gonorrhoea during the shoot!

[knives]

That sounds amazing and I might when I have free money have to get the BFI anyway, but it sounds like American is the way to go. Thanks.

[Wu.Qinghua]

As long as you wouldn't need the hoh subtitles the BFI provides; I assume most non-native speakers would prefer the British edition because of them and in spite of the censored sequence in the beginning.