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Director, novelist, sometime options trader Melvin Van Peebles died September 22, a week before the Criterion Collection was set to unveil its detailed totem to the filmmaker's early work.

It is too easy to throw superlatives around when talking about filmmakers. Many directors with a decent enough filmography, who have been around long enough to be forgotten about can attain such a status. The recently passed Melvin Van Peebles, however, is one of the only American filmmakers who truly deserves every beautiful descriptive that is laid upon him. He was a bona fide renaissance man. Actor, filmmaker, playwright, novelist, and composer – amongst other things, the man was a true artist. As an independent filmmaker, Van Peebles should be placed on the same pillars as white counterparts such as John Cassavetes or Roger Corman.

Melvin Van Peebles left behind an astonishing legacy as a true innovator. He was that rare talent like Charlie Chaplin or Satyajit Ray whose dizzying multi-hyphenate skills force even those who are the most skeptical of the auteur theory to admit that at least some artists truly do shape a considerable portion of their work in a collaborative medium. Criterion’s set collects the first four of Van Peebles’s eight features, and the stylistic range on display across a five-year period showcases one of the most brilliant American filmmakers of his time.

First up in the set is Melvin Van Peebles' breakthrough feature from 1967, "The Story of a Three Day Pass". Made during the iconoclast's time in France, this heart-rending tale about a Black soldier falling in love with a white French woman feels a lot more urgent today, especially since so much Black success is still depicted as success in a white world, not independent from it. Van Peebles pulls out all the filmmaking stops in his first feature, including a double dolly shot that's among one of the most confident and powerful things you'll ever see from a filmmaker. It's a perfect representation of Van Peebles' ability to take common French New Wave and Hollywood motifs, smash them apart, and rebuild them in his own image.

Next up is the one studio film Van Peebles ever made: 1970's "The Watermelon Man". While it may be a bit less of a critical darling than his first feature, this brash and loud comedy about a white racist waking up one morning as a Black man becomes something more melancholic and defeated as the story rambles on. That doesn't take away from Godfrey Cambridge's standout performance and the ferocious satire that ensues, of course. You'd be hard pressed to find a Hollywood studio film quite like it.

Van Peebles' masterpiece, "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song", received a Blu-ray just a few years ago from Vinegar Syndrome; Criterion uses Vinegar's 4K restoration and it still looks every bit as terrific as it did when it came out. Plus, Criterion has added Van Peebles' 2003 film "Baadasssss!" here. It's an essential pairing to the main feature and details an incredible father-son relationship in Melvin and his son.

And to round out this already breathtaking set, Melvin Van Peebles' 1972 adaptation of his Tony Award-nominated play "Don't Play Us Cheap" is presented here. The play is about a pair of devil-bats tearing through a Harlem house party, only to find themselves dwarfed by the family's joyous celebration. The depiction of Black joy here is infectious, and the comedy that comes from watching two devils constantly be thwarted can't be overstated.

As for special features, there are hours upon hours of featurettes included across all the discs. Take special note of the three short films included here that Van Peebles made before moving to full-length features. These shorts smack of a filmmaker with more than a story to tell, but also the craft needed to create the world in which to tell it. Melvin Van Peebles was so many things beside the foundation of Blaxploitation; an auteur with a distinct voice, a grand depicter of Black emotion, a raconteur. This terrific set will only increase appreciation for Van Peebles. He truly was a once-in-a-lifetime artist.

5xBD50 | 1080p AVC | 510 min | 206 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Genre: Action, Biography, Crime, Comedy, Drama, Musical, Romance, Thriller

Extras:

DISC ONE
* The Story of a Three Day Pass
• 1968 Introduction by director Melvin Van Peebles (2:46)
• 1968 French television interview with Melvin Van Peebles and actors Harry Baird and Nicole Berger on the set of the film (22:43)
• 1968 Episodes of Black Journal (4:59)
• 2021 Conversation with producer Warrington Hudlin and critic and filmmaker Nelson George (21:03)
• Short Films:
- "Sunlight" (9:43)
- "Three Pickup Men For Herrick" (8:40)
- "Les Cinq Cent Balles" (12:04)
• Theatrical Trailer (2:07)

DISC TWO
* The Watermelon Man
• "Melvin Van Peebles introduces Watermelon Man" 2004 featurette (5:06)
• "How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)" 2005 documentary (84:52)

DISC THREE
* Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
• Audio Commentary with director/writer Melvin Van Peebles (1997)
• 1997 Introduction by Melvin Van Peebles (2:36)
• 2021 Conversations with filmmaker Mario Van Peebles and film critic Elvis Mitchell (23:24)
• 1971 "Detroit Tubeworks" interview with Melvin Van Peebles (13:03)
• 2021 Scholars Panel with Gerald R. Butters Jr., Novotny Lawrence, and Amy Abugo Ongiri (25:34)
• Episodes of Black Journal from 1971 (23:37)
• Theatrical Trailer (2:32)

DISC FOUR
* Don't Play Us Cheap
• 1997 Introduction by director Melvin Van Peebles (2:51)
• Episodes of Black Journal from 1972 (29:09)

DISC FIVE
* Baadasssss!
• Audio Commentary with director Mario Van Peebles and writer Melvin Van Peebles (2004)
• "The Story Behind “Baadasssss!”: The Birth of Black Cinema" 2004 featurette (21:51)
• “The Real Deal (What it was…is!)” 2003 making-of documentary on "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" by Melvin Van Peebles (21:55)
• Excerpts from a 2004 interview with Van Peebles for the Directors Guild of America Visual History Program (44:27)