Extra "Caesar" on the side please.

Written, directed and produced by genre multitask monster, Larry Cohen, 1973's Black Caesar (a remake of 1931's Little Caesar) was originally written with Sammy Davis Jr. in mind for the lead role. When that plan thankfully fell through, Fred "The Hammer" Williamson stepped in to play gangster and street entrepreneur, Tommy Gibbs.

We first meet Gibbs as a shoe shining teenager in a great scene that starts the film off…Gibbs shines a guys shoes, when a hit is attempted on the man, Gibbs holds his leg down keeping him from getting away so he could be murdered. Gibbs is paid by a mobster for a job well done, but has to deliver another payment to what turns out to be a racist, bad cop known as McKinney (Art Lund). McKinney thinks the young Gibbs stole a portion of the money, when Gibbs denies the accusations, McKinney procedes to beat the shit out of, and break the leg of the young Gibbs. From this moment, Gibbs vows to one day become "The Boss" of the criminal underworld, and the next time we see Gibbs, he is a dapper adult making a freelance hit for the mob to show them what he's got. The mob begrudgingly brings him into the fold and even gives him a block to control for himself, which is the jumping off point for Gibbs to move and shake his way up the criminal ladder, hoping to one day reach the top.

I've seen a slew of fantastic Blaxploitation movies over the past few years, and I can now happily add Black Caesar to that list of great films. Black Caesar was well received by critics, and was also one of the highest grossing films of the genre at the time. I can see why as it has a lot going for it as far as having some great genre people being a part of the film, from Cohen and Williamson, to Blaxploitation starlet Gloria Hendry, just to add even more genre credibility to the film.

Williamson is fantastic (and very greasy) as Tommy Gibbs, playing him on a ball hair thin line of good and bad. When he first starts out in the biz, he is so likable and as charming as can be, all while dealing with a lot of blatant racism, political and police corruption, all of which is a big motivator for the Gibbs character. You really root for Gibbs as he has so much going against him mostly due to the color of his skin. As Gibbs gets more and more powerful, he begins to get a little too big for his britches, and starts taking people around him for granted, while violently burning all of his bridges along the way. Eventually, this causes him to have no one left to turn to when trouble comes his way, he alienates all of those around him to the point that he is ultimately left alone, to fight the battles "he" initially started.


One of the other many standouts in Black Caesar is the awesome 70's Harlem locations. When the Harlem street scenes are shot; they are in a sort of vérité style that just really shows off all the characteristics that the city has. It truly is a character unto itself, and a beautiful one to look at I might add. Since I bring up the direction, I should add that while Black Caesar is at times a little rough around the edges, but at other times, it really is well done. Many different film making techniques are used, with some to good effect, and I really enjoyed how the montage scenes are handled in the film.

Along with the dope montages I loved so much, comes another aspect of the film that really sealed the deal for me…the music. Black Caesar has an amazing soundtrack done by James Brown and Fred Wesley, and similar to the Harlem setting I mentioned earlier, the music is an important character in the film and really adds to the overall feel and attitude that Black Caesar gives off as a movie. However, I did find the song "Mama's Dead" to be pretty fucking annoying, and is used one too many times, if you ask me. Nevertheless, outside of that stupid song, the music is worthy of a soundtrack purchase for sure, and if you're a fan of hip-hop, you will hear some familiar samples too. I know for the last few days since seeing Black Caesar, I have had "Paid the Cost to be the Boss" stuck in my head nonstop, and I feel much cooler than I actually am.

A few other things I liked about Black Caesar are some of the dialogue and how it's delivered, namely by The Hammer himself. One scene he shows up to an Italian restaurant and put's a severed ear in mob bosses spaghetti, the mob boss freaks out, and Gibbs replies with "Sauce looked like it needed a little more meat!" The scene where he comes into "possession" of said ear is great too, as Williamson delivers dialogue so perfectly and with a smudge of humor that I just loved. Another scene I loved, is when Gibbs has the upper hand on the mob, and when talking to the mob boss, he does so mockingly with a very funny Italian accent that is just great to hear Williamson deliver.

I will quickly bring up that I wish Black Caesar's villain McKinney, was in the movie a little more. He is one of the main antagonists from Gibbs childhood onto his adulthood and shows up from time to time, but seems to be more of a second thought in Black Caesar. Lund is a scary looking dude, he is a hair taller than Williamson (who is no slouch by any stretch), has this very Irish red face with piercing blue eyes, and hair so blond, it's almost white. Very intimidation presence indeed.

If Blaxploitation films are your bag, and you haven't seen Black Caesar then you need to get on that shit right away! Even if the genre isn’t your thing, Black Caesar is an action packed, violent romp, filled with great locations, dialogue, music, and it has Fred Williamson, one of the few men as insanely entertaining, likable, and conceited as the one and only Arnold Schwarzenegger. In addition, with a tagline like "Hail Caesar, Godfather of Harlem…The Cat with the .45-Caliber Claws!" I think it is worth giving it a shot.