Review of Black Caesar (1973) by Allan C — 15 Mar 2015

Larry Cohen, a white writer/director, made what's considered the seminal blaxploitation film "Black Ceasar", staring the great Fred Williamson in his breakout role. Williamson plays Tommy Gibbs, a tough kid from the mean streets of harlem.

The film opens with Gibbs as a kid being mistreated by racist cops, but most of the film takes place years later with Gibbs, now an adult, slowly building his criminal empire, fighting racist cos and bigoted Italian mafiosos.

What Cohen has die with "Black Caesar" is taking an old wine and put it into an new bottle. Cohen crafted a story that is essentially an old 1930s Warner Bros crime picture (i.e. ""Public Enemy," "Little Caesar,j" "Angels With Dirty Faces" etc.

) and transplanted it to 1970s New York with a black cast and peppered with social commentary. It's Cohen's social commentary that set his films apart from bring simple genre pictures, whether he was doing blaxploitation, mainstream action or horror films, he consistently presented his films with a point go view and had something (usually liberal) to say.

But back to "Black Caesar" credit also needs to be given to Williamson as a huge on screen presence and who's charisma makes Tommy Gibbs utterly compelling. You also get the colorful D'Urville Martin as a childhood fried of Gibbs who's now a priest and also a sneering Art Lund as a racist cop who crippled one of Gibbs' legs as a teen and who's now worked his way up the chain of command.

Big props also go to the James Brown songs sprinkled throughout the film.