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Wear your large lapels tonight, it’s BLACK CAESAR (1973)
Posted by Daniel Metz
Dir. Larry Cohen
Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, 2/3/10, 11:59pm
Another week, another Weird Wednesday review. This go-round, we’ve got blaxploitation classic Black Caesar, a sort of hybrid between Super Fly and Public Enemy. Here, Tommy Gibbs is an aspiring mafioso, getting himself involved with the Italian mafia in order to rule Harlem, the South Bronx, and, hopefully all of New York.
The film is ambitious and, at times, achieves greatness. The soundtrack by James Brown is killer. All of the big Blaxploitation films got great music: Super Fly has the best-selling soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield, Shaft has obviously got Isaac Hayes, etc. Here, James Brown does a number of great songs, but the standout tune is “Down and Out in New York City.”
I was born in New York City
On a Monday
It seems I was out shinin’ shoes ’bout Tuesday noon
All the fat cats, in their bad hats
Doing me a real big favor
I got the fat cats, in their bad hats
layin’ it on real good
Here’s a dime boy
Give me a shine, boy
ow!
It’s a pretty great song. Just believe me. Or listen to the song here.
The plot is unfortunately a little sloppy. Some plot points and scenes seem to be glossed over, and the whole narrative doesn’t exactly “make sense.” Nevertheless, there are some great moments. My favorite is a car chase in midtown New York. Gibbs tells the cab driver, “Here’s five hundred dollars, drive on the sidewalk.” I love that.
The film also ends with some real chaos. There is a confrontation between Gibbs and his Irish rival, McKinney that heats up race relations real fast. First, McKinney forces Gibbs to shine his shoes. When Gibbs turns the table, he beats him with the shoeshine box brutally and with a real fury, saying, “You’re the dumb nigger…You’re gonna die like a field nigger!” Gibbs then takes the shoe polish and proceeds to paint McKinney up in black face. There is obviously a lot of conflict within this scene, but that madness plays nicely throughout the film.
Pretty nice clothes, pretty bad ass motha.
Fred Williamson plays Tommy Gibbs with the coolness that he brings to every role. His clothes are impeccable, he commands over the community, and his business deals are smooth as silky, baby. Yeah. He is definitely not the Paul Muni Scarface-type gangster with no class or brains. He is bright, ruthless, and ice cold.
