| Black Caesar (1973) Cast:Fred Williamson, Gloria Hendry,Art Lund A black ex-convict works his way up the ranks to own the city, however his power play meets resistance with crooked cops and mobsters. Black Caesar is probably the best blaxploitation ever made, mainly due to the effortless charisma from Fred Williamson and a gritty edge in which the character is almost (but not quite) as a-moral as Sonny Chiba's Street Fighter. Also Cohen's direction is excellent and the film is often realistic. It's sort of weird how Blaxploitation and Asian films just dropped off completely in the 1980s. Some say it's the audience's change of taste but given the Asian and Black market who loved action movies, one wonders if this was done more by the moral groups in the minority groups. Indeed it's surprising that Williamson could be so good here and yet end up in crap like Warriors Of The Wasteland a decade later. The film is really mean spirited in that it takes you aback. It's sort of like old school rap which was grittier and often had a message, unlike today where everything is a self parody. Williamson is a tragic figure but one that means business. Watching his final showdown with a dirty cop and the racial angle gives the film a nasty kick that takes the viewer aback. Of course the underlying message is that black people have no choice but to either turn to a life of crime or live poor. It's admittedly hard to root for such a character as Williamson kills people without prejudice but then again everyone else is the same way, and the only seemingly decent characters even back stab Williamson. I guess this is probably the point of the movie, and the climax with Williamson running from the whites and then to also retreat from black muggers offers a stark irony that shows that Cohen isn't going for the exploitation angle but rather for a message. One expected a Shaft-like hero but this is not the case and the film is memorable and disturbing. D. Larry Cohen***1/2 |