Black Caesar (film)
| Black Caesar | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Larry Cohen |
| Produced by | Larry Cohen Benjamin Fisz Kenneth Rive |
| Written by | Larry Cohen |
| Starring | Fred Williamson Gloria Hendry |
| Music by | James Brown |
| Distributed by | American International Pictures |
| Release date(s) | February 7, 1973 |
| Running time | 87 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Black Caesar is a 1973 American blaxploitation film, starring Fred Williamson and Gloria Hendry. The film was written and directed by Larry Cohen. It is a remake of the 1931 film Little Caesar. It features a notable musical score (Black Caesar) by James Brown (with heavy input from his bandleader Fred Wesley), his first experience with writing music for film. A sequel titled Hell Up in Harlem was released in late 1973.
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[edit] Plot
Tommy Gibbs (Fred Williamson) is an African-American who grew up in Harlem, New York City. As a kid, he was brutally assualted by a racist white cop. The incident led him to a life of crime. As an adult, he joins New York mafia and becomes the head of a black crime syndicate in Harlem. He wages a gang war with the Italian mobsters of New York City and begins to establish a criminal empire. Later on, he meets and falls in love with a beautiful black woman named Helen (Gloria Hendry) and marries her.
[edit] Cast
- Fred Williamson as Tommy Gibbs
- Gloria Hendry as Helen
- Art Lund as McKinney
- D'Urville Martin as Reverend Rufus
- Julius Harris as Mr. Gibbs
- Minnie Gentry as Mama Gibbs
- Philip Roye as Joe Washington
- William Wellman Jr. as Alfred Coleman
- James Dixon as Bryant
- Val Avery as Cardoza
- Patrick McAllister as Grossfield
- Don Pedro Colley as Crawdaddy
- Myrna Hansen as Virginia Coleman
- Omer Jeffrey as Tommy as a boy
- Mike Anthony Jones as Joe as a boy
Some of James Brown's songs used in the film were sampled by prominent rap musicians - Das EFX and Ice-T ("The Boss" which is the background music where Tommy Gibbs is shot while crossing a street corner was sampled for Ice-T's "You Played Yourself", and also for Trick Daddy's "Take It To Da House"). More recently, by The Alchemist for Prodigy's album Return of the Mac. The song is also sampled on Nas' album God's Son on "Get Down".
The film is name-checked in Public Enemy's song "Burn Hollywood Burn", when guest rapper Big Daddy Kane reacts to the abandonment of black culture by Hollywood filmmakers by saying "I got Black Caesar back at the crib." Kane makes another reference to the movie in his song "How U Get A Record Deal".
According to the DVD commentary, Larry Cohen originally wrote this film with Sammy Davis Jr. in mind for the title role, but after the success of Shaft, the film was retooled for Fred Williamson.
In 2009 Empire named it eighteenth in a poll of the "20 Greatest Gangster Movies You've Never Seen* (*Probably)".
[edit] Release on DVD & HD
- In 2001 it was released on DVD.
- In 2010 it was digitized in High Definition (1080i) and broadcasted on MGM HD.
[edit] External links
- Black Caesar at the Internet Movie Database
- Black Caesar at Blaxploitation.com
- Caesar/ Black Caesar (film) at Rotten Tomatoes
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