Black Caesar

Black Caesar
by Larry Cohen

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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Art Lund, D'Urville Martin, Fred Williamson, Gloria Hendry, Julius Harris
Director: Larry Cohen
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-01-09
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)

Movie Reviews of Black Caesar

Movie Review: I Love Black Caesar!!!
Summary: 4 Stars

Larry Cohen's name is well known to cult horror fans, but he's dabbled in different genres from time to time, and with his second film he went for a Blaxploitation flick. Actually it was more of a studio decision. Cohen was asked to do one of these films because they told him, "you are really good at directing those black actors". Which is a funny statement considering Cohen had made only one other film at the time which only had one black actor in it(Yaphet Kotto), and as Cohen has said himself, "directing a black actor is no different than directing a white actor".
Black Caesar stands out in the genre because it's not a full blown action film. It follows in the tradition of classic gangster films in which a boy who starts with nothing gets his big break in the crime world, makes his way to the top, becomes too big for his britches, and has nowhere to go but down. But Cohen makes this familiar premise highly entertaining and likable.
Fred Williamson gives one of the best performances of his career. Considering he usually plays tough guy action heroes, in this film he's required to flex his acting abilities more. The cast features many familiar faces in the Blaxploitation genre. Williamson's father is played by Julius Harris(he played Tee-Hee, the hook handed henchman in Live and Let Die), Gloria Hendry(also in Live and Let Die, but appears in practically every Blaxploitation film AIP produced) and D'Urville Martin(another guy who showed up in a ton of these films, as well as the director of the cult hit Dolemite). Williamson's nemesis, a racist cop, is played by Art Lund and he's a great choice coz the man just looks meaner than hell.
And to top it off, there's a fantastic soundtrack by James Brown. I never really thought one way or another when it came to James Brown, I guess I just heard the song, "I Feel Good" too many times, but I've definitely changed my attitude when I heard the soundtrack to this movie.
All in all, a very entertaining film which I feel should be a much bigger hit today than it is(the similarly themed and more over the top Scarface probably had some part in stealing Black Caesar's thunder). It was a huge hit at the time though, maybe Cohen's most successful film. Recommended very highly not only to Blaxploitation fans(who have no doubt already seen the film), but to Larry Cohen fans as well. It's interesting to see his style at work in another genre. Great commentary too.

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Summary of Black Caesar

Hail caesar godfather of harlem..The cat with the .45-caliber claws! Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 01/08/2008 Starring: Fred Williamson Art Lund Run time: 94 minutes Rating: R Director: Larry Cohen

Shot on the streets of New York, writer-director Larry Cohen captures the bustle and color of the city in this violent, low-budget crime film. Ambitious Tommy Gibbs (a swaggering, self-confident Fred Williamson) has risen from shoeshine boy to Harlem crime lord, but he wants a bigger piece of the pot. With a racist, high-ranking cop (Art Lund) in his pocket, he begins his expansion with a bloody takeover bid but finds himself betrayed from within and the target of both the cops and the mob. Cohen invests this fast-paced tale (partially inspired by the 1930 gangster classic Little Caesar with a touch of Scarface) with colorful characters (notably a hustling religious leader played by D'Urville Martin), high energy, and a scruffy style. Black Caesar is one of the most entertaining movies to come from the 1970s explosion of low-budget black cast genre pictures, more commonly known as "blaxploitation" films. --Sean Axmaker

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