Now, when I speak of the accuracy of this movie I am, of course, speaking either prophetically, I guess, or hypocritically, because I am neither black nor old enough to have been alive when it was made. Nonetheless, having had bad experiences with blaxploitation films (such as the astonishingly bad Sweet Sweetback's Badaassss Song), I recently saw an outstanding documentary called Badasss Cinema which really opened my eyes to this entire genre and taught me about the things that had previously caused me to sort of look down on some of the films. I have a tendency to pick movies apart when a lot of really little things bother me (the James Bond movies are particularly susceptible to this), and that happened in a major way in watching movies like Sheba, Baby, Coffy, and Black Mama, White Mama.
It was interesting to learn the history behind this genre, as well as the way it seemed to appear, become wildly popular, and then fizzle out with surprising speed. The genre's disappearance can largely, and not surprisingly, be blamed on Hollywood, for reasons which I'll leave to the above mentioned documentary to explain.
Armed with a new outlook on blaxploitation, I rented Black Caesar and was pleasantly and not so pleasantly surprised at the same time, strangely enough. It is not surprising that a blaxploitation film almost named after one of the first gangster films ever made , Little Caesar would attempt to resemble the most famous gangster film of all time, which was released the year before.
The infamous Fred Williamson plays the part of Tommy Gibbs, a hardened youth who grew up with an intense desire to firmly establish himself as a force to be reckoned with on the streets. He finds tremendous success, and the movie moves forward making intense sociological statements about the plight of black people in early 1970s America. Unfortunately, as the movie goes on it dissolves into more and more ham-handed lashes out at white people in general, especially that favorite blaxploitation scapegoat, the White Cop, or the White Guy in Suit.
While the African American community certainly had, and still has, in many ways, a lot to lash out and to be resentful about, it was really sad to see such a smart and well made film resort to contriving situations between Gibbs and white people who were so outwardly racist and brutal toward him just for the sake of setting themselves up for his revenge. The shoe-polish scene near the end of the film, as well as the ear scene relatively early in the film are prime examples.
(possible spoiler) On a more subtle note, it is also noteworthy that a great length of time is spent showing Gibbs staggering through the streets of New York at the end of the movie because of a gunshot wound. This takes place in broad daylight and not a single person tries to help him, offers to call the police, or even so much as puts a hand over their mouth in sorrow or sympathy.
I really enjoyed Black Caesar and I think it's one of the better blaxploitation films that came out of the 1970s. But you can certainly scratch subtlety off of its list of successes.
It was interesting to learn the history behind this genre, as well as the way it seemed to appear, become wildly popular, and then fizzle out with surprising speed. The genre's disappearance can largely, and not surprisingly, be blamed on Hollywood, for reasons which I'll leave to the above mentioned documentary to explain.
Armed with a new outlook on blaxploitation, I rented Black Caesar and was pleasantly and not so pleasantly surprised at the same time, strangely enough. It is not surprising that a blaxploitation film almost named after one of the first gangster films ever made , Little Caesar would attempt to resemble the most famous gangster film of all time, which was released the year before.
The infamous Fred Williamson plays the part of Tommy Gibbs, a hardened youth who grew up with an intense desire to firmly establish himself as a force to be reckoned with on the streets. He finds tremendous success, and the movie moves forward making intense sociological statements about the plight of black people in early 1970s America. Unfortunately, as the movie goes on it dissolves into more and more ham-handed lashes out at white people in general, especially that favorite blaxploitation scapegoat, the White Cop, or the White Guy in Suit.
While the African American community certainly had, and still has, in many ways, a lot to lash out and to be resentful about, it was really sad to see such a smart and well made film resort to contriving situations between Gibbs and white people who were so outwardly racist and brutal toward him just for the sake of setting themselves up for his revenge. The shoe-polish scene near the end of the film, as well as the ear scene relatively early in the film are prime examples.
(possible spoiler) On a more subtle note, it is also noteworthy that a great length of time is spent showing Gibbs staggering through the streets of New York at the end of the movie because of a gunshot wound. This takes place in broad daylight and not a single person tries to help him, offers to call the police, or even so much as puts a hand over their mouth in sorrow or sympathy.
I really enjoyed Black Caesar and I think it's one of the better blaxploitation films that came out of the 1970s. But you can certainly scratch subtlety off of its list of successes.