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Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

SnoopyStyle In 1953, young Tommy Gibbs helps a mobster kill his target and then later beaten by a crooked cop. He spends time in prison and in 1965, Tommy (Fred Williamson) takes on a contract from mob boss Cardoza without authority. He convinces Cardoza to give him one full block in exchange for being their secret kill squad. He slowly gains power and influence bringing him in conflict with the ruling Mafia.This remake is surprisingly good. It is violent. Williamson is iconic. The story telling is a bit disjointed. The barbershop scene has some scary violence. The shaky hand with a straight razor is very uncomfortable. There is a ground level edgy reality to all the scenes in Harlem. The most iconic scene is probably Tommy leaving Tiffany. It's obvious filmed guerrilla style. Many of the passerby seems clueless and confused by the action. It would be nice to do more with the other characters. There are great individual scenes like the mobster forcing Tommy to shine his shoe. This is high level blaxploitation.

johnathanfrost This is one of those films that not just made Fred Williamson a star but also a iconic figure in the early 1970s. The film does have some flaws such as the acting which to me had many mediocre moments but the film had many great moments that were believable and authentic. I also love Larry Cohen's approach to the film in the 1930's Warner Bro's gangster film fashion which is not to me a bad thing. The thing I loved the most about this particular film was its use of violence and how ugly and horrible it really is but in my personal opinion this a flawed but powerful gangster film that I consider a classic of the genre and a very memorable piece of film making by Larry Cohen.

tomgillespie2002 Not one to miss on an opportunity, Larry Cohen's second feature film utilised the explosion of blaxploitation cinema after the successes of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) and Shaft (1971), and crafted his own "black" action film, modelled on the 1931 film Little Caesar. Fred Williamson plays the titular role, a boy from the streets, witnessing and being victim of brutality from the white community, and particularly a local police officer, McKinney (Art Lund). As an adult, Caesar's goal is to become kingpin of Harlem, and he won't let anything stand in his way.The narrative is a story told over, which focuses on a person who looses everything in the pursuit of power, including childhood friends, wives, and particularly looses sight of the person that they are. It's always great to watch a Cohen movie from this period. When filming in the streets (in this case New York - of which is his usual setting), his guerilla-style is self evident: clearly in the making of these films, Cohen does not get any kind of permission to film, he simply turns up and does it. In one scene, Williamson has been shot, the camera follows him down the busy street from a roof top, and passers by seem to want to help him. It's these elements of exploitation cinema that I embrace.Whilst this is certainly not one of Cohen's greatest (check out his horror output for some terrifically socio-political subtexts), the film oozes charm. Not only do we have the easy-cool of Fred Williamson, the film also has the ubiquitous Gloria Hendry , although not in her usual kung-fu-influenced fighting mode. Even though this film is less well known than Shaft or Superfly (1972), who's soundtracks were composed by soul giants Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield respectively, Black Caesar's soundtrack is provided by the godfather of soul himself, James Brown: Break it down! Heeyyyyaa!!www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

MartinHafer BLACK CAESAR is one of the better so-called blaxploitation films I have seen. Compared to most films in this genre, the production values are much better--with a decent performance by Fred Williamson and a very good, but violent, script to assist him.The film begins with a kid taking a bribe to a corrupt cop. The amount is short and the sadistic White cop beats the Black child severely--sending him to the hospital and filling the kid with a desire for revenge. Years pass and this kid turns out to be Fred Williamson--a tough ex-con who has visions of being a mob boss. Through mob contracts, he's able to ingratiate himself to the prejudiced Italian boss. With so many racial slurs going his way, you just know that eventually Williamson is going to give this man and the rest of his White friends their "comeuppance"--though in the meantime, he carves out a little piece of the mob pie for himself.Eventually, of course, Williamson is the leader of the mob and now he has to work with the same cop who beat him years earlier. This is because the cop is now the police captain. You know that Williamson must one day pay him back, but you also know that he might just die in the process! Exciting, well-paced and interesting throughout. The only shortcoming I really see in the film is its frequent nudity, adult content (Williamson rapes his girlfriend) and all the blood. Additionally, the ending of the film doesn't really fit in with the fact that there was a sequel to BLACK CAESAR--a rather unnecessary and contradictory idea indeed.