Black Caesar
Closed CaptioningLarry Cohen
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Plot Summary
Tommy Gibbs (Williamson) has always had it tough. Growing up on the streets without a father and trying to make his mother proud, Tommy resorts to running "errands" for The Man. But when a crooked cop beats him up, Tommy realizes there's a better way to live: by making The Man deliver for him! Infiltrating and then destroying the infamous Cardoza family, Tommy takes over Manhattan as the first black Godfather and puts the squeeze on anyone who dares to get in his way including the crooked cop! But as he tightens his grip on others, he loses his hold on the most important things in his own life, making him the vulnerable target of every cutthroat gangster who ever dreamt of ruling an empire!
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Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
55%- Reviews Counted: 11
- Fresh: 6
- Rotten: 5
- Average Rating: 5.7/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Rotten: Mr. Williamson, in short, can't be blamed for the plot contrivances that hinge mostly on action and bloodshed.
Fresh: Cohen's technique is almost laughably crude, but a core of frightening conviction remains.
Rotten: Unfortunately it all remains too crude to convince one of its better intentions.
Customer Reviews
The First Generation of Black Gangsta Flicks
James Brown did the one of the coldest scores of all times in this film. This movie puts you in a place and time when cats had this thing of being independent men of standards thats all but gone today. Shorties runnin' around today tryin to do the things cats back then did with ease and with little help from 50 other so called Homies. Stand up and lone cats that are gone!
Local Boy Makes Good, er, Bad...
One of best of the tier-2 movies from these early 1970s movies. Black Caesar is the tale of a kid is crippled as a youth by crime and grows up to take over the crime business from those who crippled him. With what essentially is Live and Let Die's cast (sans Roger Moore as 007 and Yaphet Kotto as Kananga), this movie achieves a nice entertaining tone and tells a story that has been popular for as long as stories have existed: boy gets dissed, then rises to greatness only to be done in. It's certainly worthwhile if you are a fan of the genre, and if you are on the fringes of interest in this genre, I would suggest viewing Superfly for a more thoughtful, in-depth, telling of a very similar tale.
BhOOOOO!
Tiss moovee is bahd.
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- $9.99
- Genre: Drama
- Released: 1973
- © 1973 Orion Pictures Corporation. All Rights Reserved.