Black Caesar
Black Caesar is a 1973 film from the USA, directed by Larry Cohen, running 87 minutes. reelscum files it under blaxploitation.
- Year
- 1973 · 1970s films
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 87 min
- Director
- Larry Cohen
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (39/100)
- Also known as
- Godfather of Harlem · Black Cæsar
Defined in the glossary: Blaxploitation
Larry Cohen shooting Harlem guerrilla-style. James Brown scores it.
Larry Cohen shoots a Harlem rise-and-fall gangster saga guerrilla-style on real streets, and gets a genuine epic sweep out of almost no money. Fred Williamson plays a shoeshine boy who claws his way to the top of the rackets and finds it hollow, and James Brown's score drives the whole thing.
Cohen's stolen-location shooting gives it a documentary immediacy, and the story has real tragic shape under the violence. Williamson is a commanding lead. The ending was reshot and remains divisive.
One of the most substantial films in the cycle, and a Larry Cohen essential.
Trailer
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Written about
- Exploitation films of the 1970s, the boom and the bust
Exploitation films of the 1970s explained through the ratings gap, the drive-in double bill, the cycles that ran fast, and the censors who cut them.
- Blaxploitation, 1971 to 1975
Melvin Van Peebles caught gonorrhea on his own set, filed a workers' comp claim, and bought more film stock with the settlement. Four years later the studios had mined the audience out and moved on.
Filed alongside
Cleopatra Jones
Tamara Dobson, six feet two, government agent. Shelley Winters overacts gloriously.
Across 110th Street
Grim, well acted, and the best film in the cycle by some distance.
Hell Up in Harlem
Larry Cohen's weekend sequel to Black Caesar, rougher and more berserk than the original.
Black Belt Jones
Jim Kelly karate-chops the mob to save a Watts dojo. Blaxploitation meets kung fu, joyfully.
Black Mama White Mama
The Defiant Ones with Pam Grier, shot in the Philippines by a Filipino who actually knew the terrain.
Cotton Comes to Harlem
Two Harlem detectives chase a stolen fortune hidden in a bale of cotton. The one that opened the door.
Super Fly
Curtis Mayfield's score critiques the film it's in. Remarkable object.
The Spook Who Sat by the Door
The most political film the blaxploitation boom made, pulled from cinemas and buried for thirty years.
Abby
The blaxploitation Exorcist. A minister's wife is possessed by a sex demon. Warner Bros sued.
Dolemite
Technically inept and completely irresistible. Boom mics in every other shot.
Scream Blacula Scream
The rare sequel that adds Pam Grier and a shred of dignity.
Truck Turner
Isaac Hayes in front of the camera for once, and Nichelle Nichols swearing.