Boss Nigger

Boss Ni*ger (1975)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Boss (Fred Williamson) and Amos (D'Urville Martin) are bounty hunters who travel to a small town being ran by a corrupt Mayor. Boss is waiting on a bad guy to show up and in the mean time decides to make himself Sheriff, which doesn't sit well with the racist white locals but they're going to learn that there's one way to do things and that's up to the Boss. In case you didn't read the title, this here is blaxploitation 101 and without question the best I've seen from the genre. Director Arnold is best known for CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON but he handles this material perfectly and not only delivers the perfect blaxploitation movies but also a pretty good Western. What works best here is Williamson's screenplay, which clearly shows that he knows how to write dialogue but it also shows he's just as brave as the characters he plays because there are all sorts of rules broken here and this helps keep the viewer on high alert because you never know what's going to happen. Every racist remake ever made towards a black person are present here and played for laughs in how over the top they are but they then lead to some hard hitting action as Williamson really does lay down the Hammer. The racial slurs are downright hilarious especially one scene where a dumb redneck tells Williamson to "shine his shoes" and the Hammer goes up to him acting like a shoe shiner. The way Williamson plays this and eventually pays it off is just downright brilliant and is clearly a highlight of the genre. Some get shot while others are forced to keep handing money over in fines but the Hammer deals with them all. What I respect most about the film and its screenplay is that Williamson isn't afraid to not play by the rules and the reason I say this is because certain people are killed throughout and these are the type of people that never get killed in films like this. The action scenes are great as are the stunts and Arnold knows how to use the slow motion oh so well. In some ways this film spoofs BLAZING SADDLES, which is pretty funny considering that film was a spoof to begin with. The sensitive should probably stay clear but if you want brave and fun film-making than this here is the top of the blaxploitation genre.