Line #12 Film/BlackCaesar


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_caesar_poster_544.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:[[Music/PublicEnemy Yo, I've got ''Black Caesar'' back at the crib]].]]
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4	''Black Caesar'' is a 1973 {{blaxploitation}} film written and directed by Creator/LarryCohen, starring former NFL linebacker Creator/FredWilliamson as a small-time mobster who builds his way up as the kingpin of a criminal empire in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity.
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6	Tommy Gibbs (Williamson) [[ShoeShineMister shines shoes]] on the streets of Harlem, and begins moonlighting as a mob runner to make ends meet. After one of his jobs, Tommy is severely beaten and crippled by a racist police captain, and sent to prison for assault. Tommy uses his stay to learn about the criminal underworld in New York, and promptly sets out to usurp control by leveraging a section of Harlem from TheMafia. Gibbs then spends the next several years building up an extensive criminal empire and becoming a local hero in the process. Eventually, however, Gibbs backstabs his Mafia contacts and alienates his friends and family, leading to an all-out war between his empire and the reigning kingpins of the city. At the end of the film, Tommy is shot in broad daylight by a Mafia thug, and makes his way back to his old homestead in the Harlem slums, whereupon he is attacked and presumably killed by a gang of local boys, completing his fall from grace...
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8	...however, the wild popularity of the original film resulted in a sequel, ''Hell Up In Harlem'', being filmed and released the same year. [[{{Retcon}} Rewriting]] the ending of the first film, ''Harlem'' replays events from a slightly different perspective. Tommy is rescued and brought to a hospital by his remaining loyal allies after his beating at the abandoned apartment complex. Incapacitated (but still holding onto a key piece of evidence that implicates the Mafia heads in New York), Tommy transfers control of his empire to his father, who attempts to negotiate for his son's safety with the evil New York District Attorney Diangelo. After Diangelo's thugs try to kill him, Mr. Gibbs takes on the role of "Big Papa" while his son recuperates in Los Angeles. When [[spoiler:Big Papa and Tommy's ex-girlfriend (and mother of his children) Helen]] are murdered, he must come back to reclaim his empire (and his son, who was born in the previous film) and kill his turncoat lieutenant, Zach, and Diangelo.
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10	''Black Caesar'' was a hit with audiences when it was released in 1973, and was lauded for its gritty portrayal of the city and [[AntiHero morally grey protagonist]]. The film also jumpstarted lead actor Fred Williamson's career, which resulted in his having to shoot ''Harlem'' on weekends while filming another movie during weekdays. The original film also benefitted from having Music/JamesBrown compose the hit soundtrack. In an infamous case, Brown wrote the soundtrack for ''Harlem'' entirely on spec (without pay), but it was rejected by American International Pictures. Brown later released his rejected soundtrack as ''The Payback'', which proved to be a critical and commercial hit.
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12	Not to be confused with "[[VideoGame/LANoire The Black Caesar]]".
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14	----
15	!!The films contain examples of:
16	%%* AntiHero
17	* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:Mr. Gibbs, Helen and Tommy's childhood friend Rufus]] in ''Harlem''.
18	* BadassLongcoat: Big Papa's fur coat.
19	* BestServedCold: Jack Mckinney cripples Tommy in 1955. In 1965, Tommy blackmails Mckinney into protecting his criminal syndicate, with both making clear that they will kill the other when they've outlived their usefulness. [[spoiler: Tommy finally takes his revenge on Mckinney and beats him to death in 1972, 17 years after their fateful first encounter.]]
20	* BigApplesauce: The original plays it straight, while the sequel subverts this by being set in Los Angeles for part of the film.
21	* BigBad: Jack Mckinney, a corrupt police officer who goes on to become captain of the Harlem precinct, is the main antagonist of the first film and Tommy's nemesis, after having crippled him as a teenager.
22	* BigDamnHeroes: In the sequel, Diangelo takes Tommy's father up to the roof of a skyscraper and gloats at him before leaving his underlings to finish the job. Mr. Gibbs fights back and defeats both henchman before coming face-to-face with another man who has a gun trained on him. Mr. Gibbs looks resigned to death...and then Tommy's lieutenant Zach blows the henchman away from offscreen while a funky musical cue plays.
23	* {{Blackface}}: Used deliberately in ''Caesar'': Tommy smears shoe polish on the face of the policeman who crippled him when he was younger, and forces him to sing a song before beating him to death with a shoe-shine box.
24	* BriefAccentImitation: During his first meeting with Cardoza (a Mafia leader), Tommy orders a bowl of pasta using a perfect Sicilian accent.
25	* ChaseFight: Tommy and Zach in the sequel, as they follow each other on separate airplanes bound from LAX to Laguardia (punctuated with a fight between Tommy and a henchman aboard a plane) and then getting into a fight throughout the terminal.
26	* DirtyCop
27	* DownerEnding: The original film ends with Tommy severely injured (and presumably dead) after he's beaten by a gang of kids outside his old home. This was later {{retconned}} in the sequel to ensure that Tommy survived.
28	* EarAche: Tommy kills a Mafia informant and cuts off his ear, then presents it to one of the family heads at a restaurant.
29	* GambitRoulette: Tommy's plan in the first film hinges on many different factors, including his knowledge of the criminal underworld, his ability to score a meeting with the local Mafia heads, and a significant amount of patience and planning. Naturally, it all goes off without a hitch.
30	* GoryDiscretionShot: The ear-cutting scene.
31	* ImprovisedWeapon: A beach umbrella in the sequel.
32	* HollywoodHealing: In the sequel, ''Hell Up In Harlem'', Tommy is wheeled into a hospital room, where a doctor is ordered to remove the bullet lodged in his stomach (when Tommy was shot in the previous film) at gunpoint. The operation consists of Tommy mildly wincing while the doctor works on him, and he's no worse the wear (he can still think clearly and speak to his forces) while being wheeled out.
33	** Tommy [[spoiler:died]] in the first movie, but when the film was initially released, this ending was cut out of the film by the studio, thus making the sequel possible. When the movie was released on video, they restored Cohen's intended ending. As a result, Tommy's appearance in ''Hell Up In Harlem'' doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
34	* HollywoodHeartAttack: [[spoiler:Mr. Gibbs]] in ''Harlem'', who overexerts himself during a struggle and clutches his chest briefly before falling down dead.
35	* HospitalGurneyScene: Played with in the sequel - Tommy is wheeled into and out of the hospital by his crew while lying on a gurney.
36	* InformationBroker: Tommy is this at the start of the original film.
37	* JustBetweenYouAndMe: The final confrontation between Tommy and Diangelo in the sequel.
38	* LonelyAtTheTop: By the end of ''Caesar'', Tommy has alienated everyone who was ever close to him, and winds up bleeding out in a ruined apartment complex.
39	%%* TheManIsKeepingUsDown
40	* MiscarriageOfJustice: At the start of ''Caesar'', a young Tommy is recruited as a runner by corrupt cop [=McKinley=]. However, when the cop finds less money in the package than he was expecting, he shatters Tommy's leg and then tags him with multiple false charges, ensuring Tommy spends the rest of his childhood in jail. [[BestServedCold Tommy never forgets this.]]
41	* NeverTrustATrailer: Despite the title, there really isn't any "Hell up in Harlem". The first half of the film mostly revolves around Tommy recuperating in Los Angeles while his father, a peripheral character in the first movie, becomes a main character in his own right (largely by taking control without much bloodshed). More than half of the action scenes take place outside New York.
42	* OhCrap: In the sequel, the Mafia leaders on the Caribbean island once they realize that Tommy and his gang of assault troops (and several of the maids who were apparently trusted staff members) are massacring everyone on the island.
43	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Tommy's father becomes known as "Big Papa", who rules the Harlem crime scene with an iron fist.
44	* {{Pixellation}}: Occurs unintentionally during one scene in ''Harlem''. As Tommy climbs up the ladder onto a billboard to assassinate a target, the camera zooms in from a very far range (several blocks down a street) into him as he climbs. As the camera comes in, it becomes notably pixellated, an effect that is further exaggerated when seen on high-definition video.
45	* PopStarComposer: It wouldn't be true {{Blaxploitation}} without a {{Soul}} star doing the soundtrack, and Soul stars don't come any bigger than Music/JamesBrown.
46	* PursuedProtagonist: The opening of ''Harlem''.
47	* PyrrhicVictory: It takes 17 years, but at the end of the film, Tommy [[spoiler: finally takes revenge on and kills the racist cop who crippled him in his youth. All it cost him was the destruction of his marriage, the respect of his mother, any chance of a relationship with his father, the death of his best friend, the descent of his other best friend into narcissistic religious insanity, and his life.]]
48	* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: For most of the first act, the narrative sides with Tommy, making his accomplishments look awesome, and he comes across as a charismatic AntiHero. This comes to a screeching halt after his [[spoiler: rape of Helen shortly after their marriage - one which she didn't even want.]] From this point forward, Tommy is shown as a sociopathic monster far worse than the antagonists he offed throughout the first act.
49	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The ending of ''Harlem'', as Tommy faces off against his turncoat lieutenant, the District Attorney and their associated henchmen.
50	* ShoutOut: In Music/PublicEnemy's "Burn Hollywood Burn" from ''Music/FearOfABlackPlanet'', which is a TakeThat towards racist Hollywood movies, Big Daddy Kane is heard saying "Yo, I've got ''Film/BlackCaesar'' back at the crib", indicating that Creator/LarryCohen's independent film starring Fred Williamson (considered a classic of the {{Blaxploitation}} genre) is a more dignified portrayal of black characters, as it doesn't feature its black cast being denigrated to butlers, slaves or "jigaboos".
51	* TimeCompressionMontage: Over Music/JamesBrown's "The Boss" in ''Caesar'', as Tommy takes control of various criminal elements.
52	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: In the opening of ''Harlem'', both Tommy and the henchman who shoots him commit serious offenses in broad daylight. The opening sequence ends with Tommy sneaking up behind the henchman - ''smack-dab in the middle of Times Square'' - and strangling him to death as people walk by without reacting.
53	* WeHaveToGetTheBulletOut: Seen in ''Harlem'', as Tommy's henchmen transfer him to a nearby hospital and, holding a doctor hostage, force him to remove the bullets from Tommy's abdomen (while the latter is still conscious, no less).
54	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Tommy's daughter, who was brought to the Gibbs household by Big Papa. Tommy disappears with his son at the end of ''Harlem'', and never mentions her again.

Context Film / BlackCaesar