Customer Reviews

Boss

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great flick! It's hard to get a true understanding of the Black exploitation film era without watching one of it's greatest stars Fred "The Hammer" Williamson. Although you might be shocked by it's lack of political correctness, its message rings true. We must look past the color of our skins, and peer into the integrity and character of who we are!

Another in a long line of 1970's classic and not so classic 'blaxploitation' films, 'The Boss' a film whose original title when first released in '75 was ---Get ready to be shocked (or not)-- "Boss Ni**er". Fred Williamson stars and wrote the screenplay and co-produced this independently produced film, directed by Hollywood legend Jack Arnold. The story reminds me of Mel Brooks film comedy, "Blazing Saddles", a story about the new sheriff in town,a black man in the old west who has to deal with racism and try to defend the town against the bad guys.


Yes, the infamous 'n' word is used in the story at least 100 times, I kid you not. If you have issues with the word, you might not be able to watch this film. I feel that since the screenplay was written by a black man, it might be o.k., maybe not? That word is never o.k. for non-blacks to utter in the presence of black people today, and yet black folks call each other that word REPEATEDLY in today's hip hop/rap and black film culture. They claim that the 'n' word is o.k. for black folks to say to each other, it's kind of like gay men calling each other 'queer' or 'fag'. Use of the 'n' word seems to be empowering for many black folks, from what I understand.I take the same meaning from Fred Williamson's script: The whole theme of the film is take the power back from whitey in the post-slavery old west and let the black guys be in charge, and Williamson and D'urville Martin, the film's lead actors do this marvelously and comically, in my humble opinion.

I had not even heard of this film until very recently. I can imagine it had never seen the light of day on home video until now because of the film's original title. We are living in a much different time than the 1970's. It is far too offensive to use the 'n' word in public, especially as the title of a film.


This isn't Shakespeare, these films were never in the Oscar race, though Issac Hayes tune 'Theme from Shaft' won the Oscar for song of the year....I LOVE low budget often cheesy independent films. Some are better than others.

The DVD transfer is o.k. and is in anamorphic widescreen (yay).
I have seen MUCH worse film/video tape to DVD transfers. 'Pan and scan' SUCKS!

I recommend this film for blaxploitation film lovers like me.

Power to the people--by any means necessary!

Surprisingly good movie. I originally heard about this from watching the trailer on Youtube, and when I learned it was actually a real movie I had to check it out.

Although the real title is "Boss N****r", this is not a racist movie. It's a movie made in the 70's when Blaxpoitation films were in their prime, but this is one of the better ones. So far as I can tell, there's no underlying sinister political message--it's just meant to be a fun movie.

And I think it accomplishes that goal well. There's parts that are very funny, and the acting is pretty decent. You also get to see preveiws for other movies made in that time, just as if you were watching it in a theater in the 70's. It's a fun movie to show to friends as chances are they've never seen it before (I don't think it's available in stores).

Also, on the front cover, you see "The Boss" (played by Fred "The Hammer" Williamson) weilding a cut-down lever action rifle (I'm guessing a Winchester 1873), which he uses in the movie to hip-fire at bad guys. It's the only gun he uses, but I guess it works for him.

So, should you buy it? I'd say yes, unless you get super-offended by racial epithets (the word "N****r" is said like 100 times in the movie). There's also a long interveiw with Fred Williamson on there, which is fairly interesting. GET IT TODAY!!1! (or not, I don't really care, lol)

If you like Westerns and want to know what it was like in those days this is a great movie to buy. Good acting, decent story, and even has some funny lines! Great buy!

I love this movie just for the theme song alone lol. It's a descent watch had never heard of it till we saw the preview on an older movie. Fred Williamson was the man along with his trusty deputy.

First of all Fred Williamson is one of the greatest actors in the history of the line of cinema we call "BLACK ACTION." Hell he is on the cover of the 9.99 dvd set called Black Action. Boss (now pc'd out with the title Boss) is about two black men who are bounty hunters catching white bandits. They run across a some paper work that basically makes them sheriffs of a town, which is in the clutches of a bandit group led by a son of a gun named Jed Clayton.

The Good: Boss is Williamson's name in the film and he is as badass as they get. Dressed in black from head to toe, he whips an ignorant town into shape by enforcing "black man's law," which is about the same as basic old western laws, but if you say "the N word" you pay money or do time. They end up hustling a lot of money out of the white folks in town. Williamson even gathers up the poor Mexican community, walks them into town and makes the shop owners give them food and supplies. Sounds like High Plains Drifter.

The Bad: Jed Clayton's gang. Senior Clayton reminds me of my days growing up in a small town in Washington, because he looks like the loggers you would see walking into the bar every night, then drives home drunk past the local grade school only to force sex on his wife after a nice beat down. Needless to say this white trash is a coward who always stands behind his gang. But the gang is great fodder for Williamson to beat down so never a dull moment.

The Ugly: Racism. Just like many movies subverting cinematic race roles, there is something sobering behind them. The comedy usually defeats the forlorn feeling that racism creates, but in the end an innocent woman is shot in the back for being black and a Mexican child is trampled by a horse. Williamson gets his man in the end, but racism is still there.

The MANDOM: Williamson is alone with a posh white woman who has been craving his mandom, so he just grabs her and kisses her hard then says "that's just to satisfy your curiosity."

The Food: I was eating some crinkle cut frys and bbq sauce. This is a hamburger movie though. Get a good one going a double hand packed patty with some creole seasoning and a load of cheese that will get you through this kick ass movie.

A quick note for white guys like me. The theme song is very catchy but the "N word" is all through out it, so be careful if you find yourself singing it in public.......

An obvious genre piece (If you don't know which genre I'm talking about, then maybe you shouldn't be looking at this one) from the times, the movie holds up well today as a very kickass western in it's own right! All the jokes land and all the action is well played! Fred Williamson ROCKS it hard in this one, with guns blazing and fists knocking fools out!

OK, this is a very rare Blaxploitation film from the seventies that I've been wanting to see for years and I'm really happy that VCI has released it, even though it's certainly no great film.

Those with an interest in the genre will already know a bit about this movie, but for the person more casually interested in buying this DVD I feel I should provide a couple of words of warning (well, three actually).

Firstly, the real title of this film is "Boss N**ger." And the "N-word" (as we are forced to refer to it in this ever more juvenile world we live in) is all over this thing. I lost count, but I bet the N-word is used at least 150 times (not counting the lyrics of the theme song). It actually becomes kind of humorous after the 20th time, but if you're sensitve about that word, this is not the movie for you.

Secondly, this was a very, VERY low budget film. And even though it was directed by sci-fi film legend Jack "Creature From the Black Lagoon" Arnold, Boss N**ger was shot in the simplest, most rudimentary way possible. The movie was shot almost entirely in master shots with few close ups and almost no editing--just kind of like Arnold would set the camera in one place and tell the actors to just fumble through the entire scene, like in an Ed Wood flick. And the sound work is horrible as well. The whole movie plays like a series of bonus deleted scenes on a dvd--unfinished.

Thirdly, even though the movie is in anamorphic widescreen and the package says this was transferred directly from the original 35mm negative, many parts of the film looks pretty bad, as though it was transferred from a videotape. Makes me wonder if parts of the 35mm film were destroyed and had to be replaced with video (or maybe it's just a crummy transfer).

In any case, the DVD is inexpensive. And it allows you (like me) to satisfy a long held desire to see a Blaxploitation flick that has been held from public view for years simply because of its title.

This is a movie that I KNEW was gonna be a hoot!

BOY WAS I WRONG!!!!

It was too serious to be funny ant too funny to be serious. The acting from Boss was great but there was too much silly stuff and the sund quality was not great, even for an older movie.

I think a remake would be good. Make it serious with just a few jokes in it.