For a honkey like myself to review a movie called “Boss Nigger”, I may have to examine more than just the movie itself. For one, the movie no longer has the “N” word in the title. The DVD release of the film is just simply called BOSS. In the world we live in today, putting a DVD on a store shelf with the word “nigger” in the title would simply just not fly. From a certain standpoint this would seem like a good thing—seeing as “nigger” is a racist term and probably should not be in the vocabulary of anybody because of what it represents, and the less it is used the better. Again this is just one viewpoint on this issue, which I don’t feel is necessarily right or wrong. Another view would be, why was it acceptable in the 70’s and not now? Racism was stronger in the 70’s than it is now, that’s a given, but I would like to think there is a tad less racism in America today (we did just elect a black man to run our country after all), but the movie itself is not a racist movie, in fact it could be considered an anti-racism movie. Why was a movie with the “N” word in the title okay then but not now? The movie still stands for the same things—it was produced by a black man, and starred two black men as the heroes, so why censor the title? Is it for the sake of not offending African Americans or is it for the sake of white Americans, so they won't have to deal with the guilt of the past? I’m gonna' go out on a limb and go with the latter. A movie entitled, BOSS NIGGER would probably offend a few black people, I’m sure, but it’s the extreme left-leaning-liberals who would have the most problem with it under the guise of trying to be “politically correct” and not offend anyone—because god forbid anyone is ever offended in our society. Truly it’s about hiding our white shame of what we have done to African Americans over the past several hundred years. Instead of dealing with it, we try to act like it never existed. We did the same thing with Native Americans, whom we’ve all but written out of existence because if we didn’t we (Americans) would have to deal with how we stole their land right out from under them. Now there's a shaft for ya', and I'm not talking about the private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks.
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With all that being said, I was glad to see BOSS NIGGER finally get released at all, with or without the offending “N” word in the title (hopefully Williamson’s two Nigger Charley movies will be soon to follow--no doubt they'll be entitled, THE LEGEND OF CHARLEY and THE SOUL OF CHARLEY). It should be stated that the title is only censored on the DVD cover, and not in the film itself, nor is the excellent theme song that shares the same name of the movie title of course (it's a catchy number too-just don't get caught singing it in public). At the beginning of the film Fred Williamson admits to using the word for shock value and fully endorses the word not being cut from the film itself. So even after my soapbox rant, I’m okay with the “N” word being dropped from the DVD title. So if it means that some pinko-liberals will sleep better, fine whatever. By the way, I consider myself liberal, but not a far-left leaning one—those fuckers make me just as sick as far-right conservatives. Moving on…
Forget Shaft, Fred Williamson is one real life bad mother—(shut your mouth)—shut your mouth, bitch—I'll say it if I want to, Fred Williamson is one bad motherfucker!
You could say that Fred Williamson plays himself in all his movies and I wouldn’t argue with you. The same could be said for actors like Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson and Jack Nicholson too, but the reason that is ‘okay’ is because all those guys happen to be cool people in real life. So what we see is larger than life portrayals of their real personalities, something that if you’re truly cool you can get away with. When I watch a Fred Williamson movie I don’t want to see him spouting fucking Shakespeare—I want to see him kicking ass and taking no shit. These are escapist movies, folks. Movies that should entertain you for an hour and a half and then you move on—you may watch it again for the same enjoyment later, but that’s all it’s for.
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Fred Williamson plays, Boss, alongside his trusty sidekick, Amos, played the very talented, D’Urville Martin (he provides a lot of comic relief in the film without being goofy or silly) and they are two black bounty-hunters and former slaves. The two happen to show up just as three outlaws are attacking a black man and his grown daughter, Clara Mae. The outlaws kill the father, but Boss and Amos are able to kill the men and save the daughter. They take her to a nearby town to leave her with a Mexican family that she knows there and also to collect a reward for one of the men they killed, only to find there is no sheriff in the town, just a Mayor (played by veteran actor, R.G. Armstrong). They find out that the sheriff was killed by an outlaw named, Jed (played by the always awesome, William Smith) and Jed has pretty much taken over the town (although he lives in a shack outside of town which I found odd). Boss and Amos find some dirt on the Mayor whom is secretly in cahoots with Jed and they are able to blackmail him into letting them become Sheriff and deputy of the town.
A black sheriff in the old west? Where have I heard that before? Yes, this was also the plot for Mel Brook’s comedy classic, BLAZING SADDLES (released the year before). It’s as if Fred Williamson thought, “What’s so funny about a black sheriff?” and made a serious version of the film—well serious for the most part, there is some really great humor in the film, mostly due to D’Urville Martin’s character.
So Boss and Amos end up cleaning up the town and making it a crime (among other things) to say “nigger” or disrespect the two law enforcers in anyway—which leads to some humorous situations. The Mayor explains the issue with Jed and his gang to Boss, but he’s not willing to lie down for Jed like the Mayor. Boss’s ‘bring ‘em on’ attitude causes a lot of trouble for the townspeople, which is also half populated by poor Mexicans.
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After Jed and his men kidnap Clara Mae and kill an innocent townsperson, Boss goes on the rampage and is eventually caught by Jed. Amos ends up having to save Boss and Clara Mae and an old west style showdown ensues…what? Where you expecting something else?
So yeah, BOSS NIGGER sticks close the format of most westerns, but the fact that it has it’s own twist on the heroes being black make it unique (at least at the time anyways). Plus Fred Williamson (he's the producer) and director, Jack Arnold never let us forget that although this is a western, it’s a blaxploitation flick first, and that point is driven home the most by the Leon Moore’s funky score which in no way resembles an score from any other western ever (The film’s theme song is infectious). Given the subject matter of the plot and oddball film score, BOSS NIGGER makes for a unique and enjoyable viewing experience for fans of either westerns and/or blaxploitation.
BOSS NIGGER trailer