Last night I
watched the DVD of the 1975 Blaxploitation classic Boss. Originally released
under the infamous title Boss Nigger,
the film was written and produced by Fred “The Hammer” Williamson who stars in
the title role.
This movie
is basically Shaft meets the Wild
West. Two bounty hunters, Boss (Fred
Williamson) and Amos (D’Urville Martin) are looking for the notorious outlaw
Jed Clayton (William Smith). The town
of San Miquel is run by a crooked mayor (veteran western actor R.G. Armstrong)
who is in league with the outlaws. Boss manipulates the Mayor and the Town Council
into making him Sheriff and makes plans to go after Jed leading to the
inevitable climactic gunfight.
Clara Mae (Carmen Hayworth) comforts Boss after being beat up by Jed
Boss has two
love interests, Clara Mae (Carmen Hayworth) who is eventually killed by Jed and
the town school teacher Miss Pruitt (Barbara Leigh), who of course, has the
hots for Boss.
Without the “Blaxsploitation”
elements, this would be just another B-Grade Western. With all the “Blaxsploitation” elements, a
lot of peppy dialogue and a “soul” music soundtrack, it’s a fun movie to
watch. If you’re offended by very liberal use of the “N”
word, this isn’t the movie to watch.
Although the film has comedic elements, this is not a “comedy western”
or a spoof of the genre as it’s sometimes called. Boss gets beat up bad and almost tortured to
death by Jed, a Mexican child is murdered by Jed out of sheer sadism, and Clara
Mae is almost raped twice and then killed by the outlaws.
At the end
of the movie, Ms. Pruitt (Barbara Leigh) begs for Boss to take her with him, to
which he replies, “A black man’s got enough trouble as it is without a white
woman following him around.” This movie
is just plain cool. Four out of Five Six
Guns.
