Boss Nigger

By Mr. Tropnevad

Summary

Two black bounty hunters, Boss (Fred Williamson) and Amos (D’Uville Martin) arrive in a small town to collect a bounty on a white man. Discovering that the town has no sheriff they take the position and the white townsfolk began to protest. After they take over the role of sheriff, gangster Jed (William Smith) kidnaps a local woman and now Boss and Amos have to show the townspeople that they are not black devils and save the woman.


What I Expected

This movie is famous among blaxploitation fans and I have been aware of it for several years, but I have never seen it. Naturally with a movie called Boss Nigger you won’t find this in a store and when it was released to DVD the name was changed to BOSS on the cover which is why I have never been able to find it. As a fan of Fred Williamson I am expecting a string of racial slurs, violence, and some comedy.

Special Notes

This movie says the word “Nigger” every few minutes. If a word does not offend you then please read on. You must take this into consideration though, Williamson wrote this movie and at the time racial terms and epithets were used in all blaxploitation movies.

The Bad

This was Williamson’s first movie that he wrote. He has written other movies since then and I would hope they aren’t as racist as this one. I was expecting the word “nigger” to come up every once in awhile, but this is one of those movies where I would like to know how many times it is said and I would include the music in this, too. Seriously I am sure it was said over one hundred times.

The fighting in this is silly at times, but the end fight between Boss and Jed is just ridiculous. I don’t want to give anything away, so I will not be elaborating. Speaking of the ending what the heck was Williamson thinking by leaving the watcher hanging, wondering what happened. Clearly he wasn’t expecting this to have a sequel when he wrote it. Oh well, I know I’m not mentioning much here, but I am not able to inform you of the problem with giving away the last five minutes.

William Smith was not intimidating as the antagonist in the movie. I thought R.G. Smith’s role as the mayor was more intimidating. The mayor was always telling Boss what he couldn’t do in the town and while he was not the actual antagonist, he was always in the bounty hunter's face. To me Smith was just there to play his part and that was it. His acting was just meh. He just used the word “nigger” to be intimidating and that was it. He does redeem himself near the end, but it isn’t until the last ten minutes that he does his job.

The Good

I had a few problems with the story, but overall I did find this enjoyable. Williamson did a good job at telling his tale and kept me interested. For a movie about bounty hunters I was surprised how he was able to keep the story going. The two men state in the movie that “you all been hunting black folks for so long and we just wanted to see how it felt to hunt white folks.” It sounds funny and it is funny when they say it. I was curious how there were two black bounty hunters in the 1800s.

I wasn’t expecting this to be very funny, but I was surprised at how I often I found myself laughing. Granted they used the word “nigger” way too much, but sometimes when it was said it was hilarious. Amos is the deputy and at one point he issues a series of laws in town and one of them is if you say the word “nigger” then you will either spend a few days in jail or owe them twenty dollars. Moral of the story is essentially they didn’t want anyone using the word then, just like we don’t want to use the word now. Another scene that I found funny was when Boss and Amos go into a restaurant to eat and they are sitting down and a waiter comes over and boss says something like: Yes, we are both niggers, now go get us some food like you would for a white person. Essentially they just wanted to be accepted.

All of the music is good in this movie and that is saying something since this is a western. You would expect banjo music and steel guitars like most westerns. Since this is blaxploitation the film makers don’t go the route of the average western music and they use catchy tunes to keep you interested and entertained. The music is good and hilarious at times. The theme song is hilarious and I had it stuck in my head for a few days. This is a soundtrack that I would like to own.

For a blaxploitation western I was not expecting much when it came to set pieces. I was surprised when the two men arrive in the town and it actually looked decent for an old west town set up. Although I do think that they used a previous western set. Even Jed's hideout had a little something going for it, too. Granted it was a shanty house, but at least it looked like someone was actually living in it.

I was surprised how much I liked Amos. His character is funny throughout the movie and some of his jokes are vulgar and might offend some people. He did a good job at being Boss’s sidekick and at times I was tired of seeing Boss push him around. Despite everything Boss did to him such as take his money, Amos was always there for Boss in a time of need.

Overall Thoughts

If you are not offended by words then I think you will like Boss Nigger. This movie lived up to my expectations and then some. I was expecting a western and not a western comedy. If you are a fan of Blazzing Saddles then I highly recommend you watch this. Speaking of Blazzing Saddles I think that and Boss Nigger should be played as a double feature. If you are interested in this Amazon sells this for $7, but if you are still not sure you can stream this on Youtube. If you are going to rent it through Netflix remember to type in “Boss”.

Overall- Buy