Wordiezett
So much average
Humaira Grant
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Derrick Gibbons
An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
Red-Barracuda
It would only be fair to say that the title of this one gives a pretty clear clue of what it's going to be about in advance. Needless to say, The Black Godfather is about the head honcho of an African-American gangster group. It's clearly a Blaxploitation riff on the earlier mega hit, The Godfather (1972), except in this one there is no focus whatsoever on the rise of the central character up to the summit of his organisation. Basically, in this one he has arisen to the rank of godfather after approximately ten minutes in! So the focus is on things he has to deal with as the leader of a black gang, such as white hoods trying to introduce drugs into the neighbourhood, something the black criminals are strongly opposed to. In order to combat this, the godfather joins forces with a Black Panther styled militant group.I was looking forward to this one, as it sounded like a sure fire winner but in all honesty it's a pretty poor effort from a genre where even most of the ropiest entries are still somewhat entertaining. It is a little too talky for its own good and it doesn't deliver enough fun on the whole. The black godfather himself wasn't truthfully the most interesting central character as it turned out, which was disappointing. It's probably a film suited mostly to Blaxploitation fanatics and I'm sure it will deliver something for most of them. One point of interest I did find though was the presence of Duncan McLeod as the requisite corrupt cop – he, of course, played the shady lawyer Porter Hall in the delicious cult classic Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) and it certainly was at least nice to see him appear in something else.
Michael_Elliott
The Black Godfather (1974) * 1/2 (out of 4) The title to this Blaxploitation flick pretty much tells you all you need to know. Rising gangster J.J. (Rod Perry) wants to get his black brothers buying dope from their own kind and in order to do this he must battle the evil white gangster (Don Chastain) who keeps pushing into his neighborhood. THE BLACK GODFATHER is a pretty lame entry in the genre for a number of reasons but the biggest is that it's simply got a cash-in title and very little else. A lot of these Blaxploitation films were nothing more than cash-ins but every once in a while you'll come across one that's actually good. Sadly, this here isn't that type of film as this here is pretty boring from start to finish and there are only a couple campy scenes that keep it from being a real disaster. I think the biggest problem is the rather lackluster direction, which just never pumps any energy or excitement onto the screen. The film just seems to be going through the motions and there's nothing that happens that you won't see coming from a mile away. Even the lead character isn't all that interesting and not for a single second do you care about his cause, care about his friends or even care if he's killed or not. As with most of these films, all the blacks are hard-working people just trying to make some cash for themselves while all the whites are evil racists. This simple set up can be fun when it's done correctly but here it just seems tired and old. I actually thought Perry was good in the lead role but it's really too bad that the screenplay didn't give him something better to do. I also liked Chastain as the bad guy. The highlight of the film is when a group of blacks break in on a couple and the white woman is needing a fix and offers herself for one. This entire sequence is pretty hilarious and it's too bad we didn't get more moments like this.
MartinHafer
"The Black Godfather" begins with a young guy, J.J. (Rod Perry), nearly getting himself killed but being ultimately rescued and taken under the wing of a guy who is in charge of the numbers rackets in the inner city. Despite nearly getting killed, J.J. is insistent that he has plans---plans on taking down the established white mob that has set up shop in the ghetto. However, and this is odd, it's never really certain what his plans are once he's destroyed this mob. Does he want peace for his community or does he want to be the next mob boss.This is an unusual blaxsploitation film in that I have seen similar types of movies but never one that is so muted and low-key. The normal bouncy 70s R&B music is gone and so are the loud stereotypical sorts of characters. Some, I am sure, will dislike this--they WANT the crazy over-the-top characters you see in many blaxsploitation films. Some might appreciate that the folks AREN'T so stereotypical. The problem I had is that although I appreciated these sorts of characters, the script itself just lacked energy and life--definitely making this a lesser film of the genre.By the way, look for the rather visible mic at 20:00 at the top of the screen--much like you'll see deliberately included in the recent blaxsploitation parody "Black Dynamite" (a definite must-see).
MARIO GAUCI
Despite my skepticism about the whole "cash-in" business, I can't deny that the Blaxploitation genre has yielded some remarkable achievements, most notably Larry Cohen's BONE (1972) and Bill Gunn's GANJA AND HESS (1973); unfortunately, THE BLACK GODFATHER would definitely come somewhere near the bottom if such a list was compiled…! Having already updated private detectives, vampires, monsters and what have you to the funkier generation, it was only a matter of time before we also had a colored Don to lord it over the underworld; it's a pity, though, that the mobster here is nothing like his Italian namesake (unless having his bodyguard named Sonny is enough to earn him the title of "Godfather"!).Anyway, I've already spent far more time writing about this film than it deserves; suffice it to say that the hip dialogue (brimful of catchphrases like "dig", "nigger", "brother", "right on", "the man", "that where it's at", etc.) is risible, the hairstyles outrageously dated, the action sequences amateurish, the compulsory song score mediocre and the acting woeful. Despite all this, I guess I was in a "bad movie watching" mode tonight because I was reasonably entertained by this junk and I can't wait to get my hands on that other Blaxploitation double-feature disc – THE BLACK SIX (1974)/THE BLACK GESTAPO (1975) – which is available for rent from the local DVD store…!
