Boss [WS]

"Fred ""The Hammer"" Williamson delivers a crash course in race relations to the Old West in this western, originally released in 1975 as Boss Nigger and given the less-confrontational title Boss for this DVD edition from VCI Entertainment. Boss (which still features the original title on screen and in its title tune, a handle Williamson explains and endorses in a text-only preface for this edition) has been given a widescreen transfer to disc, letterboxed at 2.35:1 on conventional televisions and enhanced for anamorphic playback on 16x9 monitors. The image quality is good but not great; the print used is clean enough, but the colors are often muddy and the picture is a bit on the soft side, looking as if little had been done to improve the picture for this new edition. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo, retaining the original monophonic sound mix, and the fidelity is about on a par with the image, not bad but not impressive either. The dialogue is in English, with no subtitles or multiple language options included. As a bonus, the disc includes a 27-minute interview with Fred Williamson in which he talks about his careers in football and motion pictures, two shorter interviews with Myrl Schreibman who discusses the making of Boss and working with director Jack Arnold, and the film's original theatrical trailer (as well as previews of three other blaxpolitation titles available from VCI). This edition of Boss leaves a bit to be desired technically, but fans of Fred Williamson's two-fisted screen persona will be glad to see one of his Seventies hits available again, and the bonus interview shows the Hammer hasn't lost a bit of his swagger or style."