Nichts als ein Mensch

This movie was no doubt completed with at most a very modest budget, but the finished product is so strong and moving--thanks to a very intelligent script and great acting. Although the film stars no "big names", it is chock full of some of the better Black character actors of the 1960s. The leading man, Ivan Dixon, proved he was a fine and competent actor--far better than the role he played on HOGAN'S HEROES. It's a shame that he didn't get more starring roles during his career.

The plot involves people living in a small Southern town in the mid-1960s--after segregation was no longer legal but was still very rampant. Dixon just wants to be treated like a man--no more, no less. He is not asking for handouts but respect. Unfortunately, the people living in this town are so used to the status quo that they just feel it is futile to buck the system. As a result, Dixon faces major uphill battles--mostly on his own except for his lovely young wife. In addition, there are subplots concerning fatherhood and responsibility that greatly enhance the movie's message.

This film would be wonderful for anyone--in particular kids, as they will realize in watching this just how far we have come. Most young kids today just don't realize how tough things were for Black Americans in this country and how acceptable this maltreatment was. It deals effectively with these issues without being preachy or heavy- handed. A great film.

This movie is really honest about the relationships between a man and woman and family (esp. African-Americans), men (esp. black) and society, and Blacks and America (esp. the deep South). The characters were strangely familiar and real; I recognized them from my boyhood growing up a black boy in the rural south. It was startling to see some of my OWN best and worst character traits portrayed on screen. Though made in 1964, the film is still relevant to our present context, notwithstanding that times have changed. Ultimately, though the film is reaffirming, although in a honest, skilful manner that is not trite or facetious. The cinematography and use of real- world sets is excellent (Note the ironic sign on exiting one set, cheap metal stick-ons spelling "...Pool Palor") Highly recommended.

Unlike other well-intentioned films of the period, NOTHING BUT A MAN presents the main character as neither saint nor scoundrel, but as a complex man with human contradictions. Ivan Dixon gives one of the best performances of his career as the lead character of Duff. A film of rare quality and subtlety.

I thoroughly enjoyed "Nothing But a Man." Unlike other films before it, it shows black men and casts them in lead roles instead of sticking them in white circles. It is an excellent and faithful depiction of problems that blacks faced, such as maratial, familial, and social dilemmas. This film also focuses on black masculinity and what being a black man is about, and it highlights the struggle and contrast of being free and easy and not tied down as opposed to being married and struggling for one's dignity. The film itself is great for its neorealistic style. It is like a documentary in many respects. It is black & white, gritty, and has no soundtracks running (save the Motown and the gospel). Unlike the race films of Micheaux and Williams who used this documentary-style depiction to push their messages, Roemer fearlesssly shows the brutality and bleakness of African-American life, with an ending reminiscent of Orwell's 1984. I loved this movie. It is honest, non-patronizing, and accurate. I saw it in my ethnic cinema class, and I highly recommend it.

I've seen this movie twice and it touches me in a way that compels me to see it again and again. This film touches so many elements of poor southern existence that it feels more current than films made today. Though forty-one years later, with elements of the situational context dated, the film is eerily current. For example, with cotton-picking, day-working and railways section gangs replaced by newer working-class occupations, there remains a race-based hierarchy to life. NBAM brings to mind scenes from Crash minus the shock required for contemporary senses. I can only imagine what it was like to see this film when it was in the theater. As with so many genre-shifting and defing movies, watch it and the DVD extras section.