Man and Boy

I remember going to see this movie with my second grade class. It was playing at a theater somwhere in New York, no doubt due to the recent popularity of "The Cosby Show". It was really weird seeing Bill as a cowboy. I don't remember the movie well at all, but I remember it being kind of violent and very depressing. It seemed like the poor mans "Sounder". I don't remember liking it much, but I think Bill's heart was in the right place. He apparently loves Westerns, and, as always, wanted to make something very pro social.

I find that it is very important that the American Society will continue to show these types of films where Black men are the leading voice and to show that Blacks did want to be employed even during Westward Expansion time when governments chose not to employ Black men. To show that once a Black man was willing to stand behind his child and show the child what's right from wrong and to stick up for his belongings that will be taken from them even after they have fought long and hard in the Civil War (just to be called a "Nigger Blue-Belly" and denied homestead) is long overdue. If you steal my horse, shouldn't I get it back! If you look at most films that expose the truth of Westward Expansion you will learn that the Native American men and the African American men were not allowed to ride up on horses into town and talk to any women because they were looked upon as savages to White men with homesteads. Plain and simple the women were for White men only. But, this film shows the opposite and it is by no means a tool to pull any race card. Long live Bill Cosby!!!!!!

S.

Very well written story of the early American West and African American family. It is "G" rated but the subject is on adult level, for complete understanding. The psychology of the characters is very well defined and true to life as I see it, from my knowledge of early cowboys in Texas and the Western frontier. Fine acting and great scenery, a good movie to watch!

The most impressive thing about this film, to me, was it's realism. Many films have the pretense of reality, but very few movies have truly human characters. The only one you can become emotionally invested in is, of course, the boy. Everyone else is perfectly flawed. The Hero is, at times, a coward. The villains all seem to be driven by motives that one can easily understand. And under the same influences, one might be inclined to follow the same paths they chose. As in life, there are few truly righteous or evil people. Some, but very few. Most of us are somewhere in between. In short,"Man and Boy" is teaching us this lesson through the eyes of a young boy looking for a hero. Dose he find one? You be the judge.

This was another film in the long Hollywood tradition of playing the race card. We have here a string of incidents designed to create anger between the races of those viewing this film. This was at its worst of course in Roots which has created a dynamic in America that is still with us.

The focus is always on the most negative incidents that the writer can dream up. This of course has created a mental segregation based on anger or misplaced guilt depending on race. It should of course depend on whether your ancestors are abolitionists; plantation owners or black or white Revolutionary War heroes etc. Hopefully Hollywood will someday realize that a person is an individual not a race.

It is not surprising that this film was used for second grade class as part of the horrible curriculum in today's schools. Strangely most of Cosby's work other than this is quite the opposite and is usually good.