Cornbread, Earl and Me

This is a rather well done film with great performances. Where it drops the ball is on the overdramatic music that sledgehammers the emotional tone of the more dramatic scenes.

It resists the temptation of villianizing all of the antagonists, especially the judge (which no doubt would've been portrayed as racist and corrupt in a similar film made today).

Bernie Casey (who I'll always think of as U.N Jefferson in Revenge Of The Nerds) is terrific and it's too bad I don't see him in too many films today.

Great 70's feel and the first appearance of Larry Fishburn makes this a film to check out.

I was very disturbed by the negative review given by a man who actually lived during the times dramatize in "Cornbread, Earl and Me." I am a 26-year-old Black female watching this movie for the first time. I found that every issue addressed in this movie is transcendent, relevant even today.

It amazes me that we overlook the importance of a message simply because of the delivery. In all fairness to this movie, there is no blaxploitation present; the language, attire, scenery, etc., everything necessary for a realistic plot, is perfect for the setting and time frame of this movie. Regarding the comment about "ghetto language" there is a balance between the use of the formal and informal in the movie.

As an English teacher, and one who has a strong disdain for negative images of African-Americans, I can honestly say that this movie's depiction of African-American life was very well done. It was also poignant and ahead of its time. It is movie that, when the time comes, I will show to my children as a reference to how very little times have changed regarding the ease of wrongful deaths, slandering of names, harassment of witnesses because of racial advantages, or rather disadvantages.

The movie is GREAT;-)

I'm not going to summarize the story of this movie; you can find that above.

Rather, I'll just leave my comments on the experience of watching it.

The ;movie is well acted throughout. And that can, at times, make it difficult to watch. When one of the characters is killed, it is difficult to watch his mother's at first unbelieving reaction to the tragedy. You feel something of her grief just in watching the contorsions of her face and body. It's not easy to watch.

Later, watching the police dept intimidate witnesses to avoid a wrongful homicide verdict is also difficult to watch, but in a different sense. You see how powerless the people in this poor neighborhood are to fight back against such administrative corruption. (I also suppose it doesn't make a lot of sense. I would imagine, though I don't know this as a fact, that even in 1975 police depts would have been insured against such expenses.)

It's refreshing that it is a Black lawyer who wins this suit, and not some Great White Savior.

But at the end, you have no assurance that the same thing won't happen again. And again. And again. The shooting of the young Black man was not directly an act of racism - one of the policemen who shot at him was Black himself, and they had been told the rapist they were pursuing was Black. His death is, rather, the result of sloppy procedure and very bad coincidence.

But the intimidation of the potential witnesses by police dept reps suggests that the people in this neighborhood and other poor ones like it have little access to real justice.

The film does have a moderately intriguing mesage about polkice brutality and political corruption being obscenely hoisted upon African American communities in the urban United States. That said, the film is horribly dated, and elements of it are unnacceptable by today's standards. I mean the slain icon's name is Cornbread for Pete's sake!!! Where wre his cohorts Fried Chicken and Watermelon? Moreover, the societal corruption is presented in a way that makes us feel sad and powerless rather than angry and indignant. This is really a product of the early seventies Blaxploitation genre that would be utterly offensive by today's standards were it not for the still relevant and timely subject matter of the film. Worthwhile viewing for those who can differentiate between the message and the overdone elements. I fear, however, that the film's excess could leave white biggots laughing at the maudlin African American stereotypes on parade rather than addressing the political concerns of the film at all.

A kid witnesses the shooting death of the neighborhood basketball star. The basketball player had been mistaken by the police as a crime suspect. The kid is subjected to harrassment from the policement involved to keep quiet about what he knows. The cops even go so far as to intimidate his mother. This is an early film appearance of Lawrence Fishburne's. He was thirteen or fourteen when he did this movie. The always magnificent late Rosalind Cash plays his mother. The film makes a sharp comment about the conflicts people have with the very people who are supposed to be protecting them.