The Brother from Another Planet

This is a very strange film to watch, but easy to do so despite the fact that the plot is only added to near the end of the film with the men in black. It's no masterpiece at all, not even on a low budget standard, but one thing that brings above a lot of other films is a great performance by Joe Morton as The Brother, not an easy role to do, but his mute performance is pulled off so charismatically, that we can't help but be drawn into to The Brother's adventures. The film is at times very witty, very clever and very charming. John Sayles (writer/director) did well at adding in just enough subtle comedy. Most of the way through, the film is not really a science fiction film, it just happens to contain an alien. If I were to hazard a guess at how Sayles came up with the idea of The Brother From Another Planet, I would assume he started with the idea of; what if everything was kind of new and unfamiliar to you, as if you were born again, he probably started with that and worked from there to form this delightful film. One down side is the ending, because; as I mentioned before, 80% of the film is not really science fiction like, but the ending is very much science fiction, but it doesn't spoil the picture too much.

I give this gem a firm 8/10.

When Rod Serling created the classic "Twilight Zone" TV show, he presented it as a harmless fantasy/SF show when it was actually a series of morality plays.

In this film you have John Sayles' take on the same concept. He talks a standard SF cliche -- the stranded ET -- and uses it as the jumping-off place for a story about something altogether different. He doesn't appear at the end, like Serling, and tell you what the moral or message was.

Rather than talk about all that (art appreciation and interpretation is pretty much a subjective affair), I would like to say a word or two about the performance of Mr. Joe Morton as the eponymous character:

Zowie!

The Brother is totally mute. And yet Morton's performance knocks the poop out of any piece of acting you could name. Human and humane, empathetic and sympathetic. This guy will have you laughing and crying right along with him.

An incredible performance. Well worth the price of the rental, and the popcorn, and the gas that you burned up picking it up and...

A mute alien (Joe Morton) with the appearance of a black human is chased by outer-space bounty hunters through the streets of Harlem.

If this film had been made five years earlier, it might have fallen into the blaxploitation trap. But, luckily, this is not the case because it is above and beyond blaxploitation and in many ways far more clever. Rather than dwell on race, it just sort of accepts it.

There is the theme of immigration, though it is not heavy-handed and the viewer can choose to see this as a parable or not. They can choose to see it as science fiction or not. (Obviously it is, but it is light.) There is plenty of room for a viewer to imprint his or her own thoughts on to the story and make it their own.

Bonus: Fisher Stevens shows up.

With a ridiculous title as this, I thought the movie would be about alien black people high-fiving each other. Maybe something akin to Blackula or Black Dynamite. Boy, was I wrong. You can see something is off with expectations like these when you see the cast. None of the actors are high rollers in Hollywood, but you know most of them for their work throughout, as support characters.

Joe Morton is the main character in the movie, along an African American cast that is too long to list here, but I know most of them. John Sayles, the director, is one of the "immigration agents", while the other is David Strathairn. You've got Fisher Stevens and Giancarlo Esposito in small roles. It just goes on and on. Of course, in 1984 they were not known actors, but they proved in time that they are good ones.

The plot is simple, an alien running on Earth from two enforcers, but the script is filled with complexity, tackling in a subtle way things like racism, social status, societal satire. And they are part of the story, while this quiet (Joe Morton doesn't say a word all movie) timid alien is discovering Earth with its good and bad points, starting from Harlem.

Bottom line: highly underrated film, it is low budget, but it has class. I am not surprised it has become a cult classic and I am glad I had the chance to see it. And it's free! You can watch it online royalty free.

The Brother From Another Planet, is about an African American alien who crash lands on Earth in Harlem, in New York City. The brother does not speak English (or any language at all) but he can understand others and soon makes friends at a local bar and gets a job fixing things. He also gets a place to stay, lodging with a single mother. Many things on Earth seem unusual to the brother and he encounters many unusual people and situations. Soon we also find out about two men in black who are after the brother and want to get rid of him. He also shows his many alien talents during the film. Winner of The Caixa de Catalunya Award for Best Actor (Joe Morton, who plays the brother) and Best Screenplay (John Sayles, who also directed and edited the film) at The Catalonian International Film Festival. The Brother From Another Planet, has good direction, a good script, a good performance by Joe Morton, as well as a good supporting cast, good original music, good cinematography and good film editing. The Brother From Another Planet, takes a little while to get into but gives us an entertaining story, a likable main character and likable side characters, interesting situations and the script is filled with good dialogue, good character development, is full of smart satire and unusual characters and lots of unique situations and plot twists. The film is quite enjoyable and entertaining and is deliciously different. I enjoyed this film quite a bit and it is a nice clever sci-fi/comedy.