God's Step Children

God's Step Children (1938)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Yet another highly controversial film from pioneer director Oscar Micheaux, which tries to be critical of black people who hate being black. A black mother gives birth to a mixed baby but she can't stand the backlash so she gives the child to another black woman. At nine years old, this child starts lying and trying to get her black teachers into trouble because she hates being black. She's sent to a convent but when the girl returns at the age of 21, she again tries to destroy everyone around here. This is an incoherent mess of a film that doesn't make a bit a sense and it's never real clear what message the director is trying to send. I couldn't make heads or tails out of any scene and in the end I was left with a major headache. The other films from the director that I've seen were often critical of black people, which was a brave thing to do considering these films only played black theaters but whatever Micheaux's point was here is certainly lost. Needless to say, the acting is pretty horrid throughout, which is hard to be too critical of since the majority of blacks were allowed in any sort of acting school at the time.

1st watched 8/9/2002 - - 5 out of 10(Dir-Oscar Micheaux): Excellent written story, but badly played out and cheaply produced. It is so hard for me to write this review because I admire so much about the way this story played out and the depth of the reality that was built into this movie about an adopted light-skinned child who is constantly trying to be something she's not and getting into trouble despite her excellent mother and obvious charmed life despite what her circumstances could have been. The reality is that many adopted children never understand that their loved and that was the point of this story. The bad part is that the obvious little funding that was given to this production was apparent in the acting and the production. This is too bad because with a better core of actors and actresses this could have been great. Nice little scenes of well-done dance routines are also kind of thrown in for commercials for the performers who were probably ignored by the majority of people in the white-ruled 1930's. Micheaux could have made a lot of money as a screenwriter, if he was white, with this vehicle, if Hollywood would have given it a chance despite it's frankness. I hope he got by okay anyway, and I will look for other title's that he may have had his hand in because of the obvious talent that showed through in this one.

Although this film has relatively low production values by today's standard, Micheaux did the best he could with what he had to work with - few filmmakers today would are express the historic views of the mulatto elite or the middle/upper class people of color - Oprah Winfrey presents The Wedding is about the closest in recent memory -but the lead character didn't try to "pass" as they say.

The idea of the biracial/multiethnic individual not feeling that he/she fits in anywhere and the adoptee who never believes he/she is loved is also a ripe one for discussion and touched upon here, since there are two problems at play here - feeling rootless and feeling resentful of being thrust into a socially inferior position.

Many believe these views are outdated, but some people still hold them, and it's good to examine them. Another user commented on Naomi's desire to be something that she's not, yet the American dream is to be able to rise above your circumstances and be what you want to be. There should always be freedom of choice and freedom of association, it's just too bad that this film doesn't give the lead character a happy ending, but that was to be expected I suppose.