Native Son : Un enfant du pays

I'm not sure what Diane Silver was thinking when she was making this movie, but it obviously had nothing to do with Richard Wright's novel, which the movie is based on.

We read the novel this past summer for AP English 12, and just watched the film. During periodic note-taking and checking of the clock, I contemplated the chances of being struck by lightning. Of course, the sky was completely clear, and I was forced to watch the rest of the movie... and then write a 5-paragraph essay on it.

Wright's novel discussed very real themes, of the mind of a killer and the psychology behind it. Silver's movie turned a murderer into a victim, which is NOT what Wright wanted (see: "How Bigger was Born" 454).

I'm going to make this short and sweet: if you want to leave your consciousness, in Raphael Lambert's words, unsullied, skip the movie and read the book. The 1986 adaptation is not thought-provoking material.

... ::sigh:: Now I have to write the essay.

Hey look, deal with it, there are much better portrayals of the hardship of black America than this. Although I think this story is weak, my criticism is focused on the poor execution of the story, which I have mentioned, blows.

This was made in the mid-80's and is horrible in the music/score department. It's funny to see Oprah as a latter-day crack-whore type.

The scene where Bigger stuffs Elizabeth McGovern into the incinerator. Pure classic cinema. First off, I don't care how drunk you are, you will react to 1200F degree flame (no matter how bad your acting). But they really milked that scene...it was comical. I'll tell you what though, I had great satisfaction in seeing Elizabeth McGovern burn in a faux death; she annoys me.

Bigger is a teenager who is so poor he and his mother must share a bedroom in an apartment that appears to be falling apart, and they don't have enough money to eat well. When they get out of bed, two other hidden children pop up from under the covers--Bigger's sister sleeps with her mother, and his brother sleeps with him, and the males must turn around while the females get dressed. To improve their situation, Bigger's mother knows of a great opportunity for him and hopes he will finally get a job he can hold on to. If he doesn't, things could be even worse (at least they HAVE a home now).

Bigger goes to be with his friends when he should be interviewing for the job. He lets them know he will NOT work for the white man. Yet he does finally show up at the home of a rich family, and immediately turns into what his friends would likely call an Uncle Tom--not Stepin Fetchit, but respectful and polite.

Everything appears to be going well for a while, but then something quite terrible changes the situation drastically.

Oprah Winfrey came across quite convincingly as a poor black mother. This was in the days before she became a superstar talk show host. I won't say it's too bad she was successful in her best-known career, because she did so much good, but she could have been quite a fine actress. Victor Love was good as Bigger, primarily because Bigger had to be so convincing in order to keep his job. A great performance came from John Karlen as a defense lawyer (yes, someone needed a lawyer).

This was an African Heritage Network Monthly Movie Classic. It wasn't as good as some movies selected for this honor, but it was pretty good.

Having been on set a few days I can say the acting overall was very good. A good early dramatic performance by Oprah. (Hint: She get's in a funky blue mood by singing spirituals offstage between takes) And a very impressive performance by Victor Love. Since everybody was working for scale all the names were to be listed and evenly credited.

Question: Who played Oprah's daughter? Diamond Dawn Cook (AKA: AdrienneCook) That's not in the IMDb database.

I was also impressed by the rat wrangler. Who knew so much effort went into that one scene. One rat to skitter across the floor. One to cower in the corner. And one killed, though not really with a frying pan.

Few movies ever measure up to the books they're based on, and sometimes the only safe way to judge a literary adaptation is on its own terms, as if the source material never existed. Which makes the screen version of Richard Wright's celebrated novel — faithfully set in 1940 Chicago — a curiously dated social artifact. It demands a little mental arithmetic to update the story, about an angry young ghetto black who, in a moment of fear and desperation, accidentally suffocates the daughter of the wealthy, white family for whom he works as a servant. The issues of black and white are rightfully shown to be shaded with gray, but the production may be too slick for its own good. The film might have worked better had it been more harsh and controversial, more willing to disturb the complacency of self-satisfied viewers who, like Elizabeth McGovern's character, seek to prove their open-minded color blindness by their condescending ignorance of the wide gulf separating the two races. A talented, high profile cast is enough reason to recommend the film.