Soul Man

When I started to watch this film I thought, not another teen movie. That's not to say it wasn't funny because it was hilarious but then something happened in the film as it began to give a message of racism in American society in particular(and the world by inference). The premise that a white student could become black just by using tanning pills is so ridiculous but if you get over that funny leap in belief and you give this film your time you will be rewarded with a sentimental love story with a anti-racist message and what's more, the movie makes you think- what if I were black? Would I be treated like that just on the basis of the colour(or color as you Americans spell it) of my skin?

The main character Howell comes across as a bit of a j***k, pardon my language, at first but you see him mature with what he sees happening around him. His self importance disappears with every racist moment and we are left with not a broken man as maybe someone who had to put up with it all through their life (a Black person) but because he can go back to being seen as important in society (i.e. a white man) he is left enriched by the experience and an infinitely better person. The love angle is very well portrayed especially by two people who actually went on to get married after the movie in real life which just shows the chemistry between them on screen. The only thing after seeing this movie that I can see wrong with it is its competing ideas and themes- you are not sure what you have watched, was it a teen movie, love story, drama or anti-racist 'propaganda'. Personally as someone who likes all those types of movies I think it is the my greatest modern movie of all time. 10/10

Mark Watson (C. Thomas Howell ) was born in silver spoon and is accepted by Harvard with his best friend Gordon Bloomfeld (Arye Gross). However, his father refuses to pay for his education following the advice of his shrink. Mark decides to pose as a black man to grant a scholarship from an organization and uses a tan product to change the color of his skin. Soon Mark learns how difficult the life of black people is in a racist environment and falls in love with the black single mother Sarah Walker. When he learns that Sarah would have been awarded with the scholarship he took, Mark decides to face the board led by Professor Banks (James Earl Jones) to disclose the truth. What will happen to him?

"Soul Man" is a silly and shallow comedy from the 80's. The idea is ahead of time since it was not usual interracial relationship in 1986. But the plot is corny and not well resolved. The greatest attraction in 2020 is to see the cast young. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Uma Escola Muito Louca" ("A Very Crazy School")

White man Mark Watson (C. Thomas Howell) wants to attend Harvard University but his rich parents won't pay for it. Desperate to get in he turns his skin black (don't ask) and poses as a black man to get a full scholarship. While attending college as a black man he meets beautiful Sarah Walker (Rae Dawn Chong) and falls in love. He also butts heads with Professor Banks (James Earl Jones) who expects him to do better than anyone else cause he's black.

There was some controversy when this was originally released. Some people (who never even saw the movie) labeled it as racist and demanded that it be banned. It lead to other people (who ALSO never saw it) overpraising it as others blasted it to pieces. Seriously--if it had been about a black man posing as a white man would there have been such a problem? I don't think so. Such a fuss over what is basically a silly comedy. All the predictable jokes come up and are done in a dull way. The movie is flatly directed and Howell looks pretty ridiculous as a black man. Also Howell DOES try to pull this movie off but fails. The only bright points are Chong and Jones who are great in their roles. This is only of interest to see what people thought was controversial. BTW--I saw this in a theatre in 1986. The audience was white and black. Most of the black people applauded at the end! That should tell you how racist this is.

I remember watching this in my early teens, and thinking it was one of the funniest films that I had seen. Watching it again over 10 years later, its still pretty funny. In the age of political correctness it probably has quite poor taste, but thats not its intention. Its a lightweight comedy, and thats the way it should be taken. There are a few moments where a message and moral does come through, especially in the later half of the film. This adds to the films charm, as well as giving people a fairly superficial albeit correct notion of the social struggle faced by some races. C Thomas Howell was very good in this film, and I feel that its a shame that he does not make that many feature films these days- he seems to appear a lot in direct to video films. It was also interesting to watch Julia Louis-Dreyfuss in her very pre-Seinfeld days, before she became Elaine. This really is a funny film, very unbelievable but heaps better than the lame comedies that the big studios are serving up these days.

As much as this movie floundered at times I still liked it. There were points I was thinking, "This is absurd," yet they pulled it off. What started off to be something of a daft comedy full of despicable racial stereotypes was all just a set up for a grand ending.

Mark Watson (C. Thomas Howell) is a rich white L.A. kid living a shallow life, but he does get accepted to Harvard Law, which is no small task. It's at this time that his father (James B. Sikking) takes the advice of a less than stable psychiatrist and cut his son off financially.

Mr. Watson: "Son I want to give you your manhood."

Mark: "What would that mean in practical terms?"

Mr. Watson: "Well, it means I want you to go to Harvard, I want you to work hard-- very very hard. I also want you to feel good about yourself. You wanna feel good about yourself don't you son?"

Mark: "Sure Dad."

Mr. Watson: "Ha ha ha. That's why I've decided to let you pay your own way."

Mark: (stunned beyond belief) "Dad. That's... that's a sweet gesture, but it's really not necessary."

Mr. Watson: "Oh I think it is."

Mark: "What are you saying dad?"

Mr. Watson: "I'm saying that I took the money in your tuition account and used it to buy timeshare in a condo in Barbados."

And there you have it. Confident, excited Mark was turned into desperate Mark. In his desperation he hatched a hair-brained scheme. He would make himself up to look Black in order to get the Henry Q. Bouchard scholarship which is reserved for qualified Black applicants. What could go wrong? As Mark put it,

"It's gonna be great! These are the 80's man, it's the Cosby decade. America loves Black people."

Oh, how wrong he was.

For me, this movie was the cinematic representation of the book "Black Like Me." In 1959 John Howard Griffin took some pills to darken his skin in order to experience what it was like to be Black. He wrote an incredible book about the experience. Soul Man is a more humorous version of that same experiment.

Mark slowly learned that everyone didn't love Black people and that this plot of his would be much tougher than he imagined. And that was the most pleasing part of the movie. Seeing a privileged white kid come around to understand--even if only an inkling--what it's like to be Black.