A very good dramatic film that tackles the issues of Afro\European racism within the United States. The screenplay was supposedly written by a man who faced his own prejudices as a Jew living in Germany before and during the Nazi occupation.
It's a very well-acted film with a fantastic screenplay, surprisingly good set designs and phenomenal camera work.
How this isn't the better-known film is baffling to me. And to be fair I knew nothing about this movie going in.
The only reason I watched it now is because I clicked on a random video after scrolling through a bunch of random late 60s and early 70s films. I originally was going to watch some action movie or a cop drama.
But then I saw this thing out of the corner of my eye and decided to give it a click. At first you don't even suspect that the movie will focus on racial issues. It's just a man working on a train track moving from one location to the next like a working Drifter.
The real themes of racism only start to come into play once our protagonist decides to settle down. You see the film focuses around a guy named Duff who just goes from one location to the rest in a job that is fairly secure and to the best of my knowledge he's unionised in some small way. So he can be a little mouthy* when it comes to being harassed by a bunch of asshole racist.
They don't hold back on the racism in this film either. There's a total of maybe eight white people in whole. One of them isn't racist. The rest are either demeaning, creepy or flat-out dangerous.
And there's no Hollywood moment in this film either. They don't learn the error of their ways, get their comeuppance later on or get punched in the face by Duff in some revenge style fisticuffs. They're just jerks the entire time, they ruin a man's life and then move on with their day.
Really it's a film that deserves to be watched. I could sit here and go through all the different nuances or the personal life struggle of Duff and his soon-to-be family.
Maybe get into a conversation about how he's perceived even by his African neighbours and peers as something of a low life because of his less than desirable position in the workforce.
But you don't need me for that.
Watch the film for yourself and make your own decisions. Especially given that it's a really well-made movie.
It doesn't just survive on its message, the actual cinematography is something to behold.
The only negative I can say about it is it might come off as a little slow to some people. But that's kind of the point.
You're not looking at an exciting or romanticised life.
At the end of the day Duff is just a schmuck. Even without the racial problems he'd still be considered something of a low life.
You could also make an argument that Duff's wife has it just as bad as him. She gets involved in a relationship way too quickly, she deals with the same racial problems as Duff (only with the added disadvantage of sexual tensions) and she even gets tossed around a little bit by Duff when he's in some of his more depressed States. It could have easily been a follow-up to this movie that just focused on her and the plates of an African American woman in the world that could have been its own unique movie.There's a lot of future big names in this movie. You have Ivan Dixon (playing the lead role) Abbey Lincoln (playing his wife) Yaphet Kotto, Tom Ligon, Gloria Foster.
And Lord and behold who should show up but Richard Ward!
*And when I say Mouthy I mean he talks to people without acting subservient. A white man asks him a question, he may wait a moment to respond or he may not respond at all! Sometimes he's even has the ''audacity'' to use sarcasm with them. And at this time and place that just wasn't an option for a lot of people.
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