Black History Month: The Angel Levine

THE ANGEL LEVINE
Directed by Jan Kadar
Written by Bill Gunn and Ronal Ribman
Based on a story by Bernard Malamud
Starring Zero Mostel, Harry Belafonte, Ida Kaminska, Milo O'Shea and Gloria Foster
USA, 1970

Harry Belafonte returned to the big screen after a ten year absence with THE ANGEL LEVINE, the story of an elderly Jewish tailor (Zero Mostel) who has turned his back on God. And why not? His shop burnt down, his wife is sick and dying in bed, and he can't even work from home because his bad back prevents him from sitting at his trade for too long. Broke and with no hope, he tells the woman at the unemployment agency it's all God's fault.

Mostel's horrified one evening to find a Black man inexplicably sitting in his kitchen. This is the titular angel, Levine, played by Harry Belafonte. He has been sent by God to help Mostel, but can only help Mostel if he believes in him. For Belafonte's part, he only gets whatever he wants -- presumably safe passage to heaven -- if he's able to complete his mission. The deck is stacked against Belafonte not only because Mostel has already had it with faith, but also because Mostel's not prepared to accept that if an angel is going to come to him, it's going to come to him in the form of a Black man. Belafonte, on the other hand, is ill prepared for this angel stuff, having lived a life of petty crime and having few people believe in him while he was alive, let alone after he died.

So, this seems like a nice simple set up but it is complicated a bit by the movie's strange tone. There are easy set ups for easy jokes -- perhaps a little too easy -- that fall flat not just because they're too easy but also because they're surrounded by an overall atmosphere of doom and gloom. Some strange editing choices (probably meant to be avant garde) and offbeat music choices (also probably meant to be avant garde) make the viewer ill at ease for much of the movie's run time. What could have been a simple, small, charming allegory turns into a creepy art film that keeps audiences at arms length instead.

All that stuff also adds up to muddy whatever the message of the film is meant to be -- I guess that as long as people don't believe in each other because of their differences in religion, culture and race, then there's no hope for anyone, an idea that some would say goes without saying. But the alternative -- accepting someone different from you isn't so different after all once you get to know them -- is naive in the sense that we should accept everyone as human whether or not we personally know them. That's the whole point, isn't it?

The performances in the film are admirable and I think its heart was in the right place, but it misfires just often enough to become a slog rather than anything illuminating.