Written and Directed by Gordon Parks, based on his novel
Starring Kyle Johnson, Alex Clarke, Estelle Evans, Dana Elcar, Mira Waters, Joel Fluellen, Malcolm Atterbury and Richard Ward
USA, 1969
Now, to totally switch gears from Melvin Van Peebles, we’ve got the quietly contemplative coming of age story THE LEARNING TREE from Gordon Parks, based on his own apparently semi-autobiographical novel. I recognized the name Gordon Parks as the movie opened, but couldn’t place it, so I looked it up, and he directed SHAFT! You’d be hard pressed to find two more tonally different movies.
Set in the 1920s in rural Kansas, the story follows a young man as he moves from boyhood to manhood against the backdrop of a couple of race-related incidents: the beating death of a local farmer, who the boy works for, and the teenage pregnancy of the boy’s sweetheart – not by him. The main character’s good home life with a loving family is contrasted with his frenemy’s more difficult existence with an alcoholic father and merciless run-ins with the corrupt law. Like all the best coming of age stories, this one involves difficult moral choices and lessons.
This was the first film from a major studio, Warner Bros., to be directed by an African American, but even without that bit of important trivia, it would remain a great film definitely worth watching. Plus, Avery Brooks of STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE fame sings the theme song!
No comments:
Post a Comment