For many years, Native Son, based on Richard Wright's masterful novel, was shown with approximately an hour of footage excised. But now TCM has presented a fully restored version.
Native Son was not made in the US but rather in Argentina by French director Pierre Chanal. It's set in Chicago and features a good deal of amateur performances (including some audio parts dubbed into English). Perhaps the most controversial decision was to allow Richard Wright, over 40 at the time, to play the protagonist Bigger Thomas, who in his novel is only supposed to be an older teenager.
Wright isn't as bad an actor as some have said, even though this was the first time he performed in a film. The character of Bigger is a revolutionary one as Wright adroitly displays the racism of white society without sugar-coating the effect of said racism upon some denizens of the black community.
It is quite understandable why some African-American critics criticized Wright's portrayal as a caricature in light of centuries of stereotyped depictions of African-Americans in various performance art. In their view, Wright was just pouring fuel on the fire.
Wright on the other hand was trying to explain why Bigger acted the way he did. Bigger became a criminal because of racism-but Wright was not about to excuse his protagonist's conduct. At the outset, he depicts Bigger as planning an armed robbery. But notably it's the black bar owner (representing the black community) who attempts to stop him from going through with it.
Hence Wright makes it quite clear that Bigger was not able to overcome the effects of racism-his case is a tragedy. But it's the majority of African-Americans in Native Son who are depicted as decent people who must cope with the racism of white society at every turn in their daily lives. For example, when the police dragnet goes into effect to capture Bigger, the police invade the apartments of innocent blacks without warrants (even violating the sanctity of a home in which a pregnant woman is giving birth!).
The characters in Native Son are heavily nuanced. While Bigger's boss Henry Dalton (Nicholas Joy) is depicted as paternalistic, he's also not an out and out racist like Britten (Charles Cane), the private detective he hires to find his missing daughter (Cane is amazing as this "Northern" racist so much more convincing than typical melodramatic racist types), But he exploits black people in other ways (earlier on, Bigger's mother complains about the exorbitant rent for a cramped, debilitated apartment, owned and managed by Dalton).
Wright depicts the two white liberals here--Dalton's daughter Mary (Jean Wallace) and her "Communist" boyfriend Jan-as hardly what one could call paragons of virtue, with both getting drunk before Bigger takes Mary back home and ending up accidentally killing her (these portrayals are in contrast to Wright's overall left-leaning sympathies, marking him as an honest reporter who rises above the ideology he ascribes to).
Ironically, Wright wants his audience to see that Bigger killed Mary under the mitigating circumstances of white racism (Bigger was forced to ensure Mary didn't make a sound because being alone in a white woman's bedroom was of course completely forbidden in society at that time). The whole point why Bigger's lawyer enters a guilty plea is to argue that there were mitigating circumstances to the crime, But when the DA attempts to inflame the passions of the court, the lawyer has no choice to take back the plea and request a jury trial.
It's Bigger's revelation to his lawyer that he murdered his girlfriend that throws the attorney into a precipitous conflict. But after much soul-searching, the lawyer will still argue mitigation, due to the overall racism of white society. Despite the accidental nature of the daughter's killer, Wright wants us to have no illusions about Bigger: he goes ahead with a ransom demand even after Mary's killing.
Bigger appreciates his lawyer's expression of forgiveness but takes a bigger step in acknowledging now he was responsible for his crimes. Despite the great tragedy of Bigger's life, there is a measure of redemption for him as he finally experiences a profound epiphany of self-awareness. Native Son is a daring vision of the racial divide, way ahead of its time.
Native Son was not made in the US but rather in Argentina by French director Pierre Chanal. It's set in Chicago and features a good deal of amateur performances (including some audio parts dubbed into English). Perhaps the most controversial decision was to allow Richard Wright, over 40 at the time, to play the protagonist Bigger Thomas, who in his novel is only supposed to be an older teenager.
Wright isn't as bad an actor as some have said, even though this was the first time he performed in a film. The character of Bigger is a revolutionary one as Wright adroitly displays the racism of white society without sugar-coating the effect of said racism upon some denizens of the black community.
It is quite understandable why some African-American critics criticized Wright's portrayal as a caricature in light of centuries of stereotyped depictions of African-Americans in various performance art. In their view, Wright was just pouring fuel on the fire.
Wright on the other hand was trying to explain why Bigger acted the way he did. Bigger became a criminal because of racism-but Wright was not about to excuse his protagonist's conduct. At the outset, he depicts Bigger as planning an armed robbery. But notably it's the black bar owner (representing the black community) who attempts to stop him from going through with it.
Hence Wright makes it quite clear that Bigger was not able to overcome the effects of racism-his case is a tragedy. But it's the majority of African-Americans in Native Son who are depicted as decent people who must cope with the racism of white society at every turn in their daily lives. For example, when the police dragnet goes into effect to capture Bigger, the police invade the apartments of innocent blacks without warrants (even violating the sanctity of a home in which a pregnant woman is giving birth!).
The characters in Native Son are heavily nuanced. While Bigger's boss Henry Dalton (Nicholas Joy) is depicted as paternalistic, he's also not an out and out racist like Britten (Charles Cane), the private detective he hires to find his missing daughter (Cane is amazing as this "Northern" racist so much more convincing than typical melodramatic racist types), But he exploits black people in other ways (earlier on, Bigger's mother complains about the exorbitant rent for a cramped, debilitated apartment, owned and managed by Dalton).
Wright depicts the two white liberals here--Dalton's daughter Mary (Jean Wallace) and her "Communist" boyfriend Jan-as hardly what one could call paragons of virtue, with both getting drunk before Bigger takes Mary back home and ending up accidentally killing her (these portrayals are in contrast to Wright's overall left-leaning sympathies, marking him as an honest reporter who rises above the ideology he ascribes to).
Ironically, Wright wants his audience to see that Bigger killed Mary under the mitigating circumstances of white racism (Bigger was forced to ensure Mary didn't make a sound because being alone in a white woman's bedroom was of course completely forbidden in society at that time). The whole point why Bigger's lawyer enters a guilty plea is to argue that there were mitigating circumstances to the crime, But when the DA attempts to inflame the passions of the court, the lawyer has no choice to take back the plea and request a jury trial.
It's Bigger's revelation to his lawyer that he murdered his girlfriend that throws the attorney into a precipitous conflict. But after much soul-searching, the lawyer will still argue mitigation, due to the overall racism of white society. Despite the accidental nature of the daughter's killer, Wright wants us to have no illusions about Bigger: he goes ahead with a ransom demand even after Mary's killing.
Bigger appreciates his lawyer's expression of forgiveness but takes a bigger step in acknowledging now he was responsible for his crimes. Despite the great tragedy of Bigger's life, there is a measure of redemption for him as he finally experiences a profound epiphany of self-awareness. Native Son is a daring vision of the racial divide, way ahead of its time.