tadpole-596-918256 Review of Native Son

Native Son (1951)

This film quotes Carl Sandburg as saying that "Chicago . . . "

[6/10 · 3 December 2021]

" . . . Is the world's hog butcher," but the poet's rhyme about cats, fog and "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" may be a more apt summary of NATIVE SON. Adapted from THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER, this revised SON centers on Bigger, whose father was executed for a Capital Crime. After smothering Mary in her bed, this chip off the old beheading block viciously stuffs his own bed mate Bessie down an elevator shaft. Since Bigger's lame defense attorney Max can up with no better dream team slogan than "If she's dust, it can't be lust," the doomed client gets sentenced to a hot squat. However, NATIVE SON soon gave rise to "jury nullification"--or the "They can't help themselves" defense--in which a certain demographic of criminal trial becomes a poetry slam and most defendants are cleared to hunt for elusive or nonexistent "Real Killers" on the Back Nine.