Hot Picks
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Brother John
USA 1971
produced by Joel Glickman for Columbia, E&R
directed by James Goldstone
starring Sidney Poitier, Will Geer, Bradford Dillman, Beverly Todd, Ramon Bieri, Warren J.Kemmerling, Lincoln Kilpatrick, P. Jay Sidney, Richard Ward, Paul Winfield, Zara Cully, Michael Bell, Howard Rice, Harry Davis, Lynn Hamilton, Gene Tyburn, E.A.Nicholson, Billy Crane
written by Ernest Kinoy, music by Quincy Jones
review by Dale Pierce
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A very subtle little gem with the supernatural element not coming to the
surface until the very end. Surpringly unknown among fans, in spite of a
major cast of actors.
Sidney Poitier plays John Kane , a black man who has been raised in a hick
southern town like any other black child, has grown up to be an adult, yet surprisingly always knows when
to show up back home when someone in his family
is about to die. The film opens up with his return, right in the middle of a
pending race war. Why is John really hanging around?
This paranoia gets the police and local businessman Bradford Dillman all
suspicious as to what John might be up to and they continually shake him down.
Things take a few twists, hinting John may be more than he seems, but not a
government agent or a civil rights troublemaker as the local yokels believe.
They do a double take when they find his passport has been stamped by
literally every country in the world, including Cuba and other places where US
citizens normally are barred from travel. Just what is going on?
Only the doctor who delivered John, played by Will Geer, starts to suspect
there is something unearthly about the black visitor, yet keeps mum about it
til the very end. As the race issues and hatred loom outside, John seems to be
taking mental notes and indeed he is.
Dillman becomes more annoying, as do the other rednecks, while the black
population seems scarcely better. You might end up rooting for them to kill
each other off and well ...
John ends up getting arrested and is visited by the doctor in jail who
confronts him outright about his identity. John is indeed something from
another world, an angel sent to travel the globe and determine if mankind is
even remotely worth saving or if in fact, should be obliterated as a lost
cause.
The end decision is not a happy one, with John nodding his head. The jail door
opens, as if by magic, the guards stand oblivious and he walks out free into
the world, with the old doctor sadly realizing the world is doomed. Game
over and more likely than not, the human race is about to lose.
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review © by Dale Pierce
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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