Black Like Me

Released by: VSC
Released on: December 11, 2012.
Director: Carl Lerner
Cast: James Whitmore, Roscoe Lee Brown
Year: 1964
Purchase From Amazon

The Movie:

Directed by Carl Lerner and based off of the book of the same name by John Howard Griffin, 1964's Black Like Me was obviously made with good intentions. Produced completely independent of the major studios and obviously meant to shed a light on the racial problems that were such a problem at the time, the movie stars James Whitmore as John Finley Horton. A writer by trade, Horton decides to treat his skin to darken it and once it's dark enough, he leaves the comfort of his home in Texas and heads into the deep south in order to experience life as a black man. He figures this should be a great way for him to research some writing he needs to do on race relations in America.

He meets a kindly shoeshine man who helps him correct his 'act' a bit and then he's off. His encounters with white citizens differ pretty much instantly and he finds himself the victim of racial discrimination frequently. Different encounters with different white people, be it when he's hitchhiking across the area or trying to earn a living, ultimately expose a deep seated racial tension.

This one has some problems. It's obvious that all involved with the production meant well and really did hope to do some good here, but when you cast James Whitmore in the lead, it's hard to see him as anyone but James Whitmore, a man of obvious Caucasian descent. Even once he's been 'bronzed' up and 'darkened' enough to make a go of it, when he's standing beside actors of black heritage, he just looks like a guy in bad black face make up and it's almost impossible to get past this. As such, it's hard to imagine anyone taking the guy seriously as he goes about trying to have the black experience of the early sixties. They all react appropriately enough and to Whitmore's credit the guy is definitely trying his damndest to bring a lot of range and emotion to his part, but he flat out looks wrong.

There are some editing guffaws (a bus driver leaves behind a bunch of passengers at one point) and plenty of the type of minor glitches you associate with low budget filmmaking of the era but these don't hurt the film much. The story (definitely be sure to watch the documentary that accompanies the feature, it's pretty fascinating and goes into nice detail about the real life version of all of this) is an interesting one and there are some powerful moments here to be sure but ultimately this is one of those films where the casting just kills it. The film winds up with plenty of unintentionally bizarre and even humorous moments, the first time Horton sees himself in the mirror as a black man being a prime example, but the whole thing is just… weird. With that said, the movie is absolutely worth seeing, however, as there really isn't anything like it out there and again, the noble intent makes many of its flaws forgivable, even if its admittedly important (and at the time, very relevant) message is delivered without anything even remotely resembling subtlety.

Video/Audio/Extras:

VSC presents the movie restored from its original negative and looking excellent in your choice of 1.66.1 anamorphic widescreen or open matte 1.33.1 fullframe. Detail is strong throughout, black levels are solid and contrast looks right. The black and white image shows nice texture and print damage is never an issue. The restoration work done here is impressive.

The Dolby Digital Mono sound mix, in English, is also of pretty good quality. While it shows its age in that it's a little on the flat side, clarity and levels are fine and there are no problems with any hiss or distortion worth noting. A 5.1 Surround Sound mix is also included and it more or less just spreads things out a bit.

Extras on the first disc are limited to a quartet of four short trailers and a still gallery of lobby cards. More important is what's on the second disc, an hour long documentary entitled Uncommon Vision: The Life And Times Of John Howard Griffin which was made in 2010 by director Morgan Atkinson. This is a biographical piece that documents the life and work of the author on whose work the feature was based and it's a very interesting piece made by someone with an obvious interest in the subject matter. It puts all of this into the necessary historical context and is an excellent piece to accompany the feature.

Also included along with the two discs in this set is a ten page booklet including excerpts from Reluctant Activist: The Authorized Biography of John Howard Griffin, a book written by Robert Bonazzi (who pitches in on the documentary) that is placed alongside some choice stills and promotional art originally intended to advertise the film when it played theatrically.

The Final Word:

Black Like Me is… fascinating. Misguided, probably, and not always very effective but fascinating and wholly deserving of its oddball place in cinema history. VSC have done an excellent job bringing the movie to DVD for the first time providing it in great shape and with an enlightening documentary accompanying the main attraction.