Nothing But a Man

With proper execution cinema can be a great tool for creating empathy on social conditions. And this film does for Black Southern life in the '60's what The Grapes of Wrath did for Okies in the Great Depression. Roemer's script & docudrama cinematography give great context on racial discrimination and life as a day laborer. And Dixon's quiet performance is amazing. While I've never seen a source to the legend that this was Malcolm X's favorite film, I can easily understand why it would be true.

A powerful movie, probably the best depiction of the effect of racism on the daily lives of blacks in America. It's both specific and universal, and though at times feels like it's thought from the outside in, also burns with strongly-felt conviction. It is not condescending, nor does it provide a happy ending. At its best, it reminded me of Satyajit Ray's films.

An injection of European art cinema sensibilities into American independent film. Slow, meditative, and sad. Any movie with Yaphet Kotto is an instant +5 in my Criticker rankings.

Totally self-assured and subtle independent filmmaking. Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln couldn't be better - they have a great chemistry both flirting and fighting. And a really young Yaphet Kotto is a hell of a thing.

An excellent drama with a cast of well-developed characters who are easy to empathize with--which is more than most films accomplish--and a perfect ending. A couple of the smaller performances don't quite come together as convincing, and the pace seems almost unbearably slow in the beginning, but it's well worth watching.

It should first be said that this is one of the best written, directed and played family dramas of its time. Its historical and political importance is an added bonus: Many American films before it had dealt with race relations, but to my knowledge this was the first film to feature an almost all black cast, with white faces few and far between. It is also the most realistic and convincing depiction of institutionalized racism and racial discrimination in the U.S. that I've seen on film.

A classic example of old school independent filmmaking, shot in evocative black and white and grappling with big issues in an unadorned, highly humanistic manner. Roemer is interested in exploring the ways that oppression and poverty are outcomes of cyclical systems. To break free, a man needs to defy more than the angry, fearful people blocking his path. He needs to stand up against his own history and the patterns of self-defeat that are too easy to fall into when confronting a world of no.

Required viewing everyone.

a quietly seething drama about african americans trying to retain their humanity and dignity in a world that demands they sell both to purchase a normal life. thing is full of pain and love and compromise, the scabs peeled off old wounds over and over. characters are flawed and frustrating and real; dixon is revelatory, lincoln gargles mouthwash into the camera during a conversation and it feels like revolution, a young gloria foster plays one of the most lived-in side-characters i can remember.

Easy to see why it was Malcom X's fav movie. Way ahead of it's time in how it handled the intertwined nature of race and class

Plays more like New Wave than a regular black film. At any rate, I found the acting of the two principals to be a problem, especially in their scenes with each other; all that goofy grinning came off pretty fake to me, like they were just playing being a couple. When they got mad at each other though, things improved, and the scenes with Duff and his father (and Lee) were always strong. Anyway, a nicely gritty understated feel through most of it, very cool low-key and realistic.

Why this isn’t talked about along with the works of Cassavetes and other great early independent filmmakers is a crime. Poor distribution may have been a factor at one point but I don’t know why this was forgotten at all. The racial themes, the actors, the time and place portrayed and captured on film - this is among a small list of films that I categorize as a work of cultural significance and deserving of a place in film history.