|
|
|
Home of the Brave
Reprinted by permission of Donald Bogle from his film reference
work, Blacks in American Films & Television: An Illustrated
Encyclopedia (Simon & Schuster)
|
|
|
Independently produced by 35-year-old fledgling moviemaker
Stanley Kramer, Home of the Brave [1949]
launched Hollywood's cycle of problem pictures in the late
1940s. The picture also went against all the then-acceptable
theories of Hollywood moviemaking. It was shot on a shoestring
budget without big name stars and with an offbeat subject
matter. In the successful Broadway play by Arthur Laurents on
which the film was based, the hero had been a young Jewish
soldier, the victim of anti-Semitism within the military. In
the film producer Kramer shrewdly substituted a Negro character
for the Jewish protagonist.
Through a series of flashbacks, Home of the Brave
described the emotional breakdown of a young Negro private,
Peter Moss. As he undergoes examination by a sympathetic
medical captain, Moss unravels his tale, revealing a number of
racial incidents he endured while on a special five-man mission
to a Japanese-held island (during the Second World War).
Repeatedly excluded and harassed by his fellow soldiers, Moss
had cracked up under the pressure. The viewer learns, however,
it was not the island experience alone that led to the black
soldier's breakdown. It was the American way of life - and
racism - that always forced the Mosses of the world "outside
the human race."
Often strong and moving, Home of the Brave ended on a
conciliatory note that heightened its impact in 1949 but
lessens it today. Having recovered, Moss is about to leave the
military hospital when he is approached by an easy-going white
soldier (Frank Lovejoy), who, with the war now over, plans to
open a bar. He wants Moss as his partner. Genuinely touched,
the black accepts, equipped now with a new philsophy for the
future. "I am different," he says. "Everybody's different.
But so what! Because underneath we're all guys."
Home of the Brave's concluding optimism now strikes many
as rigged and fake. The white soldier's "noble" gesture is
believable only in the movies, and even so there is a tinge of
patronage because it is the white man offering his hand to the
black man. Yet there is still something decent about the film's
sincerity and its optimism.
Today this remains a film of historical importance and interest
- and it's a movie that still has a certain wallop, affecting
audiences, black and white, in an emotional way. In his essay
"The Shadow and the Act," Ralph Ellison wrote that Home of
the Brave and the other three problem pictures (Pinky,
Lost Boundaries, and Intruder in the Dust) all
touched on a "deep center of American emotion." These movies
got at something American films of the past had never
approached (or perhaps feared): a look at the ties between the
races and also the deep-seated nests of American racism itself.
Despite their flaws or compromises, today they still work
because they take a dare and set up a confrontation. One is
forced to deal with racial issues.
Finally, much of the power of Home of the Brave can be
attributed to the startling performance of James Edwards as
Moss. His tension, restlessness, sensitivity, and admirable
attempt to connect to or at least understand a white world that
has continually rejected him make this a fascinating movie
character.
The film's release caught the movie industry and the critics
offguard. It was a commercial and critical success, proving
that audiences then were ready for a new type of black film and
black character.
Added note: shooting the film in secrecy, Stanley Kramer called
it High Noon, a title he used later for one of his other
films.
Producer: Stanley Kramer, Robert Stillman
Director: Mark Robson
Screenplay: Carl Foreman, Arthur Laurents (play)
Cinematography: Robert De Grasse
Film Editing: Harry W. Gerstad
Art Direction: Rudolph Sternad
Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
Cast: Douglas Dirk (Major Robinson), Steve Brodie (Corporal T.J.), Jeff Corey (Doctor), Lloyd Bridges (Finch), Frank Lovejoy (Mingo).
BW-88m.
 
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
Guest Programmer: Anthony Hopkins - 11/30
Hannibal Lecter, Pablo Picasso, President Richard M. Nixon, Titus Andronicus. He's created an amazing array of characters but this time he's playing his favorite movies with co-host Robert Osborne which include Rear Window (1954) & The Grapes of Wrath (1940).
MORE >
|
|
TCM UK
| 
TCM Spain
| 
TCM France
| TCM Latin America
| TCM Asia
| TCM Germany
TCM.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network.
