BLACK LIKE ME

 "BLACK LIKE ME" --- (1964)

MY THOUGHTS: This is a movie that I have always wanted to watch, but it wasn't until last night that I had the opportunity to do so. I enjoyed it very much. I was most impressed by the fact that it is a true story. It really took a lot for someone to do what this man did, especially at the time and place he did it. It is a very compelling story and I thought it was very well done.

SYNOPSIS: "This fact-based film chronicles the journey of a white reporter, John Finley Horton, who attempts to live as a black man in the American South during the 1950s. After undergoing treatments to darken his skin, Horton ventures from town to town, experiencing hostile racism from whites whom he doesn't provoke in any way. He also interacts with blacks and finds that they simply want justice, though some are pessimistic that change will ever come peacefully."

STARRING: James Whitmore, Roscoe Lee Brown, Clifton James, Al Freeman, Jr., Dan Priest, and Sorrell Brooke.

SCREENPLAY: Carl Lerner and Gerda Lerner; Based on Black Like Me by John Howard Grifin.

DIRECTOR: Carl Lerner

CRITICAL RESPONSE:

Critical reception for the film has been mixed. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times described the film as "melodramatic and unsubtle". He said it failed to place the viewer inside an African American's skin, and to convince the audience that the protagonist "is truly passing for black".