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Afternoon Screening: Nothing But a Man (Michael Roemer and Robert Young, US, 1964, 95 min) |
-Course outline now available, please review in STI 2011 and check out Monday's readings here.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Nothing But a Man
-Course outline now available, please review in STI 2011 and check out Monday's readings here.
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3 comments:
My colleague and I noted the visual motif of broken glass throughout the film (the car windows, the fractured glass in the Anderson home before the repair, and the broken drinking glasses that Josie, and later, Lee clean up). Symbolically, I think these instances of broken glass rupture the facade of "normalcy" and "ease" in American life, and perhaps show us life on the "Other" side.
Parenthetically, according to IMDB, Sidney Poitier turned down the role of protagonist, Duff Anderson... hmmm...
The character of Josie strikes me as too saintly and something of a stereotype--the loyal woman standing behind her troubled man. Always measured and considered in her interactions-- thoughtful pauses before responding to Duff, reminding him of what matters and what he is ignoring as he is troubled by his experience in their racist society--Josie betrays no actual emotional response to her circumstances other than the happiness she feels in the reunification of the family at the end. Even when Duff leaves her, my memory is that she is quietly crying, making little noise at his betrayal of her.
Could Josie be seen as something like the ideal woman (in the sense that Poitier was defined as the ideal man), an unfair and unachievable representation of what a woman should be like?
I think like Sean mentioned today, many of the women in these particular films maintain a secondary role compared to that of "their" men. Largely, these women don't have much agency (comparatively speaking) and primarily respond to the emotions of the male protagonist. I am also thinking of Lee who remains reserved throughout the majority of the film...
It may be interesting to think of Josie's narrative as the daughter of a (domineering) preacher whose mother was absent (dead?) and a (dismal) stepmother remained. Josie does provide an alternative view of 'caregiver' when compared with the woman Duff's child stayed with...
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