I just watched an obscure, but pretty good movie with Sidney Poitier. Brother John, (1970) done around the time the civil rights movement was cooling off, but making inroads. Times were changing, but were they really?
John Kane (Sidney Poitier) is a mysterious, enigmatic, well travelled man who knows of the past, present, and future of mankind. He was somehow commissioned to leave his home in Alabama at the age of 16 on a mystical journey. He is to study man’s inhumanity to man. Things like hunger, hate, bigotry, murder, you name it.
John returns to his hometown in Alabama because his sister has died. He watches all those around him closely. He encounters racism, prejudices, and social injustices. You can almost see the eyes of God in his…sad eyes and just grieving for mankind. He becomes disheartened with the future of mankind. At this point you realize as a viewer, that Brother John is not from this earth, he is from somewhere else, another time, and his findings will impact the human race. Whoever has sent Brother John is going to act soon based on his findings.
The movie is open to all types of interpretations. You can see Brother John as God returned to earth to end it all. Or you can see him as an angel or higher life form from another planet. Sidney Poitier’s performance captures Brother John’s pain and burden.
The best scenes are the “catch me if you can” games between the town doctor (Will Geer) and Brother John. Their final scene in the county jail is chilling, ominous, sobering, and mysterious. Some scenes are too hard to watch like when Brother John’s brother-in-law is humiliated in front of his children by a redneck deputy. One funny scene is one with Brother John sitting calmly on rocking chair and watching the keystone cops scrambling about trying to find him. All along he was right in front of their faces. This movie is one undiscovered gem of the 70’s, it is timeless, and resonates today as it did back in the 70’s.
