|
|
|
|
|
The
Learning Tree, 1969, 109 minutes, Rated PG
By Lisa Patrick
Six
years after writing his 1963 novel, The Learning Tree, Gordon Parks
wrote, produced and directed a movie of the same name. The Learning
Tree is generally cited as the first major Hollywood film with a black
director. Obviously, this was a story Parks felt compelled to tell
through more than one medium. An accomplished composer as well as
author, he even wrote the music for the film. Needless to say, there
were no protests by the author over casting choices. This is the
author's own vision of his own story from beginning to end.
|
To Buy
Click Here
|
|
|
|
The film spotlights Newt, a boy in his
early teens coming of age in 1925 Cherokee Falls, Kansas. Cherokee Falls is a town where
Blacks and Whites mingle freely in their homes and in the streets, but Jim Crow is well
entrenched and racial divisions are undeniably present. Newt’s mother advises him to
use Cherokee Falls as his learning tree since the lessons to be learned about people there
will teach him about people everywhere. In the midst of revealing many important life
lessons, the film captures the mindset of the generations that preceded the Civil Rights
movement.
This isn’t a great movie. Occasionally, the acting is poor. The camera angles
sometimes leave the audience watching the ear of the speaking actor. But the
cinematography is good, and the overall look of the film is pleasing. It reminded me of a
technicolor To Kill a Mockingbird or maybe a lower-budget Peyton Place with a multi-racial
cast.
Parks clearly made an effort to recast his story to work as a movie. Unfortunately it
doesn’t work well. Perhaps the story itself is more suited for book form. But
it’s also possible that, like so many other movies based on wonderful books, The
Learning Tree is unavoidably suffering in comparison. A prime example of the
not-as-good-as-the-book syndrome.
M
February 2000 |
|
|
|
| |
|
Vote for MO'
Make Donation Below |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
