The Problem of the Color Line

In 1900, noted Black American scholar and activist W.E.B. Du Bois prophetically stated, "[T]he problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line."

One of the toughest things I have ever had to do in my life--and continue to do on a daily basis, though it gets easier with each passing year--is to live as a Black man in America. Having spent part of my formative years as a child living in the deep South, I received an early indoctrination into the world of racism and the vile hatred it gives birth to. Name calling and fights were the norm of my life, and I bore each episode with same mask of indifference that helped me get through the indignities with some modicum of self-respect, dignity, and pride.

It is strange thing to be at once hated and feared, not because of who you are, but because of the color of your skin. And the perception, however colored by ignorance, that you as a human being are worth less then others with fair skin and thinner lips, is often times soul-rending, and life altering.

A Black man in America is unique onto himself; he never really fits in...anywhere. The bolder of burden we must carry on our shoulders on a daily basis is at times crushing to the heart and mind, while smothering to the soul. To be, to be, to be white; I think all Black children at some point in their young lives wish they could be white. I know for a brief period when I was eight, I did. And my daughters, whose skin is the color of rich semi-dark chocolate both voiced a desire, when they were younger, to be white. It broke my heart to hear them give voice to the desire, but I understood it.

I say all this apropos of the movie I am reviewing, The Human Stain, to perhaps let the reader know that I understand the deep meaning of this film, even the elocution if the message is somewhat flawed. The message of the movie is still very much germane to the here and now, though many would quip that racism is indeed dead in America. I of course would take exception to the pronouncement.

It is only fair to warn all before I press on, that I have not read the novel this movie is based on, though now I supposed I am compelled to do so.

The Story-Line

Adapted for the screen by Nicholas Meyer from the novel by Phillip Roth, and directed by Robert Benton, The Human Staintakes place against the backdrop of the unfolding Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky debacle in 1998. The setting is a small picturesque liberal art college probably somewhere in upstate New York of New England. If they named, names I missed it. as the movie opens a battered old, but ubiquitous Volvo travel slowly down a snow covered road with two people inside. Out of nowhere a pickup truck materializes and decided to play chicken; the Volvo blinks and ends up in the ice covered lake...fade to black.

Open on Coleman Silk portrayed by Anthony Hopkins (Victory at Entebbe, A Bridge Too Far, The Silence of the Lambs) a eminent classics professor and Dean, who has taken an otherwise average liberal arts college, Athena College, and re-engineered it into one of the best institutions in the country. Silk who is nearing retirement, notices one day during a lecture that two of his students have not shown up for class for some five weeks running, and he quips to the other students, "does anybody know these two, or are they just spooks?" This off-handed remark leads to charges of racism despite the fact that Professor Silk has never met the two students and has no ideal that they are indeed Black Americans. Of course, none of this seems to matter, and failing to elicit the backing of even his closest associates, he is forced to resign from the college he helped bring to prominence. Later that same day, Coleman's wife of considerable years dies in his arms of a brain embolism.

And so Silk's life changes rather quickly, and despite being a master of the classics he seeks the help of a local author, one Nathan Zuckerman--the narrator of this tale--portrayed by Gary Sinise (Of Mice and Men, Forrest Gump, Truman) in order to tell his version of events. This telling later turns into the story of Silk's life. And along the way Silk becomes involved with 34-year-old Faunia Farley portrayed by Nicole Kidman (Dead Calm, Far and Away, Moulin Rouge!) a woman whose past leads the two into eventual trouble at the hands of Faunia's ex-husband portrayed by Ed Harris (Places in the Heart, The Abyss, The Hours), a troubled Vietnam veteran (is there any other kind?).

And oh yes, Silk is hiding one little secret he guards with his very soul: he's Black, passing for White, and his whole adult life has been based on a lie he tells himself and the world at large. It is one thing to be black and wish to be white, quite another to be able to pass yourself off as white and get away with the fraud. In "passing" silk gave up his entire bring to be white; he shunned his family and broke his mother heart. He ceased to be a Black man and instead become "Jewish," a label no one questions. Even his wife did not know his deepest self.

Impressions

Based solely on the advertisements for this movie I was prepared to intensely dislike it. I felt then, as I do now that the movie was miscast in the character of Professor Coleman Silk. With all due deference to Anthony Hopkins' acting skill, he was not the right man to play this part. Yes the tone and mannerisms he brings to the part scream Colman Silk, the practical, human difference (facial and body structure) between the younger Silk portrayed by Wentworth Miller and Hopkins were just too great to overlook. Perhaps Miller could have been aged to play the older Silk; certainly his performance as the younger was exceptional enough to portray the older.

Some reviews I read expressed doubts about Nicole Kidman's credibility in her portrayal of a working-class woman down on her luck and very emotionally damaged. I do not share these misgivings; I believe she did an admirable job with the role. The only criticism I have is the fact the she smoked far too much, a practice I find cliqued and far too prevalent in the movies these days. Do all human beings need to self medicate to make it through the day? Okay, while it is true that a rather large percentage of the American population seems to need to self medicate, it would be refreshing to see a character who is troubled, and flawed, but is strong enough to deal with life without having the drown their nerve endings in some form of drug.

The movie was extremely well acted, despite my misgiving over Hopkins'casting. Though I would have loved a little more character development (I am always willing to sit through more of a film and be enriched by the experience, then to be short changed in an effort to package the movie in a neat 90 minute bundle designed for those with short attention spans). Wentworth Miller is worthy of singular praise for the masterful way he portrayed his characters struggle with the decisions that would finally betray him.

In the end I found The Human Stainan extremely thoughtful and thought-provoking tale that merits serious consideration. Its wider moral message is part and partial of the fabric of American society; indeed racism and bigotry and the anguish it fed to generations of Black Americans will always be apart of the American lexicon. Though the passage of years may make it less acidic, they cannot erase the human stain of injustice from the blanket of the American Dream.