IMDb meta-data is run time of 1 hour and 46 minutes rated 6.8 by 5011 cinemitizens.
Genre: Sy FY, Empathy
Verdict: one of a kind. Roger Ebert liked it and that is always enough for me.
A being in a B movie space suit frantically hits controls as a craft steaks to a crash in New York harbor. In shredded clothes the being comes ashore on Ellis Island where millions of other immigrants preceded him. He looks like a black man.
In the nocturnal silence we find out some things about him. He lost a foot in the crash and hops around but seems to find this loss only an inconvenience. On the remaining foot are three enormous toes. Later he will be referred to as ‘a three-toe.’ More important, he has psychic powers for when he slumps against a wall or sits on a bench he hears in the air words spoken there by others in the past in a jumble as though recorded on the surfaces. He is frightened by these voices. But then as always he is mute.
After sleeping on the floor, in the morning mist he sees the city across the harbor and somehow gets on a scow that takes him to Harlem where he hops around…..until his foot regenerates. He observes the animal life on the streets of Harlem, and proves to be a quick learner with some survival instincts and an NBA jump.
We also learn that he has a way with machines, cash registers, pin ball games, video arcades devices, and so on. He meets a great many people most of whom ignore him. He takes refuge in a bar where some of the bar flies are willing to help a brother through hard times. A social worker finds a place for him to lodge, and gets him work repairing machines.
Brother discovers Earth women and….. No spoiler.
Then the men in black appear, just as strange as he is. They are after Three-toe, as they call him. I was never sure if this term applied to him in particular or was a reference to his kind as a whole. They, too, have to adapt to an alien environment. However, they speak though not too well and are white-bread.
There are some marvellous vignettes. Two attendees at a communication workshop talk to Brother for hours without realising he is mute. An administrator intimidates the men in black with endless forms to fill out. At the moment of truth the bar flies go for it on fourth and one.
Loved that Brother looks for messages in street graffiti, and finds one!
It has to be said that the denouement is limp. Finding an end to this ride would be a challenge to anyone.
It polarises the opinionators on the IMDb with many ones and fives. The one-givers complained about all the things I liked about it. Slow pace, no shot ‘em up. A divergence into the world of drug users and suppliers, for whom ODs are an interruption to cash flow. The opinionators did not seem to mind Brother’s vigilante justice, though I did. One such opinionator went on about the gimmick with Brother’s eyeball, denouncing it as unrealistic. Well, don’t try it at home, that is for sure. But really…it is science fiction Mr Inane.
John Sayles wrote, directed, edited, and swept up afterward. He is also one of the men in black. He financed the production with the payment for his dreadful script for the dreadful ‘Battle Beyond the Stars,’ reviewed elsewhere on this blog. Forgive but don’t forget.
Director and writer John Sayles is a rarity, an intellectual in film-making. Moreover, he is a utility player, as they once said in baseball, he acts, he writes, he directs, he paints sets, he produces, he edits. He learned the craft and the values of economy and versatility from Roger Corman. Sayles often hires himself out in one capacity or another to raise money for own projects like this one.
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