The Brother from Another Planet
| The Brother from Another Planet | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | John Sayles |
| Screenplay by | John Sayles |
| Produced by | Peggy Rajski Maggie Renzi |
| Starring | Joe Morton Darryl Edwards Steve James Bill Cobbs David Strathairn |
| Cinematography | Ernest R. Dickerson |
| Edited by | John Sayles |
| Music by | Mason Daring John Sayles Denzil Botus |
| Distributed by | Cinecom Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 104 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $350,000[2][3] |
| Box office | over $4 million[3] |
The Brother from Another Planet is a 1984 science fiction film written, directed and edited by John Sayles. It stars Joe Morton as "The Brother", an alien and escaped slave who, while fleeing "Another Planet", has crash-landed and hides in Harlem.
Plot
The sweet-natured and honest Brother looks like an ordinary African American man, distinguished only by his being mute and - although other characters in the film never see them - his feet each have three large toes. The Brother has telekinetic powers but, unable to speak, he struggles to express himself and adjust to his new surroundings, including a stint in the Job Corps at a video arcade in Manhattan.
He is chased by two white Men in Black (David Strathairn and director Sayles himself); Sayles's twist on the Men in Black concept is that instead of government agents trying to cover up alien activity, Sayles's Men in Black are also aliens, out to re-capture "The Brother" and other escaped slaves and bring them back to their home planet.
Cast
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Production
Sayles describes this movie as being about the immigrant experience of assimilation.[4] He spent part of his MacArthur Fellows "genius" grant on the film, which cost $350,000 to produce.[2]
Reception
Critical response
Variety called it "vastly amusing but progressively erratic" film structured as a "series of behavioral vignettes, [many of which] are genuinely delightful and inventive"; as it continues, the film "takes a rather unpleasant and, ultimately, confusing turn."[1] Vincent Canby called it a "nice, unsurprising shaggy-dog story that goes on far too long" but singled out "Joe Morton's sweet, wise, unaggressive performance."[5] Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying "the movie finds countless opportunities for humorous scenes, most of them with a quiet little bite, a way of causing us to look at our society", noting that "by using a central character who cannot talk, [Sayles] is sometimes able to explore the kinds of scenes that haven't been possible since the death of silent film."[6]
The A.V. Club, in a 2003 review of the film's DVD release, says the film's superhero scenes are "often unintentionally silly, but again, Sayles shapes a catchy premise into a subtler piece, using Morton's 'alien' status as a way of asking who deserves to be called an outsider in a country born of outsiders"; commenting on the DVD, they note its "marvelous" audio commentary track by Sayles, "who moves fluidly from behind-the-scenes anecdotes to useful technical tips to unpretentious dissections of his own themes."[7]
References
- ^ a b Variety Staff (December 31, 1983). "The Brother From Another Planet". Variety. Retrieved 2010-08-13.
- ^ a b Richard Corliss (October 1, 1984). "Blues for Black Actors". Time. Retrieved 2010-08-13.
- ^ a b Gerry Molyneaux, "John Sayles, Renaissance Books, 2000 p 135
- ^ Jawetz, Gil (June 6, 2002). "The Return of The Brother From Another Planet: The John Sayles Interview". DVDtalk.com. Retrieved 2012-09-09.
- ^ Vincent Canby (September 14, 1984). "Sayles's Brother". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-08-13.
- ^ Roger Ebert (January 1, 1984). "The Brother From Another Planet". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2010-08-13.
- ^ Noel Murray (October 14, 2003). "Return Of The Secaucus 7 (DVD) / Men With Guns (DVD) / The Brother From Another Planet (DVD) / Lianna (DVD)". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2010-08-13.
