The Man (1972)

“Black men don’t burn churches and kill four children. They don’t hunt down a Martin Luther King with a telescopic sight. Passion may drive you to the streets to throw a brick, but to buy a gun, plant an alibi and travel 5000 miles and kill a human being is bloodless, worthy of the selective morality of Adolf Eichmann.” – Douglass Dilman

Number of Times Seen – 1 (13 Jan 2022)

Brief Synopsis – After a tragedy occurs that kills the top echelon of the US Government, an African American Senator becomes President.

My Take on it – This is a film that I’ve wanted to see for a while, yet only now was able to find a copy of it.

Unfortunately, this film has much more potential than it full realized and that hurts things far too much.

Having James Earl Jones play the President is great especially with his commanding voice, but his character is played as a puppet through most of the film and only comes in to his own towards the very end.

This is actually considered to be a movie within the blaxploitation genre and it’s too bad that they couldn’t make a much better finished product with the resources and ideas that they could have used.

Loved seeing Burgess Meredith, Lew Ayers and Martin Balsam in an integral roles even if this film is very far from being perfect.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – James Earl Jones was interviewed about portraying a fictional black U.S. president a few days before Barack Obama was sworn in as President. Jones said that he had misgivings about the film, mostly because they were blindsided when the project (which was planned and budgeted as a TV movie) was released in theaters, and he wished that they’d had more time and resources to make a stronger final film. (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy (5/10)