MovieChat Forums > Black Like Me (1964) Discussion > Unintentional Humor?

Unintentional Humor?

posted 18 years ago by andy_looney
14 replies | jump to latest

Despite its earnest tone, I found this movie to be unintentionally funny. In fact, the most hilarious parts of the film are the scenes where Whitmore is whipped into an apoplectic frenzy by various white folks' racist remarks. Two of the scenes that made me laugh out loud were those between Whitmore and the truck driver (Will Geer) and his confrontation with the liberal academic who wanted them to measure their respective gonads ("I'm not a queer!")

The predominant humorous aspect of the film was the is Whitmore's "black man" appearance. Forgetting the fact that he didn't have an Aframerican accent, he looked just like one of those black-faced white actors in D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation."

[–] sweet1310452 18 years ago

This is a very strange film in that James Whitmore may be a very good actor, but watching this film I kept seeing a Caucasian with makeup on and wondering how all those people he encountered could be so stupid as to think that he was Negro, esp. the shoeshine man who knew him both before and after. Perhaps if they had cast a different actor who looked more mulatto it would have been different for me. The original Mission:Impossible series had an episode in 1971 with a similar theme: In Africa a racist police captain is drugged and subjected to a tanning lamp that turns his skin brown. That episode was filmed in color and the actor was bald; the character's racial metamorphosis didn't look quite as far out as it did in this film.

As for the liberal who wanted to measure genitals I could actually imagine that that sort of thing really happened. That event, like the film in general is so outside the realm of conventional thinking that many would disbelieve it but as the expression goes- the truth is stranger than fiction.

[–] MrBlondNYC 16 years ago

Yes, the truth is stranger than fiction. Black Like Me is a true story and the shoeshine man not recognizing him really happened. John Howard Griffin was a white man who didn't look mulatto at all. He didn't change his voice at all nor did he make up a backstory. All he had to do was darken his skin and treated him and looked at him differently. That was the point. The treatment he received was strictly due to the color of his skin and nothing else.

George Carlin: It's all bullsh-t and it's bad for ya.

[–] CoriSCapnSkip (1562) 7 years ago

The privates-measuring liberal incident really happened, too, and I wondered if it would be included in the film and should probably not have been surprised that it was as the film went for the most provocative of the book's contents.

[–] vpm321 17 years ago

I have to agree Whitmore did not look anything like a black man. He reminded me, more than anything else, of the white man in black makeup in the TV series Black/White (on a similar theme). Both of the gentlemen ended up looking more middle eastern somehow, than African-American. Maybe if you met someone like this in real life, without knowing he was really white, you might be more easily fooled, I don't know. As it was, he just looked weird.

I also agree that the way his anger was displayed toward the racists he encountered didn't ring true somehow, and was even unintentionally humorous. Oh well, this is a pretty old movie. I'm pretty sure I even read the book when I was a kid but I don't really remember much of it.

[–] texbw 17 years ago

I think that because there was such a powerful division in the south among racial lines at the time that most people would never have suspected a white man of trying to pass as black. It would have been utterly unthinkable. Even if a man with dark skin had caucasian features they would much rather have believed that he was a black man with a lot of white ancestry than believe that one of their own had betrayed the white race in the worst possible way.

[–] C.S.Wood 16 years ago

Even if a man with dark skin had caucasian features they would much rather have believed that he was a black man with a lot of white ancestry than belive that one of their own had betrayed the white race in the worst possible way.

I thought betraying the white race in the worst possible way was intermarriage?

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[–] bbagnall 16 years ago

--"I thought betraying the white race in the worst possible way was intermarriage?"

Allowing the white race to be destroyed would probably be the worst betrayal.

[–] logcabnnut 15 years ago

The white race destroyed itself by its out of control lust and wanton disregard for anybody not white....

[–] texbw 16 years ago

If you watched the part where he hitched a ride from the old man (Will Geer, A.K.A. "Grandpa Walton") the old man gleefully talked about how he forced black women to have sex with him. According to the film it would seem that blacks' "inferior" status did not make them unsuitable for sexual exploitation. But to actually become one of them...

[–] logcabnnut 15 years ago

That might be the case but it STILL doesn't account for all of the raping committed by white males.....

[–] ethermusic1981 10 years ago

Yep, well said.

[–] JIM_KELLYS_AFRO 14 years ago

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[–] ccharlie183 10 years ago

The funniest part is that this whole thing is impossible, if a white person painted themselves black(even very well) it would still be obvious because race isn't just skin colour it's skull shape(and brainsize, Asians have the largest) facial features, ect.

[–] fillshertease 10 years ago

Wrong. John Safran did it and it worked.