Our ongoing column giving the spotlight to movies that bucked the Hollywood Blockbuster trend and still managed to deliver a superior viewing experience. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.
By John J. Joex
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
These days, John Sayles is known as a respected indy film writer/producer/director, but many people probably don’t realize that he got his start back in the 1970’s penning scripts for Roger Corman cheapies like Piranha and Alligator. Sayles eventually graduated from those films, but before he won acclaim as an indy mogul he delivered this quirky little movie. It follows an alien fugitive who appears to be African-American and who comes to Earth, Harlem to be exact, fleeing from the slavery of his own planet. He cannot, or does not, speak but he has the ability to fix electronic items like televisions and video games with the touch of his hand. He falls in with several people in Harlem who end up aiding him in eluding the two slavers (one of which is played by John Sayles) who have come to recapture him.
The film was made on next to no budget, but it does not have the B-Movie feel of Sayles’ previous work with Corman. Instead it suggests the indy path he would soon conquer with its witty script and the earthy, authentic performances from its well-chosen cast. Joe Morton (Eureka), in one of his earlier roles, played the brother (no other name was given to the character) as a person lost and desperate but also one with some inner confidence and integrity. And Sayles surrounds Morton with a cast of colorful players, many of which have only small but very memorable roles. The fact that the brother does not speak leaves the talking to those around him who tend to fill in the words for him and reveal more of their own character in the process. Through this, Sayles gives us a look at ourselves through the eyes of an outsider yet often by way of our own words. The quirky script provides plenty of witty observations delivered adeptly by the cast and makes up for the lack of special effects and action sequences one might expect from the Science Fiction blockbusters starting to crowd the theaters in the mid-80’s.
This film came out in 1984 with little fanfare and quickly found its way to the shelves of the video stores where it developed a small cult following. It has since fallen under the radar and has never really received the wider recognition it deserves as a superior Science Fiction tale that satirizes and also delivers a social message on our own world. It is available on DVD now, and has been for several years, and will hopefully manage to finally receive some of the attention it truly deserves.
Buy The Brother from Another Planet on DVD from Amazon.com:
