He has never left Africa, the place of his birth, yet he refers to England as if he had grown up on tea and crumpets. Mister Johnson is the story of an ambitious, well-meaning clerk caught between two cultures in colonial West Africa in 1923.
As directed by Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Tender Mercies), it is a strong indictment of the British Empire’s assumption of power in faraway countries. Maynard Eziashi gives the title character charm, resourcefulness, and a smile almost big enough to overcome the most grievous mistakes. He doesn’t know that it is impossible to equally please the proud people of his village and his English bosses.
But he tries. Johnson’s downfall is an immoral nature. When his clerk’s salary runs out, he “borrows” on his future salary from the cash box. Excuses and apologies work sometimes.
He sloppily maintains the accounts at the compound at Fada run by the proper British Harry Rudbeck (Pierce Brosnan). For this flaw, Johnson compensates with an ingenious solution for every problem and a manner so agreeable, he could be a Reagan yes-man.
The major action in the film is the building of a road from Fada. Johnson suggests to Rudbeck that it be 100 miles long, rather than the much shorter route Rudbeck had planned. He agrees. Yet the project begun in hope is stopped midway by lack of funds.
With skills that would be prized in the creative financing departments of Hollywood studios, Johnson suggests borrowing against next year’s budget. The road-building begins again.
With as much trickery as finesse, Johnson weasels out of one squeeze after another. But the tragedy of his character lies in trying to please white men who will never consider him their equal. Sargy Gollup (Edward Woodward), the blustering British manager of the general store, says to him, “You’re a good sort, for a nigger.” Then he compares him to a dog-faced baboon.
In a sense, Johnson is too innocent to be offended by these insults. He’s happy being in contact with what he thinks are the superior Englishmen. But when it’s time to take a wife, or to celebrate, he looks to his own people.
In this spirited adaptation by William Boyd of a Joyce Cary novel, some deviations from normal behavior are tolerated. When an infraction is mentioned by a rigid British bureaucrat, he is kindly reminded by an older colleague (Denis Quilley), “If we all followed regulations, I dare say we wouldn’t have an empire.”
One gets the feeling of West Africa — its heat and dust and oppressive shadeless infinity. With sound performances and respect for the nuances between two cultures in conflict, Mister Johnson is a superior film.
MISTER JOHNSON
An ambitious young African clerk, caught between two cultures, cannot overcome his immoral nature in a colonial West African state.
Credits: With Maynard Eziashi, Pierce Brosnan, Edward Woodward. Directed by Bruce Beresford. Written by William Boyd, based on the novel by Joyce Cary.
Running time: 100 minutes.
Fox Sunrise, Pine Island Road and Northwest 44th Street, Sunrise.
Violence, nudity, coarse language, sexual implication.
