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Amazon.com: Native Son : Matt Dillon, Geraldine Page, Oprah Winfrey, Elizabeth MacGovern, Carroll Baker, Victor Love, John Karlen: Movies & TV
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
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I love this story! I really do. I wish they would do a remake. Please don't leave anything out this time. The book was amazing. The film was pretty good but it didn't do the book justice. I really wish Spike Lee or Lee Daniels make this story know. Everyone should see this a least 1 time! This was more like an after school special.
I do not understand why everyone always compares the movie to the book, because you just cannot cram everything from a book into a movie. With that said, excellent movie, superb acting. Great caste. Loved iMovie
No, of course it doesn't do the novel justice, but it could be a lot worse. It could be as bad as Wright's own 1951 film version, but it's not. Great for the classroom as a way to move students through the novel more quickly.
Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2000
The cinematic presentation of Richard Wright's classic is once again another flop. Although it is far better than the original adaptation of the book into a movie (filmed in 1949), it fails to capture the essence of Bigger Thomas. How can such a film with a star studded cast fail so miserably? After all, now you have actors who can really act! Native Son lacks passion.Bigger comes across as poor Black boy gone wrong with his cowardly behavior. His white liberal benefactors personalities are benign. Jan (Matt Dillon) just doesn't impress me as an ardent communist. Mary Dalton ( Elizabeth McGovern) comes across as a bubble head. Even Oprah Winfrey's begging plea to let her son live, is a sham. Where is the political and heated fervor of the era? John Karlen's role as Max, the lawyer for Bigger, was a waste of time. He wasn't convincing as a passionate lawyer out to save this oppressed black boy. Most film adaptations of books fall short in staying true to the author's story. This second adaptation falls through period. I found it a great disappointment in the acting as well as the script. Someday, somehow, some one will do this great novel justice and present us with a blockbuster film filled with not only passion but with a sense of what formed this Native Son. I recommend this movie to put in your video archive along with its original version.
Well, after reading Native Son, I thought it would be a good idea to rent the movie to get visual of what happened in the book. Well, that was all I got out of this movie... There wasn't anything wrong with the acting or set, it was the script. They simply cut way too much out of the book. Here are some examples: -After Bigger killed Mary and they found the bones in the furnace, Bigger ran from the house (as he did in the book), and then all of a sudden he's on roof tops getting chased and then caught. In the book he was on the run with Bessie for a few days and then he killed her. -In the book, they had two inquests and in the movie they only had one...no mention of Bigger fainting in the first inquest. -They completely cut out the trial in the movie, only playing soundbytes. They only showed the sentencing. In the book, Bigger's lawyer gave a 16 page statement on Biggers behalf. -Bigger's mother (Oprah Winfrey) assumed the role of both his mother and the priest in the movie. Well, those are a few examples. If I hadn't read the book I wouldn't have known what was going on in Bigger's head, which was what made the book so good. I don't think Richard Wright would be too impressed with this movie.
