[Favorites of 1960s]

I’m sure many viewers over the years have been surprised by the fact that Nothing But a Man not only wasn’t made by an African American but it was actually co-written, co-produced, and directed by a German-born Jewish filmmaker (Michael Roemer) who had little prior experience of the American South. But given how sincere, sensitive, yet unsentimental the film is in depicting black life in America during the early sixties, it almost makes sense. It's safe to say that Roemer's status as a relative outsider, one who was in a position to be as objective as possible, had something to do with how things turned out. Unlike most such films, it neither portrays its black characters as…

"They may not use a knife, but they have other ways."

Movies about racism to this day rely on cliché conflicts and physically violent clashes often to communicate nothing more than "racism exists and it is bad" (or in the case of pablum like THE HELP, "racism existed and it was bad until good white people stopped the bad white people from being so gosh darn racist."). What NOTHING BUT A MAN reminds us is that the violence of institutionalized discrimination runs deeper than verbal altercations and physical attacks. The regular daily indignities suffered by men like Duff (Ivan Dixon showing a restraint not typical to performances of this era) as they attempt to earn a living, fall in love,…

Duff Anderson (Ivan Dixon) is a mere laborer on the railroad section gang in early 1960’s Alabama. But he’s a remarkable man, we think, on the merits of his jolly, good-natured, courteous nature that disallows disingenuous elements to get him down. At least he remains that way in our eyes until we see his stubborn side. He will court the virtuous preacher’s daughter, Josie (Abbey Lincoln), even when he is warned he is not accomplished enough to uphold a commitment to truly take care of her. What comes to head, in the black & white neorealist drama Nothing But a Man, is a man falling apart at the seams after a series of troubles. He tries to form solidarity between his…

The title is simplistic enough in telling us what the film wants to achieve. Not 'trouble', not 'boy' but a man like anyone else. In a turbulent political period for America the front line battle for racial equality has been well documented, yet for the majority, the men and women unseen by the cameras, the daily grind of acceptance from others continued.

Which is exactly what we are shown here. A regular guy living a regular life, shown within the context of his own world, the small details that make up the larger picture for us all. What turns this into such a refreshingly honest look at being black in the 60s is the lack of patronisation or white guilt…

Mild Spoilers

There's so many great things going on in Nothing But a Man. First, the direction is beautiful; it's sensitive and gentle and definitely inspired by Oscar Micheaux in part, especially in the setting and the independent filmmaking style. Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln are absolutely wonderful in the lead roles. Josie's (Lincoln) little smile, one she can't help but get whenever she's around Duff (Dixon) is the sweetest thing to see. It felt so authentic and was such a lovely acting choice to convey this blossoming love and how new and exciting it felt to her.

One of the major themes of the film is financial and economic discrimination and how that affects Duff and his perception of…

If there is just one 1960s African American message drama that is completely necessary to watch it's Nothing But a Man. That's because Michael Roemer and Robert M. Young's film is interested, first and foremost, in the internal lives of its characters and not just the external forces of bigotry. We see Duff (Ivan Dixon) court Josie (Abbey Lincoln) and how his black coworkers react to it, long before we ever see them go on their first date. When the preacher's daughter accepts it's after enough interactions have shown that he'd be worth talking to. And as they drive up to the overlook and kiss for the first time in his car there's something just outside of our view that…

It’s clever how this film isn’t ostensibly about racism, but how racism is always inherent within the lives of our lead characters. Whether it’s on the periphery thanks to some sly remarks or only threatening to boil over, it’s saddening that anything Duff does within the film, within his life, is always going to be cloaked by the threat of racism. What this film does well is highlight the less obvious oppression but how powerful it still is. Duff is repeatedly called “boy” over and over without a bat of an eye from anyone, his white boss simply takes the word of some mean white guys over Duff’s after an altercation they started. Sometimes it’s not just the overt haymakers…

Duff Anderson (Ivan Dixon, in my favorite acting performance of all time) lives a decent life. He works for the railroad, helping to lay down new track. Duff enjoys his nomadic lifestyle as well as the crew he works with although he doesn't seem eager to be anything but a loner. He is easy going and fun to hang with, but he seems to keep his emotional distance.

This all changes when Duff attends a church service and the following potluck dinner. There he meets the preacher's daughter Josie Dawson, and a connection is instantaneous. They begin dating, but Duff is hesitant to settle down until a visit with his illegitimate son and own shiftless father lead him back to…

An exacting study of faces and behaviors, struggling to be human in a dehumanizingly racist world. The Black faces are front-and-center; there are actual racial stakes to such fastidious concentration, the opposite of John Huston's arbitrary anti-negative-space compositions. Here, we are witnessing a story firmly centered on the people—who give a face to the complex political, social, economic, and gender tensions that the film maturely and intelligently negotiates in a never-negligible background.

The world is not pat, nor does it come from an arbitrarily abstract place inside Michael Roemer's or Robert Young's heads; instead, we are concerned with interiors, a Motown song is always playing, lively church congregations, quietly unaffected dancing. The alcoholic father looks at his son like a…

rasistowski lincz pozbawiania pracy, uderza w godność mężczyzny i niszczy kobietę, Motown music, independent "more famous than familiar" neorealist film, --1st-- debiuty Julius Harris & Yaphet Kotto, NFR...

The film tells the story of Duff Anderson, an African-American railroad worker in the early 1960s who tries to maintain his respect in a racist small town near Birmingham, Alabama, after he marries the local preacher's daughter.

In addition to dealing with oppression and discrimination, Anderson must also come to terms with his troubled relationship with his own father, a drunk who abandoned and rejected him.

Although it was not widely seen upon release due to difficulties in finding distribution, the film is now generally considered to be an important example of neorealistic…

"It's hard to see any change, but I'm gonna stay."

The trials of a black couple trying to exist contentedly in 1960s America. That's it. A man tries to find steady, respectable work and struggles to support his budding family. A woman tries to live out her dream of a happy marriage in a happy home while her husband rages against a system that's trapped him in a never-ending grind of dehumanizing oppression. It's a somber look at life as a minority in a world that only wants you when you can be used without regard. Their societal subjugation is never softened for audience palatability, but the film never feels mired in misery. Nothing But a Man doesn't offer easy…

What makes this film crucial is that it was shot on location (imdb says in New Jersey, though the characters keep talking about "the north" as if they were in the south). The film provides as stark and true a picture of the African American experience as many experienced it as you will find in film. Ivan Dixon is a poor but bright, decent, and ambitious young man who falls for the preacher's daughter, played by Abbey Lincoln. The filmmakers were documentarians, so this film is a little slow, and the script a little perfunctory, but there are lots of great touches, quiet ones like Dixon walking home passed shop windows with the products all aimed at a white clientele,…