Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist (The Emperor Jones / Body and Soul / Borderline / Sanders of the River / Jericho / The Proud Valley / Native Land / Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist) - Criterion Collection
by Thornton Freeland, Saul J. Turell, Oscar Micheaux
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Henry Wilcoxon, John Laurie, Kouka, Paul Robeson, Wallace FordDirector: Oscar Micheaux, Saul J. Turell, Thornton Freeland
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Black & White, Box set, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 586 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-02-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist (The Emperor Jones / Body and Soul / Borderline / Sanders of the River / Jericho / The Proud Valley / Native Land / Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist) - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: Dr Ponchita Lopez's review on Paul Robeson
Summary: 4 Stars
I was ask by Amazon.com to give my review for this video. This video is an Mr Robeson's excellent form of acting. It is so exciting to see beautiful Afro-American women dancing and singing in one of his movie. Mr Robeson,was before his time. Coming from a talented family,you can see were he getts his talent from.
Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey. His father, William Drew Robeson I, ran away from a North Carolina plantation where he had been born a slave; he later graduated from Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) and became a church minister. His mother, Maria Louisa Bustill, came from an abolitionist Quaker family . Paul's four siblings included: William Drew Robeson, a physician who practiced in Washington, D.C.; Benjamin Robeson, a minister; Reeve Robeson (called Reed); and Marian Robeson, who lived in Philadelphia. In 1915, Paul graduated with honors from Somerville High School in Somerville, New Jersey, where he excelled academically and participated in singing, acting, and athletics.
When you view his acting in this video you will see his inheritance of intelligence. I watched this video 4 times in a row. This is the best !
Dr Ponchita Lopez
Summary of Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist (The Emperor Jones / Body and Soul / Borderline / Sanders of the River / Jericho / The Proud Valley / Native Land / Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist) - Criterion Collection
All-American athlete, scholar, renowned baritone, stage actor, and social activist, Paul Robeson (1898-1976) was a towering figure and a trailblazer many times over. He made perhaps his biggest impact, however, in the medium of film. The son of an escaped slave, Robeson managed to become a top-billed movie star around the world during the time of Jim Crow America, always striving to use film to educate viewers about equality, democracy, and the rights of workers. Though he eventually left movies behind, using his international celebrity to speak on behalf of those denied their civil liberties and ultimately becoming a victim of ideological persecution himself, Robeson left a film legacy that continues to speak eloquently of the long and difficult journey of a courageous and outspoken African American.Paul Robeson is today known for little more than singing "Ol' Man River" in Showboat, but this hefty and potent collection from Criterion (seven movies and a rich trove of documentary features and commentaries) should return Robeson to much-deserved cultural awareness. An imposing, charismatic black actor who demanded respect when most black actors were trapped in mammy and minstrel roles, and a singer whose deep, rolling voice won him acclaim on the concert stages of Europe, Robeson was among the most significant performers of the 20th Century--until the 1950s, when the U.S. government suspended his passport out of fear that Robeson's commitment to social progress and civil rights would project a negative view of America. But even before then, Robeson's career took place outside of the establishment channels of Hollywood. Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist includes two silent films (Body and Soul, a melodrama railing against the hypocrisies of the church, made by the pioneering black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux; and Borderline, a startlingly inventive story of an interracial love rectangle, made by film theorist Kenneth Macpherson), both given additional vitality by contemporary jazz scores; three movies from Robeson's rich period in England (Sanders of the Valley, Jericho, and The Proud Valley, which chart both Robeson's rising social conscience and his increasing clout in the industry); Robeson's most significant Hollywood film, The Emperor Jones, adapted from the Eugene O'Neill play that shot Robeson to stardom in the first place; and the movie that probably reflected Robeson's social beliefs more than any, the remarkable and riveting semi-documentary Native Land, which Robeson narrated.
Robeson is one of those rare actors, like Bette Davis or Humphrey Bogart, whose performances drive his movies as much as the director or the screenplay. Much is made of Robeson's powerful voice and intimidating physique, but just as impressive are his piercing eyes; in every role, a questing intelligence bursts through, looking at the world and cutting through charades and illusions. Criterion packages always have phenomenal extras, but Portraits of the Artist is unusually complex because Robeson's life is as important to his stature as his movies. These excellent features capture the world around Robeson, a world that both raised him up and tore him down. Far from a musty historical document, this is a film package that matters, which will reward and surprise viewers used to conventional notions of Hollywood and America. --Bret Fetzer
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