The Human Stain
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Movie Reviews of The Human Stain
Movie Review: The Heartbreaking Chaos Of The Human Condition
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a film that is a masterpiece not only for what it says but in the way it says it.
We have a man who looks white but is black, pretends to be a Jew, and lives a life of deception. We have a woman with a background that gives her every advantage but she is destroyed because she was molested as a child due to her ravishing beauty. At the very moment when these two finally find peace in each other's arms they are wiped out by the insanity of evil.
Coleman's story unfolds in a series of perplexing flashbacks that leaves the viewer confounded until we finally discover that Coleman Silk and the black boxer are one and the same. Faunia's story is equally confusing. It is unreasonable that this utterly gorgeous young woman is so casually willing to give herself sexually to a rejected Viagra dependant old man. Why is she merely scraping out a living for herself sweeping floors and feeding cattle when you sense that she has so much more to offer? What horror has brought her to this state of despair? As her story unfolds in her final soliloquy with a caged crow we find that she is so haunted by the blame she feels for the accidental death of her children, while she was distracted with a lover, that she is suicidal, emotionally detached, and devastated.
Into this mix vengeance pursues Faunia in the form of her ex-husband, a tortured Viet Nam vet for whom killing has become a casual exercise. Lester Farley is a clever mixture of blind fate and conscious hate that only the writer, Zuckerman, ultimately understands and reveals to the world.
What makes this film so artfully intriguing is the way the story unfolds in its seemingly chaotic fashion reflecting the chaos of the human condition the film is describing, and it is a story that is hard to take because it rings so heartbreakingly true. The acting by the principals, Hopkins, Kidman, Sinise, Harris,and Miller is utterly outstanding in every way, and the film deserves repeated viewings from that standpoint alone. As for the story itself, it takes a couple of viewings with patience and reflection to fully appreciate its authentic depths. Finally, in an ironic way, one might take comfort from Coleman's and Faunia's deaths that the moment at which they died was the moment at which they had reached fulfillment with each other.
Movie Review: No Oscar nominations?
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is at least as much about the past as it is about the present; the past receives virtually equal screen time through flashbacks. Certain reviewers have complained that it is 'pompous', I suppose because it takes place in a college environment, or that both Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman are miscast. It concerns a classics professor, age 71, African American though nearly white in appearance, who is falsely accused of racism and quits in protest; this event kills his wife; he soon becomes involved with a distinctly intellectually inferior woman whom, through sex and other forms of communication, he soon comes to consider his soul mate, despite opposition both from his lawyer and from her boorish former husband. It is in fact a good match, between an intelligent man who is somewhat over the hill physically and a vital young woman whose former husband and 2 dead children would make anyone cry. Ed Harris is superbly evil as her insanely jealous ex-husband who knows she is having sex with another man. Faunia is a somewhat pitiable character, not too bright, who works as a cleaning woman. There is also a writer who is hired to write Coleman's biography. Faunia's chain smoking, which is sometimes gratuitous in Hollywood movies, in this case is effective in defining her character.
At least half the movie concerns Coleman's young manhood, during which time he rejected his African American family and set out to live life as white, and Jewish. These flashbacks show him as a successful undefeated boxer in his youth and also reveal an affair he had with a college student of Scandinavian descent.
In the present he still considers himself white and cannot bring himself to reveal his past, although it might have saved his job. The lovers die in a car accident, which provides the forum for more reminiscences on Coleman's life. I thought this was a fine film and deserved a strong 4 stars.
Movie Review: An Unraveling Life...
Summary: 5 Stars
A man has achieved great success academically, and then, while enjoying the fruits of such as a dean in a prestigious college, he makes a casual remark - something seemingly innocent - which is then perceived by two students as a racial slur.
Thus begins the unraveling of the man's career. In the stress of the aftermath, Professor Coleman Silk's wife Iris is felled by a heart attack and dies. And then, Silk (portrayed brilliantly by Anthony Hopkins) begins an unusual friendship with a reclusive writer, Nathan Zuckerman (Gary Sinise), who lives in a cabin by a lake on the outskirts of town. As Silk reminisces - the goal is that Zuckerman will write a book about Silk's life - many secrets, held inside for more than fifty years, are revealed to the viewer. But not to Zuckerman, apparently, because he is startled by the secrets at the very end of the film.
Some of what Silk confesses is portrayed for us through flashbacks; the secrets are portrayed via flashbacks as "memories". Then, almost as an aside, Silk describes an "affair" with a younger woman (Nicole Kidman): she is someone down-and-out, a former rich girl who ran away when she was being molested by a stepfather; and then, she becomes the abused wife of a Vietnam vet (Ed Harris), who stalks her and threatens her repeatedly. In the midst of this, Silk is the perceived redemptive hero (to himself, at least), but when townspeople learn of the affair, he is scorned again.
In the end, a surprising dramatic turn reveals, finally, to the characters in the story, the "secret" Silk kept close to him for all those years.
The Human Stain is a compelling movie that is based on the Philip Roth novel of the same name.
Laurel-Rain Snow
Author of:
Web of Tyranny, etc.
Movie Review: Even More Intimate on DVD
Summary: 5 Stars
THE HUMAN STAIN met a mixed reaction when released in the theatres, possibly because the issues, which imbue this film with particular significance, got lost on the large screen that by nature concentrates on the BIG effect. But on the DVD, viewed in the privacy of the home, the degrees of subtleties are more pronounced. The indelible stain that birthright makes on our lives is examined in many facets in this adaptation of Philip Roth's rather sensational novel by the same name. What effect does ethnicity have on molding our lives, what effect does the potential that inherited wealth will play on our view of the world, what effect can public prejudice as well as self-induced prejudice have on the way we process our adulthood roles? This film addresses all of these issues: a Caucasian-appearing African American young man opts for costuming his life as a white Jewish scholar only to be dismissed from his professor's position because of a perceived 'racial slur' against absent black students; a young girl from a broken wealthy family sees through the vacuous existence when molested by a stepfather and runs into a life of poverty and personal tragedy desperately needing affection; a young writer becomes a recluse after the success of a first novel out of fear of flying; a visceral man enters madness induced by self-imposed exile. Characters such as these put great demands on actors and it is very much to the credit of the screenwriter Nicholas Meyer and director Robert Benton that the services of Sir Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, and Wentworth Miller, Anna Deavere Smith along with a fine supporting cast were captured to bring pulsating life to this difficult intermixing of stories. Watch this one several times for the varying aspects of success in acting, in dialogue, and in the beautiful cinematic effects achieved in this very worthwhile film.Movie Review: A Moral Stupidity
Summary: 5 Stars
From the other source, this film had a relatively low review, but I think it is a good film.
What this film makes great is the great story. I have not read the book, but I am sure it is as good as this film or even better.
The story itself is very sad but written so beautifully that its beauty can over-ride the sadness. The past scenes and present ones appear quite often in the way that reveal and unwind the secret. It is a drama, but I think this is more than that. It is a literature - a work of art... I am talking about the story now.
I am happy with the music and photography of the film. Also I find the acting great. The voice of Coleman's young lover sounded like it was always directly from a microphone, and I like the effect because it suites the way she speaks and also describes how this lady's existance sinks into Coleman's mind as though she was a nutrition he was missing so long.
The story is a miserable one, but which great literature does not contain a misery anyway?