MOVIE REVIEW: White Man’s Burden (1995)

Every so often, a filmmaker does something radical. Usually it’s the last thing they ever do in Hollywood, but sometimes the timing is key to staying afloat. In the example of Japanese-American director-screenwriter Desmond Nakano (responsible for Body Rock [1984], American Me [1989], and American Pastime [2007]), his timing was perfect.

By 1995 the OJ Simpson double-murder trial had raged across our televisions for the better part of a year, laying American racism bare; we were three years out from the 1992 LA riots, so stakes were very high to prevent a second riot during the rebuilding process. In their effort to find a neutral party (neither Black or White) to hear the case, the Los Angeles court system settled on Judge Lance Ito — another Japanese-American. Judge Ito did well, but the court of public opinion is still out on the OJ case along racial lines almost 30 years later. OJ’s behavior after the fact (the murder-themed pranks, publishing numerous books teasing whether he committed the murders or not, dating women with an uncanny resemblance to his late wife Nicole) is deeply suspicious, but not as suspicious as the racist LAPD officers that got caught railroading OJ with a litany of mistakes that ultimately led to a not guilty verdict for Simpson in late 1995.
Why am I talking about the OJ Simpson trial? Because the movie written by Nakano — White Man’s Burden — asks the question: what would happen if the racism in America was switched from “against Black people” to “against White people”? It was an exciting thought experiment, but there was a catch: the casting. Big names were brought in to portray the story, yet the message was damaged in the delivery. How could this have gone wrong? Let’s take a look.

THE PINNOCK HOUSEHOLD: (l-r) John Travolta as Louis, Andrew Lawrence as Donnie, Kelly Lynch as Marsha, and an uncredited baby girl.

Louis Pinnock (Scientologist actor and Hollywood legend John Travolta, Saturday Night Fever, Carrie, Pulp Fiction, Broken Arrow, Gotti) is a worker in a candy factory, doing his best to get home to his wife Marsha (Kelly Lynch, Cocktail, Road House, Drugstore Cowboy) and his kids — a baby girl and his son Donnie (Andrew Lawrence, Money Plane, “Recess” [TV-ABC], “Brotherly Love” [TV-the WB]). When he offers to deliver a package for the higher ups, he gets to see the big and fancy house of the candy company’s owner, Thaddeus Thompson (legendary Calypso musician and Civil Rights activist Harry Belafonte, Buck and the Preacher, Carmen Jones [1954]). Mr. Thompson does not think highly of Louis’ kind: he assumes all of them are inferior because he believes they grow up without fathers. His racist mindset extends to interracial relationships, nearly disowning his son Martin (TV actor Bumper Robinson, “Amen” [TV-NBC], “A Different World” [TV-NBC]) for bringing home a White girl named Cheryl (Chelsea Lagos, Reality Bites, A Talent for Trouble [2018]) and announcing his interracial relationship.

THE OPULENCE OF THOMPSON: Thaddeus (Harry Belafonte) spreads the wealth among his like-minded and similarly-colored contemporaries.

When Thaddeus learns from his wife Megan (Margaret Avery, The Color Purple [1985], Scott Joplin [1977]) that she caught Louis peeping on her in the nude (which wasn’t completely true), he asks his foreman Lionel (Tom Wright, Creepshow 2, Marked for Death, the “Star Trek: Voyager” episode “Tuvix” [s2e24]) to “take care of it”. While firing Louis may not have been what Mr. Thompson meant, that’s what happens: our main character is out on his ass with nothing — not even an explanation from the higher-ups. Louis has no skills other than factory work, and can’t get a better paying job with what skills he has. He ends up losing his house and family in the same week, only to have his truck break down and is nearly beaten to death by the police because he “fit the description” of a bank robber that robbed a nearby bank earlier that day. Somewhere in that long list of indignities, our protagonist snaps and kidnaps Mr. Thompson at gunpoint to hold him for ransom. He’ll get a big ol’ wad of money to fix his problems: buy back the house, get his wife and family back, prove he’s not a bum to his mother-in-law (Carrie Snodgress, 8 Seconds, Pale Rider), and so on. Louis even convinces himself that it’s people like Thaddeus Thompson that make it hard for people like him.

Thaddeus is unmoved; the racist candy factory owner throws it back in Louis’ face saying that it’s his own fault for being inferior and being a leech on society. Incensed by the old man’s racist rhetoric, Louis takes Thaddeus around to get the money he wants but the money does not come, meaning Louis and Thaddeus are stuck together for the weekend until the banks open on Monday. It is during this period Thaddeus learns about ghetto life from Louis and how hard it is to live or thrive when someone can make you homeless with a word. The businessman only begins to understand just as tragedy strikes to bring the story to an abrupt and unresolved ending — such is life.

REPRESENTATION MATTERS: Donnie (Andrew Lawrence) surrounded by Afrocentric imagery, right down to his superhero action figure. It’s all by design.

I can’t tell you how many people hated on White Man’s Burden back in 1995 and thought the concept was stupid. I made sure to have my contrarian ass in a movie seat on opening weekend, because the film sounded amazing. Harry Belafonte was great, as were all the other Black actors, placed in a setting I had not seen many Black people in before: on top and running things with impossible advantages. What really stood out is the images put forth as a result of Black people being in that position: every image of a Black person was positive and desirable, while every image of White people was negative and unwanted. The visual paradigm was jarring and ran contrary to the White supremacy we all operate under. As the movie went on, you could see how racial supremacist ideology spread through mass media and levied against a specific group could affect a person of that group — even the entire population group — mentally.

The downside of this movie manifested itself solely in John Travolta’s performance of Louis Pinnock.

Either Mr. Travolta revived his Vinnie Barbarino schtick from “Welcome Back Kotter” for the role or he was doing an impression of what he thought a Black person sounded like. Both decisions would be wrong for the role. It’s pretty embarrassing to think it was acceptable for a White actor to do a “Blaccent” and have the studio pay to put it on film — even if the lead was John Travolta. No other White actor in the production was doing anything like that, only Travolta. The acting choice backfired and critical reception was poor, but it didn’t matter because it was during John Travolta’s post-Pulp Fiction career resurgence. The movie barely registered as a flop and Travolta went on to do better things.
I still feel people had a lot of raw emotions about current events and brought them into the cinema to inform themselves about so much — the plot, the title, and so on. At the same time, I totally understand why the people who didn’t like it feel that way: because the message did not present each side in an easily and commonly understandable format. This may have prevented the audience from engaging with the idea. As it stands, White Man’s Burden was pearls cast before swine.

When you sit between the two sides as a neutral party (like Ito or Nakano), sometimes you make the call where nobody gets anything they want — a perfect compromise. And if you time it just right, nobody will notice they’ve been tricked into staying put instead of moving forward towards a resolution.

CHOICE CUTS:

DISCOURAGED RELATIONSHIPS: Even when Black people are in charge, interracial relationships are still frowned upon. The reaction of polite society to Martin (Bumper Robinson) and Cheryl (Chelsea Lagos) is clearly stated proof of this idea.

• Not gonna lie: Martin’s date Cheryl looked very cute in her Afro-centric outfit. The braided hairstyle was tightly set!
• Thinking about the circumstances of trying to get money on Friday after the banks close: I do not miss those days. We had ATM machines, but they were far from accessible.
• So many Black actors, in roles great and small but to massive effect in this story: Robert Gossett, Willie C. Carpenter, Michael Beach, Lee Duncan, Lawrence A. Mandley, Thom Barry, Duane R. Shepard, Sr., Lisa Dinkins, Dondré T. Whitfield, and Ingrid Rogers!
• The art director wasn’t playing, because even the paintings of Jesus and the Virgin Mary were Black. Even Donnie’s superhero toy was a Black guy. It’s proof positive that REPRESENTATION MATTERS.
• The costuming department wasn’t playing either, because when the rich and famous came out to play, they did it up like a 90s-style Wakanda: Kinte cloth accents on European tuxedos and suits, African-inspired dresses and SO MANY BRAIDS for the ladies, and lots of precious metallic accents for both genders.
• A 2020 BBC TV show dealt with similar racism-swapped matter called Noughts & Crosses, framing it as a “star-cross’d” lover’s story. They haven’t released an episode since 2022, so I’m not sure if the project is cancelled.
• CAMEO: A young Seth Green (Can’t Hardly Wait, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, “Robot Chicken” [TV-Cartoon Network]) shows up; blink and you’ll miss it!
• CAMEOS: Janet Hubert-Whitten — aka the first Aunt Viv from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” — and Sheryl Lee Ralph (“It’s a Living” [TV-ABC], Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit) are dinner guests at the Thompson residence.
• Some posters don’t call the film “White Man’s Burden” just “White Man”; I wonder if it’s some sort of backlash.
• The movie’s title is derived from the Rudyard Kipling poem “The White Man’s Burden”, which reminds the listener of the White man’s obligation to pull the ‘less-civilized’ races out of barbarism through colonialism — a burden to bear with pride of doing a great deed. This completely ignores the needs and desires of a colonized community, making it an uninformed screed. A rebutting concept of a “Black man’s burden” of unjustly suffering racism around the world exists, producing negative reactions to the former phrase. Considering the racism-switching present in the plot, Nakano may have meant the latter.
• A really good question to ask of the makers of White Man’s Burden is whether the audience would be able to sympathize or empathize with Louis Pinnock in the same way if played by a Black actor? Would they have sympathized/empathized with Thaddeus more if the character was played by a White actor?
• ADDENDUM: Would the OJ Simpson double murder trial have been as difficult if the defendant, OJ Simpson, were White? Would TIME Magazine have darkened or lightened his picture?
• You might wonder why didn’t the courts pick a Latino or Arab judge for the OJ Simpson trial? I can’t even begin to guess why.