Themes: Race Relations, Social Injustice, Class Differences
Main Cast: Martin Sheen, Harvey Keitel, Andie MacDowell, John Franklin Sawyer, Scott Terra, Daniel Treat, Monica Bugajski
Release Year: 1998
Country: US
Run Time: 86 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Susanna Styron made her feature directorial debut with this family drama, an adaptation of a 1978 short story by her father, novelist William Styron (Sophie's Choice). Paul Whitehurst (voice of Martin Sheen) recalls Depression-era events in Tidewater, Virginia, when he was ten years old. In the summer of 1935, lonely young Paul (Scott Terra), with his strict father (Darrell Larson) and fatally ill mother (Deborah Hedwall), is raised in a boring, middle-class way of life, so mundane it leads him into a friendship with the lower-class Dabneys, once aristocratic but now reduced to poverty on the former Dabney plantation. Bootlegger Vernon (Harvey Keitel) is married to earthy beer-drinking Trixie (Andie MacDowell), and Paul enjoys the fun-loving lifestyle of this couple and their seven children. Shadrach (John Franklin Sawyer), a 99-year-old former slave, turns up one day at the Dabney house after walking barefoot from Alabama to Virginia, where he was born into slavery. Since Shadrach's wish to be buried on the Dabney's land violates Virginia law, the request sets a variety of racist attitudes and conflicts into motion. Shown at the 1998 LA Independent Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
Shadrach is one of those quiet little stories that would never have caught enough attention to get filmed -- if it weren't made possible by a daughter paying homage to her father. There isn't much plot to William Styron's short story: a 99-year-old former slave makes a pilgrimage to his birthplace in order to die there, and the descendants of his former owners must figure out how to honor him. It's simple, but never corny, as writer-director Susanna Styron ensures that her father's writing gets a proper treatment. In fact, the movie would be ideal for children first wrestling with the history of slaves and racism, except for that largely unnecessary outpouring of profanity from Harvey Keitel. Keitel's Vernon Dabney is uneven, sometimes seeming like a parody of a yokel, other times an earnest portrayal of a morally conflicted man. Styron the director seemed to have a more profound effect on Andie MacDowell, whose far more consistent performance is also some of the subtlest work of the former model's career. But the soul of the story has to be the numerous Dabney children and their surrogate brother (the narrator looking back in flashback), who are really touched by this ancient stranger, even though he can barely speak to them. Though it might betray a somewhat fanciful optimism on the Styrons' part, the children set aside their squalid conditions to focus on someone even less fortunate: just a fellow person who deserves compassion and respect by virtue of being human. Such a message can't be quibbled with, when it's delivered with the ease and conviction of Shadrach. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Tracy Kilpatrick - Casting, Dona Granata - Costume Designer, Kevin J. Moore - First Assistant Director, Susanna Styron - Director, Colleen Sharp - Editor, Jonathan Demme - Executive Producer, Avi Lerner - Executive Producer, Danny Dimbort - Executive Producer, Trevor Short - Executive Producer, Elie Samaha - Executive Producer, Steven Shareshian - Executive Producer, Van Dyke Parks - Composer (Music Score), Burton Rencher - Production Designer, Hiro Narita - Cinematographer, Boaz Davidson - Producer, John Thompson - Producer, Bridgett Terry - Producer, Valerie Fann - Set Designer, Carl Rudisill - Sound/Sound Designer, Larry Long - Sound/Sound Designer, Susanna Styron - Screenwriter, Bridgett Terry - Screenwriter, William Styron - Short Story Author
