Themes: Mysterious Strangers, Benign Aliens, Fish Out of Water
Main Cast: Joe Morton, Darryl Edwards, Steve James, Leonard Jackson, Bill Cobbs
Release Year: 1984
Country: US
Run Time: 109 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Filmmaker John Sayles' first bonafide box-office success, Brother from Another Planet centers on a black escaped slave from a faraway planet (Joe Morton) who finds himself on the mean streets Harlem. Though the locals are put off by the slave's inability to speak, they are won over by his technical wizardry. He is adopted as a "brother" by his new friends, who protect him from pursuing white aliens played by director Sayles and David Strathairn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
In John Sayles' return to independent filmmaking after his unhappy experience with Baby It's You, The Brother From Another Planet takes a wonderful premise and then works it for all it's worth almost to the end. After decades of extraterrestrials who unfailingly resembled earthlings of European descent, Sayles offers a visitor of a different hue, which is a clever comment in itself. The writer/director then proceeds to examine the assumptions created by those his protagonist encounters, both black and white, based solely on the color of his skin. Without overstating matters until an overwrought finale, Sayles expertly balances comedy with social commentary, hanging it all on a superb, wordless performance by Joe Morton. The size of his themes has caused many to overlook the subtlety of Sayles' work, a quality on conspicuous display here. ~ Keith Phipps, All Movie Guide
Maggie Renzi - Noreen; Tom Wright - Sam; Ren Woods - Bernice; Reggie Rock Bythewood - Rickey; John Sayles - Man In Black; David Strathairn - Bounty Hunter; Rosetta Le Noire - Mama; Fisher Stevens - Card Trickster; Josh Mostel - Casio Vendor; Michael Mantell - Mr. Love; Jaime Tirelli - Hector; Edward Baran - Mr. Vance; Caroline Aaron - Randy Sue Carter; Herbert Newsome - Little Earl; Dee Dee Bridgewater - Malverne Davis; Sidney D. Sheriff - Virgil; Alvin Alexis - Willis; Liane Alexandra Curtis - Ace; Randy Frazier - Bouncer; Minnie Gentry - Mrs. Brown; Leon Grant - Basketball Player; John Griesemer - White Cop; Ishmael Houston-Jones - Dancer; Olga Merediz - Noreen's Client; Marisa Smith - White Hooker; Kim Staunton - Teacher; Anthony Thomas - Basketball Player; Ellis Williams - Watcher; Ginny Yang - Korean Shopkeeper; Peter Richardson - Islamic Man; Rosanna Carter - West Indian Woman; Carl Gordon - Mr. Price; Ray Ramirez - Hispanic Man; Copper Cunningham - Black Hooker; Herb Downer - Floor Buffer; Deborah Taylor - Vance's Receptionist
Credit
Stephen Lineweaver - Art Director, Cynthia Flynt - Costume Designer, Karen Perry - Costume Designer, John Sayles - Director, John Sayles - Editor, Mason K. Daring - Composer (Music Score), Mason K. Daring - Songwriter, John Sayles - Songwriter, Tim D'Arcy - Makeup, Nora Chavoosian - Production Designer, Ernest R. Dickerson - Cinematographer, Peggy Rajski - Production Manager, Peggy Rajski - Producer, Maggie Renzi - Producer, Eric Taylor - Sound/Sound Designer, John Sayles - Screenwriter
Joe Morton stars in this dramatic comedy, set in New York City in the early 1980s, as "The Brother," an alien and escaped slave who, while fleeing "Another Planet," has crash-landed in Upper New York Harbor.
Picked up as homeless, he is deposited in Harlem. The sweet-natured and honest Brother looks like any other black man, except that he is mute and - although other characters in the film never see them - his feet each have three large toes. The Brother has telekinetic powers but, unable to speak, he struggles to express himself and adjust to his new surroundings, including a stint in the Job Corps at a video arcade in Manhattan.
He is chased by two white Men in Black (David Strathairn and director Sayles himself); Sayles's twist on the Men in Black concept is that instead of government agents trying to cover up alien activity, Sayles's Men in Black are also aliens, out to re-capture "The Brother" and other escaped slaves and bring them back to their home planet. Unlike the many human characters in this film, the aliens themselves are oblivious of skin color, and screenwriter Sayles has one of the Men in Black utter an epithet "Three Toe" when describing their quarry, in attempt to prove that skin color is just as arbitrary as number of toes or any other human characteristic that would make one different from another.
