The Green Pastures [1936] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Customer Reviews:

Too naive to remain enlightening.......2007-10-30

When we know the author of the original stories is white, the film shows perfectly well how the American society, after slavery and after - up to the 1850s - banning the Blacks from all training into reading and writing, from all speaking their original languages and even from all affiliation to any religion, rushes head first into over-Christianizing the Blacks with no cautious slowing down and with all calculated speeding up they could master after the Secession War, both south and north, though for different reasons. The objective was to cast the Blacks into the mold of the unexplainable will of God and the necessity to suffer in this world to be saved in the next one. The interest of this film cannot be found in the ethics of the story. Maybe only - at this level - in the exploration of the arcane sophistication of the alienation, imposed onto the Blacks. But the real interest is the large presence of Negro spirituals in the film, one of the very first films entirely centered on Black music, though in 1936 we must not forget we are after - and within - the triumph of the radio that enabled Black music and jazz to find a wide audience, to embed its existence and force into the widest Black and white audience it had ever had, just as it enabled F. D. Roosevelt to dominate the political arena for twelve years or so. Yet the film is tremendously deficient. The desire to have only Black actors in the film locks up the Blacks in a color ghetto. It appears as pure segregation against the whites. It does not help us much understand the great musical revolution the Blacks brought to the American continent. They live their music, their religion and their everyday life in the total absence of whites except in one scene where the whites are Ku Klux Klan members lynching a whole bunch of Blacks for no other apparent reason than the excitement of the hunt. At times the biblical stories told to us are so naive and simple-minded that we can wonder whether we are talking to people provided with a brain. The music itself is very average. Luckily this exclusively Black cinema has not been furthered beyond the few films the late 1920s and the 1930s produced. They were leading to a complete dead end as for understanding or simply reflecting the real situation in which the Blacks are living and which they may want to change. What's more the reduction of the whites to KKK members is definitely a racist caricature.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

The Green Pastures [1936] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Average customer rating:

The Green Pastures [1936] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Starring: Rex Ingram
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Drama | Classics | Categories | DVD | Video

DVD | Format (binding_browse-bin) | Refinements | DVD | Video
ASIN: 1419817116
Release Date: 2006-01-10

Average customer rating:

Excellent!

Here Comes A... Fire Engine!
Starring: Fireman Ted
Manufacturer: Little Big TV
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

All Children's DVD | Children's DVD | Categories | DVD | Video
DVD | Format (binding_browse-bin) | Refinements | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000U5JTG6
Release Date: 2005-09-01

Customer Reviews:

Excellent!.......2007-08-17

The DVD arrived yesterday (much to the excitement of my 2 year old).
We have already watched it three times and my son loves it. It is (as
with all other Little Big TV DVDs) excellent. My son was so engrossed
with it he didn't speak all the way through the first two viewings -
we had to watch it back to back!! I am sure he will learn the words
and speak along with Uncle Nick once he has watched it a few more
times. (He knows most of the words in Digger and Tractor!!). Think
this is probably the best one yet (and they are all
brilliant)......especially as my son is totally obsessed by Fire Engines!

Customer Reviews:

Another super British Film.......2007-08-17

This is as good a 1950's or 1960's British film as you will get.
Great in black and white. Good atmosphere and interest.

Really good buy. A must for any collection.

A true British classic........2007-08-09

A really well made true British film, with terrific performances and very able direction. It kept me entertained right until the closing credits. Well done Odeon for releasing this gem.

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