Arts Native White Son
posted by on October 29 at 13:34 PM
I’m currently writing a review of Intiman Theatre’s excellent adaptation of the first important black American novel, Native Son (1940). Those who know the story will certainly find a good laugh in this little piece of history:
[In 1947, a] Hollywood producer offers to film Native Son, but wants to change Bigger to a white man; Wright refuses.I almost (no, I actually) wish Wright had accepted this offer; I would do (pay) anything to see a white man (Frank Sinatra? Marlon Brando? Robert Mitchum?) play Bigger Thomas.
You're right. That would be fucking hilarious.
Jimmy Stewart or Burt Lancaster would have been likely leads in 1947 for a pic coming out of the rear end of Hollywood. As a black cinema pic I would have gone for Sammy Davis Jr.- tehe. Actually after wathing him in Anna Lucasta, I wouldn't dismiss that as such a crazy notion. That man could act - with an intensity that more than made up for his small stature. (I would have loved to see Sammy in mosr of Richard Widmark's noir roles, e.g.)
Flatpoint High School did an all white production of "A Raisin in the Sun" that is a must see.
http://www.answers.com/topic/dreams-on-the-rocks
I could imagine Lars Van Trier doing a remake--with Bruce Willis in the lead. lol
Was that producer just not paying attention? Isn't Bigger's blackness the crux of the entire story?
One might have thought that homosexuality was the crux of the story in the Lost Weekend, but that didn't stop them from adapting it to a simple story about a drunk.
Then there was the first adaptation of the Big Sleep, which turned out to be truly bizarre with the homosexuality and pornography bits supressed.
Anyways with race out of the way, the adaptation could have made an even bigger point out of what is obviously the crux of the original story: that communism is the root of all evil.
Hmm. So maybe they would have made Bigger jewish and had John Garfield play him.
Hollyweird is a mess, different cultures with different faiths exploiting one another to make a buck. One of the closest movies to authenticity in recent times was Blair Witch Project. I'd go see a Lars van Trier remake!
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