There is a parallel
storyline that at first seems unrelated to LB Jones but eventually ties in
involves the return to Somerset of Sonny Boy Mosby (Yaphet Kotto) who
has come back to town to settle an old score…kill a policeman. Years earlier
Sonny Boy witnessed the same policeman (Bumpas) brutally kill a black 13-year
boy. Sonny boy now comes back for revenge.
Which was unheard of in the sixties. Up to that point blacks were considered coon caricature which was one of the most degrading and insulting of all anti-Black caricatures. The name itself, an abbreviation of raccoon, is dehumanizing. The coon was portrayed as a lazy, easily frightened, inarticulate, good-for-nothing buffoon. Although he often worked as a servant, was not happy with his status. He was, simply, too lazy or too cynical to attempt to change his lowly position.
Which was unheard of in the sixties. Up to that point blacks were considered coon caricature which was one of the most degrading and insulting of all anti-Black caricatures. The name itself, an abbreviation of raccoon, is dehumanizing. The coon was portrayed as a lazy, easily frightened, inarticulate, good-for-nothing buffoon. Although he often worked as a servant, was not happy with his status. He was, simply, too lazy or too cynical to attempt to change his lowly position.
After L.B.’s death, Sonny
Boy finds Bumpas out in the fields working a baling tractor. Sonny Boy
approaches him quickly and unceremoniously pushes him into the twisting blades.
This one act that William Wyler brought to the screen shattered the image of
weak kneed blacks on film forever…The coon caricature was born during American
slavery and died on screen with Yaphet Kotto’s powerful performance. He was
simply a powerful black man killing a bigoted white man. Blacks have been
treated as second-class citizens since the inception of this country. Forcibly
brought here as slaves to the white man, blacks have never been treated as
completely equal to whites. Stereotypes of blacks as lazy, stupid, foolish,
cowardly, submissive, irresponsible, childish, violent, sub-human, and
animal-like, are rampant in today's society. These degrading stereotypes are
reinforced and enhanced by the negative portrayal of blacks in the media by performers
as Stephin Fetchit, Mantan Morland, Willie Best. Black characters have appeared
in American films since the beginning of the industry but always as clowns.
Yaphet Kotto’s
performance of Sonny Bog Mosby ended the degrading stereotypes that were
reinforced and enhanced by the negative portrayal of blacks in the media.
The media sets the tone
for the morals, values, and images of our culture. Many people in this country,
some of whom have never encountered black people, believe that the degrading
stereotypes of blacks are based on reality and not fiction. Everything they
believe about blacks is determined by what they see in movies or on television.
After over a century of movie making, these horrible stereotypes continue to
plague American thought as they did in the sixties but in another form, the
media invented the Noble black which for a time extinguished negative images of
blacks in the media, with this change blacks were regarded as second-class
citizens struggling for dignity by such actors as Paul Robeson, James Edwards,
Canada Lee and then finally Sidney Poitier.
Poitier, James Edwards,
Canada Lee and a number of these men played leading black male actor of the 1940’s, 1950’s,
1960s, also played roles that approximated the Uncle Tom stereotype, even though
his characters were never one dimensional. These black actors did not play
characters that were submissive, cheerful servants, but many of their characters
were white-identified. In Edge of the City (Susskind &
Ritt, 1957) Poitier sacrifices his life, and in The Defiant Ones (Kramer,
1958) Poitier sacrifices his freedom, for white males. Like the black servants
of old, his characters worked to improve the lives of whites. In Lilies
of the Field (Nelson, 1963) he helps refugee nuns build a chapel;
in The Slender Thread (Alexander & Pollack, 1965) he works
to help a suicidal woman; in A Patch of Blue (Berman &
Green, 1965) he aids a young blind woman who does not know he is black;
in to Sir with Love (Clavell, 1967) he tries to teach working
class youth, almost all white, to value education. In the last, some of the
students racially taunt him; eventually he loses his composure. Later, he
berates himself for having displayed anger. Reluctance to fight back is
reminiscent of earlier Tom portrayals, for example, Bill Robinson's character
in The Little Colonel, who stands patiently and silently as he is
insulted by the white master. Bogle (1994) describes Poitier's roles this way:
They were mild-mannered toms, throwbacks to the humanized
Christian servants of the 1930s. When insulted or badgered, the Poitier
character stood by and took it. He knew the white world meant him no
Poitier's characters, like earlier Toms, were
also denied sex lives. In many of his roles he has no wife or girlfriend, and,
when he did have romantic relationships, they were drained of sexual tension
and fulfillment. In A Raisin in the Sun (Gilbert, Rose,
Susskind & Petrie, 1961) there are no romantic scenes with his black wife.
In Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (Kramer, 1967) he only kisses
his white fiancé once, and the audience sees the kiss through a cabdriver's
rear view mirror.1 In A Patch of Blue he kisses the white
romantic interest once, then sacrifices any amorous possibilities by arranging
for her to leave for a school for the blind.
Poitier's Toms are best described as
"Enlightened Toms." In many of his films he is the smartest, most
articulate character -- and, more importantly, the one who delves into the
philosophical issues: egalitarianism, humanitarianism, and altruism. Moreover,
he acts upon these philosophical musings. He is a paragon of saintly virtue,
sacrificing for others, who, not coincidentally, are often white.
Morgan Freeman's character, Hoke, in Driving
Miss Daisy (Zanuck, Zanuck & Beresford, 1989) is reminiscent of
Poitier's Homer Smith in Lilies of the Field. Neither Hoke nor
Homer has a life apart from whites. We know little of either character's
experiences or hopes. They live to solve the problems of the white characters;
and, of course, both are desexed. Although neither Hoke nor Homer Smith is a
fully developed character, both are preferable to Big George in Fried Green
Tomatoes (Avnet, Kemer & Avnet, 1991). Big George is a pliant,
obedient, one-dimensional servant, a relic.
And then came Yaphet Kotto…and ended all of Hollywood’s stereotypes
by just one act…cold bloodedly killing his white tormentor and the movie
begins and ends with Kotto’s
unreadable face, leaving
town on the same train he came in at the beginning of the film. This
movie broke new ground. The casting of a black man as a James Bond villain with
a white woman as his partner was now no longer controversial in the 1970s as
Kotto fought back man to man against James Bond. Indeed, it was not until
Alien, that audiences realized Kotto had taken them far beyond the black
stereotype and had marched off into a category all of his own and in so doing
opening up the industry to the b lack character actor…Uncle Tom was dead…
“As Director Melvin Van Peebles said of Kotto at a Hollywood
dinner…” Once he (Kotto) kicks open the door we all gone get in!”
