The Learning Tree
Directed by Gordon Parks
Written by Gordon Parks from his novel
1969/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime
“The guy who takes a chance, who walks the line between the known and unknown, who is unafraid of failure, will succeed.”
―
The first major feature by an African-American director is a passionate story of his struggles as a black teenager in the rural American South.
Newt (Kyle Johnson) is an African-American high school student with dreams of going to university. His mother, Sarah, works for the local judge. They live in a small town t which has at least nominally integrated its schools but that continues to suffer from blatant individual and institutionalized racism. Newt hangs out with of a group of friends his age. One of these, Maurice, is the extremely angry son of a brutal alcoholic and has for some reason has sworn eternal hatred for Newt.
Newt falls for the beautiful, sweet new girl in town. Their happiness is soon marred by the unwanted attentions of the son of the judge. If Newt didn’t have bad luck he would have no luck at all and things continue to go sour throughout. The third act is taken up with a courtroom drama at which Newt must testify.
Parks does a good job with his cast of unknown actors and Burnett Guffey’s color cinematography is splendid. It’s a bit of a misery sandwich but the misery is earned, I think. Recommended to those interested in the subject matter.
