Nothing But a Man

Nothing but a Man is a 1964 American independent drama film starring Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln, and directed by Michael Roemer, who also co-wrote the film with Robert M. Young. The film tells the story of Duff Anderson, an African-American railroad worker in the early 1960s who tries to maintain his respect in a racist small town near Birmingham, Alabama, after he marries the local preacher's daughter. In addition to dealing with oppression and discrimination, Anderson must also come to terms with his troubled relationship with his own father, a drunk who abandoned and rejected him.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) As the film was filmed during a period of extreme racial tension (The March on Washington, Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech; the deaths of four young girls in a church from a firebombing and Birmingham), it tried to show in personal terms how affected the lives of blacks were in the rural South. Despite the film being done mostly by white filmmakers, the film pulls no punches about the oppression black people had previously dealt with. The prescient script, in particular, addresses issues that continue to be critical to the black community today: the lack of a family structure, the use of coded words, the place of religion, the impact of poverty... and they're all worked into a romance depicted with sensitivity and insight.
 * 2) The film's naturalistic almost documentary visual style and soundtrack of popular hits from Motown Records invites the audience into the lives of its characters to feel their angst and perseverance. The film's about capturing honest performances within realistic settings.
 * 3) Incredibly gifted acting from the majority of the cast, especially from the film's leads Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln and Julius Harris. It should also be noted that this film was Ivan's first starring role, and Julius Harris' film debut in general.
 * 4) Duff Anderson is a very compelling and sympathetic protagonist. As a laborer on a railroad section gang, he'd get into a relationship with 26-year-old school teacher Josie Dawson. With few family ties and an independent, well-paying job, he was able to avoid segregation less transient blacks had gone through. Despite being faced with new responsibilities and the pervasive injustice in a world where he was a second-class citizen, he could have fled the region for the North, but instead, he solves his problems head-on.
 * 5) The film is filled with difficult shots. One pans from the backseat of a speeding car, the sun rising through a forest seen through the windows, to a child sleeping in the front seat. A scene of Duff departing a church service at night has the formal purity of German expressionism.
 * 6) *His strongest effects came from what wasn't shown, by what the characters didn't say. Such as how Duff doesn't know where or when his father was born, or a shot of Josie's wedding that ends just as her father. the minister, glares at her. For a majority of the film, the director's characteristic reaction shot was of nothing: the school superintendent closing a door behind him, Duff's back turned when Josie questions him about his son.
 * 7) The film broke taboos back in its day just by showing Abbey Lincoln brushing her teeth or kissing Ivan Dixon.

The Film
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