Friday, July 13, 2012

(Not) live from Alabama Friday Random Ten

Tonight I watched a movie from 1964 called Nothing But a Man. The plot isn't very involved. It's about a laconic laborer who falls in love with a teacher who's also the daughter of a minister. Important things to remember are that the central characters are all black, the story is set in the vicinity of Birmingham, Alabama, and as mentioned before, 1964. Despite being white myself I started to get tense whenever a white man entered the frame, because they usually mean trouble. The director was primarily a documentarian and the film often feels like a vérité photoessay. It's easy to forget the presence of a few somewhat fairly famous people, such as the lead actor being Kinchloe from Hogan's Heroes. I did notice that Gloria Foster, who plays the girlfriend of Duff's broken-down father, is stunningly gorgeous, but she never seemed out of place because of it.
  1. Ladytron - White Gold
  2. Sonic Youth - Dripping Dream
  3. The Beatles - In My Life
  4. Ruby - Tiny Meat
  5. Brian Eno - By This River
  6. Kat Edmondson - I'm Not In Love
  7. Neko Case - Vengeance Is Sleeping
  8. The Clash - The Guns of Brixton
  9. Charlie Parker - Out of Nowhere
  10. Fleetwood Mac - Never Forget

2 comments:

susan said...

I can well understand your reaction whenever you saw a white man in the movie. It wasn't long after it was made that things got very intense in the south. I haven't seen it but it's now on the list.

'Guns of Brixton' just reminded me to ask if you've seen the documentary 'Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten'? It's good.

Ben said...

Yeah, I think you might like it. It's also got a very nice soul music score, which helps it go down a little easier.

I haven't seen the Joe Strummer documentary, but I'll have to put it on my list. He had a fascinating, too-brief life.