Native Son 2019


The most crucial part of this production comes in the end. Bigger in the movie is killed after cops shoot him because they "mistakenly think that he had a gun in his hand". This death reminds me of Tod Clifton's death from Invisible Man. It seemed like lazy production because of its difference from the original. While it is supposed to be modernized, I found his death to be the easy way out.

As for Bigger's depiction in the movie, his physical appearance struck me. His striking green hair and overall demeanor was different that I had envisioned when reading Richard Wright's work. However, something that directors did a great job of reenacting, was Mary Dalton’s relationship with Bigger. He never seemed too comfortable around her, just how I had imagined. Mary’s actress made it her character seem so oblivious and that was perfect. The scene of her death was also a lot like the book, barre the cremation part.

Overall, as a movie hoping to modernize Richard Wright’s work, I believe it was successful. However, like all movies that originate from the book, there are key details that are either missed or tweaked.


Comments

  1. MitchellDecember 16, 2019 at 2:32 PM

    I agree that "Big" in the 2019 version is palpably uncomfortable around Mary and Jan, but he's not nearly as bewildered and afraid as Bigger Thomas is in Wright's novel. People like Big and Mary do interact in the contemporary world, and there isn't that same sense of stepping into some fully alien, rarefied context where he has no idea what to say or do. Big is able to maintain his cool around Mary, and she's even on the defensive around him (as when she meekly apologizes for assuming he'd "summer" somewhere other than Chicago--"Isn't it worse to presume he doesn't?"). And this Mary, too, is proud of how "woke" she is, and this gives her a certain self-consciousness that Wright's Mary lacks--as when she asks to touch his hair, as soon as she gets in the car, and then immediately says, "Just kidding!" She thinks she's in on the joke, and Big sort of "gets it," even though he's deeply put off by her on some other levels.

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