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John, the Extra-Terrestial

Robert A. Williams | Oberlin, OH United States | 02/23/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After a two-minute introduction of credits accompanied by a nice winds score, an aging family doctor (played by Will Geer) in a small Southern town sets the plot in motion when he calls the Reverend Mac and his son, the prosecutor, to his home for a meeting concerning Brother John. Earlier that day, the Doc had examined Brother John's sister and found her to be suffering from an advanced stage of cancer, with only a few days to live at most.

But the story begins thirty years before, with the breach birth delivery of Brother John. The lights had gone out when an unexpected windstorm popped up out of nowhere. John grew up like any other boy but at the age of 16, he left town. He came back to his mother's death bed, then his father's death bed, and "sure as I'm standin' here, I know that boy, wonderin' God knows where, will show up at his sister's death bed".

John does show up at this sister's death bed, but this all takes place during a mass demonstration to organize a union at a factory in town, and the Doc's son and the sheriff are worried about outside agitators. And they suspect John. They slip into his motel room and rummage through his things, noting a passport that says he been all over the world including Cuba and Communist China (this was before Nixon opened Pandora's Box). When they later question him, he admits than he can speak Arabic, Russian, Swahili and a score of other languages. When they asked him how? he replied by saying he listened. How did you pay for the airfare? I worked, John said. In short, they suspect him of being a spy.

Only the Doc has figured out that Brother John is indeed a spy, but one from another planet. Brother John is an extra-terrestial. When the Reverend's daughter asked John about Judgement Day, he said maybe it wouldn't be that way - every man answering for his own sins, maybe man would answer as a species.

Later the Doc visited John in a jail cell, and admitted to John that he knew, saying that he thought it might be of some comfort to speak with someone who knew. He added that nobody believes him anyway. He asked John - "what have you seen?". John's short speech on what he has witnessed around the earth, from children being shoveled off the streets of Calcutta while the rich bask in the sun, to the wars in Biafra and Vietnam, is omnious and disturbing. John equates man to maggots on a rotten apple getting to leap off, first for the moon, then to the stars.

"Is that it then", Doc asks, "they don't want us out there?" John doesn't reply. When Doc asked if he's seen hope, a chance? John said he seen's what's there. "What about love?", asked Doc. "Man isn't just an animal, he is capable of love". John said that might not be enough. In the end, the Doc is there when John leaves this planet just as the Doc was there when he arrived."

Watch this movie before you read these reviews....

applewood | everywhere and nowhere | 03/07/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great movie, but one I'd recommend watching before you read these reviews which give our explanation of what we think it means. Poitier gives a very fine performance, as does Gerr and the rest of the cast. The cinematography (note creative use of light and grainy closeups) and soundtrack (hip Quincy Jones) is excellent (if a bit early 70's dated). Brother John may be an enigmatic character, but the plot is not so subtle in it's look at racism, war, worker and big industry relations, modern humanity and a wide range of human relationships.

In many ways this plays as an allegory of Jesus Christ's life, but it is also more. By the end I thought he was more John The Revelator than Christ. But he is also more wise, restrained and dispassionate than those traditional Christian characters. He is more like Christ as the Taoist sage witnessing and absorbing the world without resistance or judgment.

While the plot is clearly allegorical, with an axe to grind about social injustices, the beauty is that it makes you want to think and examine on your own. And simply live in the moment."