Now Playing at AFS: The Truths and Complications of NATIVE SON

(1951) dir. Pierre Chenal

I didn’t immediately know what to make of NATIVE SON as a whole, but I also think that’s why it’s well worth seeking out. From a technical perspective, it features great cinematography and effective incorporations of film noir elements. As a piece of social commentary, however, it’s far more complicated. By the end of its runtime, it left me with a lot to unpack about both the subject matter of the story and how the film came to be in the first place.

Richard Wright plays the main character, Bigger Thomas. He is also the author of the 1940 novel on which the 1951 film is based. Since Wright is speaking and giving life to his own words, there is no barrier between writer and performer as the story plays out on screen. The plot follows Thomas as he becomes a chauffeur for an extremely wealthy white family in Chicago. As a Black person with limited financial means facing peer pressure to take deadly risks, he wrestles with how he can eventually make something of himself. Systemically, so much is working against him, but even within that resonant narrative framework, the film’s story (and presumably the novel’s) barrels toward a few shocking—and potentially gratuitous—events that demand dissection.

SPOILERS AHEAD (which I think will actually enhance the viewing and discussion experiences): 

Thomas ends up smothering the daughter of his new employer with a pillow in her bed. He does this because he is terrified that her mother, who is blind, will know he brought her home drunk at 2:00 AM if she makes too much noise. The absurdity of those combined elements conveys what a lot of the film feels like to watch, but then again, the racial injustices the story addresses are even more absurd—and, shamefully, foundational to much of American society.

The central source of tension is the fact that Thomas, a young Black man, ends up killing a rich white woman while navigating unforeseen circumstances. This means that he embodies a narrative that has been falsely conjured to justify the deaths of people like him on a mass scale. He engages in escalating tactics to cover things up and divert the attention of detectives, journalists, and even loved ones. It’s chillingly well understood by every character in the film that even a whiff of suspicion linked to Thomas would be lethal.

It’s clear that Thomas is meant to resonate as a sympathetic character. However, after going on the run with his partner Bessie, he kills her out of fear that she might give him up to the authorities. This means that the deaths of two women could be seen as the primary drivers of the plot. It’s obviously not that simple, but the gendered baggage of these pivotal developments lingered with me after the film ended.

As a young Black man in America, Thomas faces a corrupt justice system, negative stereotypes, open provocations in white spaces, and flat out violence. Beyond those crushing realities, he still makes a conscious decision to kill the person that loves him. While the film suggests that this man is driven to murder by complete fear and isolation on multiple levels, it feels strange to see Bessie’s death wrapped up in a web of supposed inevitability. It feels a bit like Wright created her character just so she could ultimately die and give Thomas another obstacle. This is, of course, just my interpretation. 

Out of curiosity, I also watched the 2019 HBO remake of NATIVE SON. It stars Ashton Sanders from MOONLIGHT as Bigger Thomas and Kiki Layne from IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK as Bessie. Side note: This means that the 2019 version is a Venn Diagram of amazing actors from Barry Jenkins films.

(2019) dir. Rashid Johnson

The mere existence of the remake is notable given that the original film release was troubled and the book itself quite controversial. Of course, much of that trouble and controversy likely stemmed from the overwhelming whiteness of Hollywood and the refusal of the United States to confront what it has done to Black people. (Keep in mind that ‘racial reckonings’ are still a novel and functionally unrealized concept in 2020.) 

Rashid Johnson and Suzan-Lori Parks—the director and screenwriter of the 2019 film, respectively—included one major revision among a sea of refreshed elements: Bessie’s survival. In the 1951 film, a recounted dream sequence explains how Thomas comes to the paranoia-fueled decision to kill Bessie. Alternatively, in the 2019 film, there is a flash of violence (that is still difficult to watch) after a heated argument followed by a weak apology from Thomas and Bessie finally leaving him behind. 

Another subtle difference between the two films comes through in Kiki Layne’s performance. As Bessie, she says “Please don’t do this to me” when Thomas asks her to go on the run with him after explaining everything. Knowing that life is also extremely dangerous for a Black woman in America, Bessie has tried to be as good (under the skewed and oppressive white gaze) as possible. When Thomas severely compromises her sense of security without seeming to notice, her love for him turns into resentment and shame. This makes her different from the slightly more complacent Bessie in the first film. 

The biggest truths behind NATIVE SON lie in the fact that two versions of the film exist in the world. The 1951 version was heavily censored and originally released in Argentina. The restoration Austin Film Society has included in its virtual cinema (linked below) is a combination of the complete 16mm print of the Argentinian release and an incomplete 35mm duplicate negative of an uncensored cut. 

The story of the restoration effort is compelling because it means that a complete, watchable version of the 1951 film has been made available for the first time in the United States. The intentional preservation of the film hints at a continued confrontation with its cinematic significance. It’s notable that the ingredients of the original novel and film were deemed worthy of revisiting several decades later in a high-profile HBO remake. 

The irony is that the production of the new film could be viewed as a meta reflection of a certain kind of well-intentioned white “allyship” prevalent in both films. Just like several socially conscious white characters reassure Bigger Thomas that they understand his struggle, certain white executives may have shepherded what seems (to them) like a necessary narrative back into the spotlight. In any case, these pop culture artifacts reflect America’s stubborn refusal to change as well as how we try and fail to process long-term societal inequities through cyclical narrative exploration. I recommend watching and processing the 1951 version of NATIVE SON while you have a chance.

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