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The Human Stain | Classification: Mystery / Suspense Directed: - Robert Benton Actors/Actresses: - Anthony Hopkins - Nicole Kidman - Ed Harris - Gary Sinise Mixed bag or results, but interesting and good!! My feelings are mixed about this movie. From what I have read in the professional reviews of this movie, the opinions are just as mixed. In sum, it is a movie that will hopefully give one something to think about at its surprising conclusion. Simply put, THE HUMAN STAIN is pretty much a revampted telling of an old tale that has facinated white audience since forever and opened wounds and insulted some black audiences. But, it stands apart from all its other predecesors out of the Hollywood movie machine in a good way that makes it worth seeing in that it's lead character played by Anthony Hopkins isn't stereotypically sympathetic and has depth. Still, his manipulative, cannibalistic and criminal Hannibal Lector has more integrity than his Coleman Silk. The great and admirable Anthony Hopkins plays an aging professor with a dark secret who is accused of a racial slur by a student. Through a series of flashbacks, his secret is gradually revealed to the audience--his being a black man passing as white-- as he tells his story to a reporter and begins an affair with a young illiterate janitor on campus, Nicole Kidman. This young woman has a few secrets of her own like a possessive and obsessive husband. Plotwise, I think the only minor flaw in the story will be that involving Kidman's charater's problems. Only a little, they interrupt the real focus of interest of Hopkins's Silk. Though another trite tale of the mulatto, at lease the characters are 3 diminional thanks to writing,Hopkin's, Kidman's and the supporting actors performances(e.g. Gary Sinise, Ed Harris and Wentworh Miller--the young black man who plays Hopkins in his youth, and Anna Deavere Smith whose scenes and words to her son the young Silk are not fogettable, even Oscar worthy). Coleman Silk turns his back on his family and people to enjoy all the privileges and power of having white skin. Instead of challeging prejudices, he enforces and caters to the very prejudices that deny him to be treated fairly as a black man. At the movies conclusion one is forced to asked if anything has really changed for the better in real life. From what I have noticed in popular culture, the media and all the answer is..... Though the majority of black Americans like the characters played by Wentworth Miller and Anna Deavere Smith are a racially and culturally mixed people regardless of the complexion of skin ,or, whether both parents are black American or one parent is white or whatever, there are still those who will run as far away from being labeled black as they can get and declare themselves as separate but equal instead of challeging old inherited ideas of bigotry. Political correctness has warped into a new mask to hide self-hatred and racism. There are versions of Coleman Silks that still exist today, both dark and fair skinned, in the black community--even other non-black communities. Society still hasn't shed all its prejudices for those it looks upon as having th incredible film that makes you think "People are getting dumber but more opinionated," says the sister of Colman Silk, the character portrayed by Sir Anthony Hopkins. Silk is a college professor who is brought up on and then fired over the charges of racism, as he uses the terms 'spooks' to describe a story about the undead. He declares this ridiculous and will not apologize. Around the same time, his wife Iris dies. he is convinced the university's treatment of him contributed to her death. But Silk has a secret in his past that, if he was only to reveal it, would solve many of his problems, even if it won't bring back Iris. He starts an affair with an abused young janitor at his university whom he never noticed before (Nicole Kidman). She has her own demons, including a jealous becrazed ex-husband who will not leave her alone. Certain scenes made me cry, particularly when the film flashed back to Silk's hardscrabble childhood in 1940s New Jersey, and the formative experiences that makes him hide who he really is. Catch "Real World - London" alum Jacinda Barrett in a great role as Silk's first real love. This movie will really make you think about the circumstances that made Silk think that he had to hide who he was in order to live. The speech his mother makes to him about what he will one day give her as her birthday present is particularly sad. I don't want to give away too much here --- rent the movie and you will see what I mean. Flawed but Interesting During WWII, millions of Jews whose only crime in the eyes of some where their being<BR>Jewish. Thousands to over millions were sent into concentration camps where few<BR>survived and many were murdered, even the innocent of innocent, the children. Those<BR>Jews who managed to escape did so by fleeing to hopeful safe harbors in other countries,<BR>or, they passed. Far from passing to gain material wealth, power, and a share in the<BR>decadence of the predominant group, these Jews simply sought to survive and see<BR>another day. One cannot help but admire those who spent the rest of their lives,<BR>whenever possible, challenging racism and bigotry and injustice. The titled character in the HUMAN STAIN is far from being admirable and sympathetic. <BR>Coleman Silk is a black man who chooses to pass as white to enjoy the privileges of<BR>being white. He doesn't care to fight the injustices that deny his people their humanity,<BR>but instead chooses to cater and bow down in honor and the keeping of such injustice<BR>against his own people. Ironically, at the time he passes, those Jews who where unable to<BR>pass were being killed, entire families. Even more ironical, Silk chooses to pass as<BR>Jewish. He turns his back on his family, even after his mother in the movie pleads with<BR>him in what has to be the best emotionally intense moment in the movie. Seemingly<BR>without much conscious to morals, Silk starts his life new as a white man without anyone<BR>ever suspecting him as being anything other than this. He marries a white woman, begins<BR>a career as a college professor, lives the American dream of freedom without roadblocks. <BR>Life is pretty good until his wife dies and two black students accuse him of using a racial<BR>slur against them which is accidental and unintentional, but Silk so long denying his<BR>heritage does not realize the power and mistake of the word he has used. At this point,<BR>his mask begins to fall off and his past comes back to haunt him and it is not forgiving. The main problem with this film is the way the story is told. The makers would have<BR>done better to tell the story from the perspective of the young Silk instead of the old Silk<BR>who is played by Anthony Hopkins. Moreover, the character played by Nicole Kidman,<BR>who Silk begins a May/December relationship with in the midst of the Clinton sex<BR>scandel with a young intern, seems to pollute the storyline and burden it down. Kidman<BR>plays her part well, as the entire cast is excellent, but her character should have been<BR>exercised from the story on the big screen all together. It is the young Coleman Silk and<BR>his family who are the really interesting characters deserved more time on screen instead<BR>of only being seen in flashback scenes. The press for this movie was a lesson in the racial divide that is growing in the U.S. The<BR>press took mor Buy The Human Stain at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on The Human Stain Search with the Priority Search Engine on The Human Stain This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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