The First Hollywood Film By A Black Filmmaker
Gordon Parks’ semi-autobiographical film “The Learning Tree” was a game-changer.
Before directing his debut feature in his late fifties, Gordon Parks was already renowned as a photojournalist. In the 1940s, he was documenting scenes of impoverished black families in the segregated South Side of Washington, D.C. During World War II, he was a war correspondent, photographing the famed Tuskegee Airmen. He began his career working for the government, before moving to magazines like Vogue and Life, where his photos would be published until the 1970s. In the '50s, he worked as a consultant on a number of Hollywood productions before later directing a television documentary series on life in the black ghetto. Parks had many other talents. He was also a musical composer, an oil painter, and a poet. A true Renaissance man.
In 1963, he would publish a novel called The Learning Tree, a semi-autobiographical account based on his upbringing in Kansas in the 1920s. Around five years later, Parks would be hired by Warner Bros. to helm an adaptation of his novel. Parks had never made a feature film, or a fiction film, but they still trusted him to not only direct the film and adapt the screenplay, but also produce it and compose the music, all by himself. It was a move that seemed characteristic of a New Hollywood, one desperate for new talent. Whether they realized it or not, they were making history. In 1969, Gordon Parks became the first black director of a major Hollywood motion picture.
The film is set in Kansas, so naturally, it opens with a twister. Our main character, a teenage boy named Newt Winger, stumbles on a pile of wood and cuts his leg, making him unable to walk away from the oncoming storm. He is rescued by an older woman known as Big Mabel, who escorts him towards an old, abandoned farmhouse.
Inside the house, she proceeds to undress Newt, and take his virginity. Perhaps if this were an '80s teen romp, this scene would be framed as a triumph for the boy, but Parks scores the scene with some sinister music, which is more appropriate. Parks, unlike a lot of high-profile filmmakers, understands that this sort of thing shouldn't be romanticized. After the experience, Newt is asked about it by his friends, and he would rather not discuss the matter.
This is one of many charged subplots in the film, as Newt, his family, and his partners have to deal with many trials, living in the town of Cherokee Flats. They face discrimination from several authority figures, from teachers to law enforcement. We meet many characters, with many different attitudes about society and the difference between the races, but the film doesn't paint certain characters as villains. There is an attempt by Parks to understand everyone's position.
The schoolteacher keeps telling all of her black students that they shouldn't pursue a higher education, and that they'll end up working as porters and maids. When confronted about this by the new progressive principal, she says that that was what the old principal told her to say. Parks depicts an environment of deep-seated racism, inherited from older generations, where no single figure or group is to blame for the larger problem.
With that said, there are many whites in the town who try to maintain a stable relationship with the blacks, even when tensions get hot. Old Man Kiner has it in his heart to forgive Newt after he and his friends stole apples from his orchard. However, one of the boys, Marcus, beats him to within an inch of his life.
Marcus has severe anger issues and is resentful towards white people, a hatred instilled in him by his father — it’s a generational rage. Marcus lands in jail and, while inside, he develops a hatred for the "Winger kid" after he says it was wrong to beat Kiner like he did. Marcus perceived that talk as a betrayal.
Marcus is brought home to his father, who expresses his resentment at being called "boy" by the police officer. Then, a few minutes later, the father says sincerely to his son, "C'mon, boy. Get something to eat."
There are many speeches driving home the point about racism and why it persists. The writing can be rather hokey, but I can't say it isn't satisfying to see a bunch of hateful people defeated not by violence, but by words. You can sense that Parks holds strong compassion for them.
The film could be better. Often times, the melodrama can make it feel just a step above a '70s Movie of the Week. Many tough subjects are dealt with throughout the film, but not enough time is spent on each subplot. Perhaps a 2.5-hour runtime would be more sufficient to give weight to each major event that The Learning Tree tries to tackle.
There is not one, but two different subplots dealing with statutory rape. One with Newt and Big Mabel, and the other involving Newt's girlfriend, Arcella. She becomes pregnant, and Newt is immediately blamed, but it turns out to be a white man named Chauncey. This subject isn't brought up again for a half-hour, until the judge mentions it in passing to Newt's parents, just before the film's climax.
"I'll personally see to it that Chauncey takes care of the baby. I… I'm sorry."
I thought perhaps the book might go into more detail and flesh out all these plots further. Then I come to find that the book is only 240 pages, and the book on tape read by Parks is shorter than the film.
Despite its shortcomings, however, The Learning Tree is a valuable film. Being so heavily drawn from the author's lived experience, it is one of the more deeply personal films ever put out by a major Hollywood studio. It was also a major step in breaking down the color barrier in mainstream American cinema, and Gordon Parks would become one of the major figures paving the way for a new wave of Black cinema in the 1970s.
