"Amos & Andrew" is a direct play on the "Amos n' Andy" radio show. "Amos 'n' Andy" was a minstrel show in which two white men played Black characters. It aired from 1928-1960 and was immensely popular.
"Amos & Andrew" the movie was a snippet of common everyday stereotyping and/or racism.
In 2009, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested while entering his Cambridge, Mass. home. Neighbors believed that he and his driver were burglars. Talk about life imitating art.
"Amos & Andrew" began with Andrew Sterling (Samuel L. Jackson) in his expensive Watauga Island, Mass. summer home trying to fix his stereo. The neighbors, Phil (Michael Lerner) and Judy Gillman (Margaret Colin), see him in the home they believe belongs to the Beasons and call the police. The police, being equally ignorant and racist, totally overreact, surround the home, and shoot at Andrew when he attempted to silence his car alarm.
The entire situation just gets further and further out of hand largely due to an ambitious police chief, Cecil Tolliver (Dabney Coleman), running for commissioner.
When I saw this movie years ago Samuel Jackson was just the "Hey! I recognize him" guy. I knew his face from "Do the Right Thing" and "Jungle Fever," but I didn't yet know his name. Nicolas Cage, however, I did know. Nicolas Cage played Amos in "Amos & Andrew." He was a petty crook who was wrapped into the entire fiasco by Chief Cecil Tolliver.
The movie hit upon some real truths even though it was done comedically. Maybe in real life things don't ever get to the extent they did in this movie, but it wasn't much of an exaggeration.
"Amos & Andrew" the movie was a snippet of common everyday stereotyping and/or racism.
In 2009, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested while entering his Cambridge, Mass. home. Neighbors believed that he and his driver were burglars. Talk about life imitating art.
"Amos & Andrew" began with Andrew Sterling (Samuel L. Jackson) in his expensive Watauga Island, Mass. summer home trying to fix his stereo. The neighbors, Phil (Michael Lerner) and Judy Gillman (Margaret Colin), see him in the home they believe belongs to the Beasons and call the police. The police, being equally ignorant and racist, totally overreact, surround the home, and shoot at Andrew when he attempted to silence his car alarm.
The entire situation just gets further and further out of hand largely due to an ambitious police chief, Cecil Tolliver (Dabney Coleman), running for commissioner.
When I saw this movie years ago Samuel Jackson was just the "Hey! I recognize him" guy. I knew his face from "Do the Right Thing" and "Jungle Fever," but I didn't yet know his name. Nicolas Cage, however, I did know. Nicolas Cage played Amos in "Amos & Andrew." He was a petty crook who was wrapped into the entire fiasco by Chief Cecil Tolliver.
The movie hit upon some real truths even though it was done comedically. Maybe in real life things don't ever get to the extent they did in this movie, but it wasn't much of an exaggeration.