This movie seemed to show what really goes on in inner-city America between black people and the police in general, even if the police like in this movie are black too. This movie is set in 1974 Watts, fast back cars, number running pimps, soul music, Afro haircuts, everything 70's. What happens in this film is two cops, one of whom is black mistake a black basketball player for a rapist and shoot him to death accidentally. This basketball player Nathaniel "Cornbread" Hamilton is a well liked, talented, nice kid who is headed off to play D-1 ball. He has never committed a crime in his life and has done well resisting ghetto temptations that lead to bad things but unfortunately for him, he is mistaken by the police and is shot to death on the spot before he can do anything else. When his parents hire a black lawyer to charge the police for wrongful death, we see some really Uncle Tom type police officers who will stop at nothing to keep the truth from being revealed. The black officer who pulled the trigger calls all the blacks in the neighborhood "savages" and the black precinct captain threatens to take away a woman's welfare check for having her son testify against the police. Of course there are racist white cops too but that is expected in any Blaxploitation. I feel this movie was pretty real based on things I've heard about the 70s and I think anyone who wants to see how bad it is between the black community and police departments anywhere and why it will remain bad in years to come.
17 Reviews
Heartfelt and moving film
evan_ginzburg22 August 2010
I think the label of blaxploitation for this film is quite unfair- it's heartfelt, various Black and White characters are shown as flawed rather than the "us vs. them" mentality of many racially charged films of that era- and you deeply care about what happens to everyone involved. Plus Moses Gunn is as fine an actor as ever set foot on the silver screen. Just thoroughly enjoyed it in spite of low budget feel and some clichéd moments. I even got choked up at times. Well worth seeing. Additionally, I was quite saddened to find that so many of the cast died relatively young. For a film from the mid 70s, there's an awful lot of actors in this movie no longer with us.
Brings About Sadness and Anger
view_and_review6 December 2019
CE&M is a movie whose story is better than its performances. Cornbread is played by Keith Wilkes who later became Jamaal Wilkes the hall of fame basketball player. As to be expected, he wasn't very strong as an actor. He plays a basketball player, which is not acting.
Earl is played by Tierre Turner, a kid who looked no older than twelve. His part was small even though his name is in the title.
The "Me" in the title is Wilford Robinson (Laurence Fishburne). Sure, he's a great actor now, but he was just passable then.
I don't want to be remiss and forget to mention the veteran actors Bernie Casey, Moses Gunn, and Rosalind Cash. They were all good and lended some much needed credence to the movie.
As for the storyline, Cornbread is a young high school graduate who is going to college in the fall on a full scholarship for basketball. He is a good kid who eats, sleeps, and drinks basketball. He literally has no time for anything else he's so consumed with it. When he gets killed by the police in a case of mistaken identity it sparks outrage from the people and an equal and opposite stonewall stance from the police and the city.
It is a tragic story that squeezes the heart and puts fire in the belly. I like movies that can do that.
The movies I watch that can elicit strong reactions are either bad movies that are so bad I'm just upset, or good movies that put the viewer in the exact state they want them to be in. CE&M does just that in spite of the so-so acting.
Earl is played by Tierre Turner, a kid who looked no older than twelve. His part was small even though his name is in the title.
The "Me" in the title is Wilford Robinson (Laurence Fishburne). Sure, he's a great actor now, but he was just passable then.
I don't want to be remiss and forget to mention the veteran actors Bernie Casey, Moses Gunn, and Rosalind Cash. They were all good and lended some much needed credence to the movie.
As for the storyline, Cornbread is a young high school graduate who is going to college in the fall on a full scholarship for basketball. He is a good kid who eats, sleeps, and drinks basketball. He literally has no time for anything else he's so consumed with it. When he gets killed by the police in a case of mistaken identity it sparks outrage from the people and an equal and opposite stonewall stance from the police and the city.
It is a tragic story that squeezes the heart and puts fire in the belly. I like movies that can do that.
The movies I watch that can elicit strong reactions are either bad movies that are so bad I'm just upset, or good movies that put the viewer in the exact state they want them to be in. CE&M does just that in spite of the so-so acting.
Early Comment on Racial Profiling
hillari18 December 2000
A kid witnesses the shooting death of the neighborhood basketball star. The basketball player had been mistaken by the police as a crime suspect. The kid is subjected to harrassment from the policement involved to keep quiet about what he knows. The cops even go so far as to intimidate his mother. This is an early film appearance of Lawrence Fishburne's. He was thirteen or fourteen when he did this movie. The always magnificent late Rosalind Cash plays his mother. The film makes a sharp comment about the conflicts people have with the very people who are supposed to be protecting them.
Cop Out
Cineanalyst22 July 2021
Intermittently powerful, all-too-familiar social-problem realism and maudlin melodrama, "Cornbread, Earl and Me" is, either way, a melancholic affair. The overwrought histrionics, overly-optimistic resolution, and some poor acting are especially unfortunate given how moving the best scenes are here. The rainy killing by policemen and subsequent attack on those murderous officers by the neighborhood is a strong scene--ever more shockingly so as it comes after a dull first act. Moreover, it's well foreshadowed by prior unlawful actions by the cops in harassing and unwarranted searching of suspected criminals. The subsequent intimidation of witnesses leading up to the courtroom conclusion is in way familiarly spot on, too, as the police department and city officials close ranks to obstruct justice and protect their own, but it also often veers over-the-top, as does much of the rest of the picture.
Rather surprisingly given that they cast would-be NBA Hall-of-Famer Jamaal Wilkes that the basketball scenes, or single brief montage rather, are scant and unimpressive. It seems evident he wasn't cast for his acting abilities, after all, and is in good company there with other sports legends. (Not everyone is as fortunate as Wilkes's Lakers teammate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, to be memorably cast in "Airplane!" (1980), and some face the far more reprehensible fate of appearing in a "Space Jam" burger (1996 and 2021).) The gee-wiz simplistic saintliness of Wilkes's "Cornbread" is of eye-rolling annoyance. And, those poor neighbors putting up with his dribbling a basketball in his flat on his way to an athletic scholarship. Either that apartment building was constructed with some of the best in sound-proofing floor and walls or those neighbors are unsung heroes.
Laurence Fishburne also made his debut here, and evidently he could act even as a child, or at least it seems that way by comparison to the actress, Rosalind Cash, playing his mother, who is the most prominent offender here of some very poor, soap-opera levels of acting (and, indeed, Cash's career ended with a role on daytime soap "General Hospital"). They should've cut the candy bar theft scene that results in her ridiculously weeping over her kid stealing 15 cents worth of merchandise. I get the point of the scene--everyone gets the obvious intent of it--to establish Wilford's, the "Me" protagonist of the title, maturing sense of ethics, but there are better ways to accomplish as much without constantly hitting the audience over the head with the cinematic equivalent of a sledge hammer. Perhaps, this is a product of its era, as much of the representation of African Americans on screen was in blaxploitation flicks, so subtlety doesn't seem to have been valued much, but this material was and is still is socially-relevant and powerful enough to do without the dramatic cop-outs.
Rather surprisingly given that they cast would-be NBA Hall-of-Famer Jamaal Wilkes that the basketball scenes, or single brief montage rather, are scant and unimpressive. It seems evident he wasn't cast for his acting abilities, after all, and is in good company there with other sports legends. (Not everyone is as fortunate as Wilkes's Lakers teammate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, to be memorably cast in "Airplane!" (1980), and some face the far more reprehensible fate of appearing in a "Space Jam" burger (1996 and 2021).) The gee-wiz simplistic saintliness of Wilkes's "Cornbread" is of eye-rolling annoyance. And, those poor neighbors putting up with his dribbling a basketball in his flat on his way to an athletic scholarship. Either that apartment building was constructed with some of the best in sound-proofing floor and walls or those neighbors are unsung heroes.
Laurence Fishburne also made his debut here, and evidently he could act even as a child, or at least it seems that way by comparison to the actress, Rosalind Cash, playing his mother, who is the most prominent offender here of some very poor, soap-opera levels of acting (and, indeed, Cash's career ended with a role on daytime soap "General Hospital"). They should've cut the candy bar theft scene that results in her ridiculously weeping over her kid stealing 15 cents worth of merchandise. I get the point of the scene--everyone gets the obvious intent of it--to establish Wilford's, the "Me" protagonist of the title, maturing sense of ethics, but there are better ways to accomplish as much without constantly hitting the audience over the head with the cinematic equivalent of a sledge hammer. Perhaps, this is a product of its era, as much of the representation of African Americans on screen was in blaxploitation flicks, so subtlety doesn't seem to have been valued much, but this material was and is still is socially-relevant and powerful enough to do without the dramatic cop-outs.
cornbread, earl, and me
mossgrymk19 February 2024
Seeing that this is one of the first, if not the first, Hollywood movies fully to address the issue of police brutality toward African Americans, a problem that remains unsolved, I am inclined to cut this film a whole lot of slack. I am willing to overlook the Lorraine Hansbury wannabe dialogue and over the top acting, surprising for such a distinguished cast. I will even forgive the bombastic, intrusive music score. Because, however crudely at times, director Joe Manduke conveys the feel of a community oppressed as well as the difficulty of and need to stand up to the oppressor. So that by the end of the film one is both angered and stirred. And not spuriously, either Give it a B minus.
PS...One exception to the general histrionics of the acting is a very young Laurence Fishburne whose testimony at the inquest is, by far, the film's best scene. That it is also the only one without music is not, in my view, coincidental.
PS...One exception to the general histrionics of the acting is a very young Laurence Fishburne whose testimony at the inquest is, by far, the film's best scene. That it is also the only one without music is not, in my view, coincidental.
The message and delivery are BOTH great
Carrj1452 September 2006
I was very disturbed by the negative review given by a man who actually lived during the times dramatize in "Cornbread, Earl and Me." I am a 26-year-old Black female watching this movie for the first time. I found that every issue addressed in this movie is transcendent, relevant even today.
It amazes me that we overlook the importance of a message simply because of the delivery. In all fairness to this movie, there is no blaxploitation present; the language, attire, scenery, etc., everything necessary for a realistic plot, is perfect for the setting and time frame of this movie. Regarding the comment about "ghetto language" there is a balance between the use of the formal and informal in the movie.
As an English teacher, and one who has a strong disdain for negative images of African-Americans, I can honestly say that this movie's depiction of African-American life was very well done. It was also poignant and ahead of its time. It is movie that, when the time comes, I will show to my children as a reference to how very little times have changed regarding the ease of wrongful deaths, slandering of names, harassment of witnesses because of racial advantages, or rather disadvantages.
The movie is GREAT;-)
It amazes me that we overlook the importance of a message simply because of the delivery. In all fairness to this movie, there is no blaxploitation present; the language, attire, scenery, etc., everything necessary for a realistic plot, is perfect for the setting and time frame of this movie. Regarding the comment about "ghetto language" there is a balance between the use of the formal and informal in the movie.
As an English teacher, and one who has a strong disdain for negative images of African-Americans, I can honestly say that this movie's depiction of African-American life was very well done. It was also poignant and ahead of its time. It is movie that, when the time comes, I will show to my children as a reference to how very little times have changed regarding the ease of wrongful deaths, slandering of names, harassment of witnesses because of racial advantages, or rather disadvantages.
The movie is GREAT;-)
Mislabeled as blaxploitation, this is too filled with heart and universal themes to keep that label.
mark.waltz30 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
You'd have to hold a heart of stone or be the world's biggest bigot not to shed a tear at this tragic story of a promising athlete cut down at the prime of his life, all because the police mistook him for somebody else. It's as if this was ripped off the headlines today, yet told both with reality and compassion and fairness to everybody involved. In short, this is a masterpiece that just happened to be released by a film studio known for making violent exploitation films that were made for a black audience. This is a film that screams out to be seen by those who believe in civil justice for everybody, regardless of social status, color of their skin, and where they happen to live.
When you first meet Cornbread (Keith Wilkes), you can tell that he has potential, not only as an athlete but as a human being. Preteen neighbor Laurence Fishburne adores him, and the sudden murder of Cornbread by the police practically destroys him and his loving mother (a wonderful Rosalind Cash), stirring up the neighborhood and cresting hardships for Cash due to her disagreeable boyfriend and shifty city officials who want the case to be dropped. They use all sort of threats to stop the case against the city from proceeding, even threatening to close Cash's welfare case, necessary because of her heart ailment.
Moses Gunn is commanding as the legal counsel for Cornbread's family, the voice of ethics for the whole situation, and a real hero. He's basically playing the Gary Cooper/James Stewart role in a very Capra like movie, a lost cause that needs to be fought, but not in the way some social justice groups try to fight the system today. Cash is superb, winning the audience over when she shows despondence over Fishburne shoplifting a candybar, obviously determined to reach him right from wrong.
As for the character of Cornbread, he's shown to be a typical fun loving but family and neighborhood devoted young man, pranksterish as he involves his parents in an early morning basketball game in their dining room. Madge Sinclair, as the mother, shows both amusement and sternness as she insists that the game be moved outside while complaining about being fouled in an attempt to grab the ball. It is little bits like that which humanizes the characters in this urban neighborhood, although there are a few shady faces thrown in, too, particularly Antonio Fargas's one-eyed numbers runner who obviously intends to corrupt young Cornbread. If this has one flaw, it is the fact that it tries to show too much in a short period of time, indicating that the intended slice of black urban life needed to be expanded a bit and that this was far too important a film to be released as a B picture. 40+ years later, this has the potential to become a masterpiece made before its time. For me, it's a film I will cherish because it gives me a different perspective to look on when stories like this make headlines.
When you first meet Cornbread (Keith Wilkes), you can tell that he has potential, not only as an athlete but as a human being. Preteen neighbor Laurence Fishburne adores him, and the sudden murder of Cornbread by the police practically destroys him and his loving mother (a wonderful Rosalind Cash), stirring up the neighborhood and cresting hardships for Cash due to her disagreeable boyfriend and shifty city officials who want the case to be dropped. They use all sort of threats to stop the case against the city from proceeding, even threatening to close Cash's welfare case, necessary because of her heart ailment.
Moses Gunn is commanding as the legal counsel for Cornbread's family, the voice of ethics for the whole situation, and a real hero. He's basically playing the Gary Cooper/James Stewart role in a very Capra like movie, a lost cause that needs to be fought, but not in the way some social justice groups try to fight the system today. Cash is superb, winning the audience over when she shows despondence over Fishburne shoplifting a candybar, obviously determined to reach him right from wrong.
As for the character of Cornbread, he's shown to be a typical fun loving but family and neighborhood devoted young man, pranksterish as he involves his parents in an early morning basketball game in their dining room. Madge Sinclair, as the mother, shows both amusement and sternness as she insists that the game be moved outside while complaining about being fouled in an attempt to grab the ball. It is little bits like that which humanizes the characters in this urban neighborhood, although there are a few shady faces thrown in, too, particularly Antonio Fargas's one-eyed numbers runner who obviously intends to corrupt young Cornbread. If this has one flaw, it is the fact that it tries to show too much in a short period of time, indicating that the intended slice of black urban life needed to be expanded a bit and that this was far too important a film to be released as a B picture. 40+ years later, this has the potential to become a masterpiece made before its time. For me, it's a film I will cherish because it gives me a different perspective to look on when stories like this make headlines.
Parts are painful to watch, but it's a very fine movie
richard-17875 February 2024
I'm not going to summarize the story of this movie; you can find that above.
Rather, I'll just leave my comments on the experience of watching it.
The ;movie is well acted throughout. And that can, at times, make it difficult to watch. When one of the characters is killed, it is difficult to watch his mother's at first unbelieving reaction to the tragedy. You feel something of her grief just in watching the contorsions of her face and body. It's not easy to watch.
Later, watching the police dept intimidate witnesses to avoid a wrongful homicide verdict is also difficult to watch, but in a different sense. You see how powerless the people in this poor neighborhood are to fight back against such administrative corruption. (I also suppose it doesn't make a lot of sense. I would imagine, though I don't know this as a fact, that even in 1975 police depts would have been insured against such expenses.)
It's refreshing that it is a Black lawyer who wins this suit, and not some Great White Savior.
But at the end, you have no assurance that the same thing won't happen again. And again. And again. The shooting of the young Black man was not directly an act of racism - one of the policemen who shot at him was Black himself, and they had been told the rapist they were pursuing was Black. His death is, rather, the result of sloppy procedure and very bad coincidence.
But the intimidation of the potential witnesses by police dept reps suggests that the people in this neighborhood and other poor ones like it have little access to real justice.
Rather, I'll just leave my comments on the experience of watching it.
The ;movie is well acted throughout. And that can, at times, make it difficult to watch. When one of the characters is killed, it is difficult to watch his mother's at first unbelieving reaction to the tragedy. You feel something of her grief just in watching the contorsions of her face and body. It's not easy to watch.
Later, watching the police dept intimidate witnesses to avoid a wrongful homicide verdict is also difficult to watch, but in a different sense. You see how powerless the people in this poor neighborhood are to fight back against such administrative corruption. (I also suppose it doesn't make a lot of sense. I would imagine, though I don't know this as a fact, that even in 1975 police depts would have been insured against such expenses.)
It's refreshing that it is a Black lawyer who wins this suit, and not some Great White Savior.
But at the end, you have no assurance that the same thing won't happen again. And again. And again. The shooting of the young Black man was not directly an act of racism - one of the policemen who shot at him was Black himself, and they had been told the rapist they were pursuing was Black. His death is, rather, the result of sloppy procedure and very bad coincidence.
But the intimidation of the potential witnesses by police dept reps suggests that the people in this neighborhood and other poor ones like it have little access to real justice.
Laurence Fishburne's First Role
leighabc1234 March 2007
Warning: Spoilers
It was funny seeing the great actor Laurence Fishburne as a 13 year old child in this movie. He could act back then.This movie had a whole lot of great actors who were guest stars in popular black sitcoms of the seventies. Rosalind Cash as Laurence Fishburne's character's mother. Moses Gunn. Antonio Fargas is type-casted with the same type of role in every movie that he is in. This movie was made in the early 1970s. A police shot an innocent black man. Fast forward to 2007 in Norfolk, Virginia. The same thing is happening here today, over 30 years later! Yes cops intimidate people just like they intimidated people in this movie.
A very flawed film of rare and beautiful moments; worth a look
tostinati16 April 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Cornbread, Earl and Me is a long way from a perfect film. Some of the characters are overdrawn, and some are cornily acted. But it is, as others say, truthful -- painfully so. And that's to it's eternal credit.
At the center of the films' inevitable and staggering sequence is a very young Laurence Fishburn as the nominal "Me". I had heard the odd-sounding title of this film for decades without seeing it. When it came on THIS network, I settled in to give it a watch, expecting something poignant and earnest. It delivered.
To snipe at the film unfairly, perhaps, I wish that the police hadn't been so corrupt by design. I wish that the investigators from central precinct hadn't been so fast to act like jerks. I guess I wanted the epically weepy, tragic vibe of the central scene to carry on for at least the middle third of the film. But in rapid succession after the death, we are presented things which turn our sadness to anger and then to militancy. At that point, even the most naive viewer will be aware of how heavily we are being manipulated by the film's makers. The danger of subconscious and then conscious satirical reaction and resulting camp "failed seriousness" is never far away in the last half of this film.
I don't disagree with the politics. I don't disagree with the film's matter-of-fact assertion that police are often abusive of the privilege and power that their gun and authorization to use it gives them. I know this is true. But knowing it, that's the thing: I don't have to sit still to be told it and retold it for an hour and a half.
Evoking a touching, bitterly poignant moment ... now that's something many and many a freshman film maker attempts, and achieves only clumsily or not at all. I have to give this director and writer kudos for lining up the awful moment where the two halves of the film, the pastoral and the horrific, collide and fracture the characters' world. It's heart-rending. But I think they made a mistake in not allowing the rare and beautiful chord they achieve -- The Truth, wound up in sorrow-- to sustain for a bit longer.
The courtroom scenes and a lot else in the last half are rather amateurishly staged and acted. But, thank God, we will always have the first half of this film, with Laurence Fishburn's incredible breakdown, Rosiland Cash's terrible epiphany and the harrowing minutes after that. These moments would seem to guarantee the film immortality.
A generous 7 of 10 stars. When this film is good, it wails. When it is bad, it is truly some of the worst "blaxploitation" footage I have ever sat through. If ever any film did, this one proves that a film's heart being in the right place will keep you on it's side, even as it wheels off it's axis and into the void.
At the center of the films' inevitable and staggering sequence is a very young Laurence Fishburn as the nominal "Me". I had heard the odd-sounding title of this film for decades without seeing it. When it came on THIS network, I settled in to give it a watch, expecting something poignant and earnest. It delivered.
To snipe at the film unfairly, perhaps, I wish that the police hadn't been so corrupt by design. I wish that the investigators from central precinct hadn't been so fast to act like jerks. I guess I wanted the epically weepy, tragic vibe of the central scene to carry on for at least the middle third of the film. But in rapid succession after the death, we are presented things which turn our sadness to anger and then to militancy. At that point, even the most naive viewer will be aware of how heavily we are being manipulated by the film's makers. The danger of subconscious and then conscious satirical reaction and resulting camp "failed seriousness" is never far away in the last half of this film.
I don't disagree with the politics. I don't disagree with the film's matter-of-fact assertion that police are often abusive of the privilege and power that their gun and authorization to use it gives them. I know this is true. But knowing it, that's the thing: I don't have to sit still to be told it and retold it for an hour and a half.
Evoking a touching, bitterly poignant moment ... now that's something many and many a freshman film maker attempts, and achieves only clumsily or not at all. I have to give this director and writer kudos for lining up the awful moment where the two halves of the film, the pastoral and the horrific, collide and fracture the characters' world. It's heart-rending. But I think they made a mistake in not allowing the rare and beautiful chord they achieve -- The Truth, wound up in sorrow-- to sustain for a bit longer.
The courtroom scenes and a lot else in the last half are rather amateurishly staged and acted. But, thank God, we will always have the first half of this film, with Laurence Fishburn's incredible breakdown, Rosiland Cash's terrible epiphany and the harrowing minutes after that. These moments would seem to guarantee the film immortality.
A generous 7 of 10 stars. When this film is good, it wails. When it is bad, it is truly some of the worst "blaxploitation" footage I have ever sat through. If ever any film did, this one proves that a film's heart being in the right place will keep you on it's side, even as it wheels off it's axis and into the void.
Individuals
boblipton8 February 2024
Jamaal Wilkes, Laurence Fishburne (in his first big-screen role), and Tierre Turner are shooting hoops when it begins to rain. They go into Charles Lampkin's store, and Wilkes buys treats for the other boys. He's in a good mood, because he's the first in the neighborhood who will go to college, on a football scholarship, and he will be going tomorrow. They start to banter about how fast he is, and he starts to run home in the rain. Police officers, pursuing a suspect, mistake Wilkes. They shoot him dead.
It's Moses Gunn whom Madge Sinclair and Stack Pierce, Wilkes' parent hire to get the Police admit they made a mistake, and it's Rosalind Cash, Fishburne's mother, who nurtures him. Some of the roles, like Stefan Gierasch as the cop who intimidates witnesses, are pretty much stereotypes, but that's the point of this movie: to see the Black people in it as individuals. Despite an occasionally clunky pacing, it does that very well.
It's Moses Gunn whom Madge Sinclair and Stack Pierce, Wilkes' parent hire to get the Police admit they made a mistake, and it's Rosalind Cash, Fishburne's mother, who nurtures him. Some of the roles, like Stefan Gierasch as the cop who intimidates witnesses, are pretty much stereotypes, but that's the point of this movie: to see the Black people in it as individuals. Despite an occasionally clunky pacing, it does that very well.
Cornbread in 1975 is relevant to the lives of young Black men in 2006
two_talk7 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
How many young Black men have been shot by police in the past few years? Ignoring the number of men who have actually committed a crime, some police officers seem eager to shoot up our young men. Consider the young man out for the evening with friends celebrating his bachelor party. Disgusting and they never get what they deserve. Yes it is political--what meaningful movies aren't?
It is meaningful in that the 1974 movie just foretold what was to continue for years to come. It was rather goofy and poorly written but despite the script, the people in the movie are fine actors.
I liked it because it showcased some of the best actors in Hollywood from that period.
Watch it and judge for yourself.
It is meaningful in that the 1974 movie just foretold what was to continue for years to come. It was rather goofy and poorly written but despite the script, the people in the movie are fine actors.
I liked it because it showcased some of the best actors in Hollywood from that period.
Watch it and judge for yourself.
Promising film hampered it's by music
pazuzu-25 March 2001
This is a rather well done film with great performances. Where it drops the ball is on the overdramatic music that sledgehammers the emotional tone of the more dramatic scenes.
It resists the temptation of villianizing all of the antagonists, especially the judge (which no doubt would've been portrayed as racist and corrupt in a similar film made today).
Bernie Casey (who I'll always think of as U.N Jefferson in Revenge Of The Nerds) is terrific and it's too bad I don't see him in too many films today.
Great 70's feel and the first appearance of Larry Fishburn makes this a film to check out.
It resists the temptation of villianizing all of the antagonists, especially the judge (which no doubt would've been portrayed as racist and corrupt in a similar film made today).
Bernie Casey (who I'll always think of as U.N Jefferson in Revenge Of The Nerds) is terrific and it's too bad I don't see him in too many films today.
Great 70's feel and the first appearance of Larry Fishburn makes this a film to check out.
HORRIBLE, cheesy Movie!!!!
bryanac62513 December 2005
I saw this film in the theater in 1975 when it came out. It bothered me a lot then, because I was a 10-year old, insecure black boy and I believed the things I saw on film. I was really sensitive to violent images on screen in those days (not that they mean nothing now, but I'm definitely more desensitized). Anyway, seeing an 18-year old black man shot and killed on screen really made me feel insecure about my own future.
Anyway, I just watched this movie again for the first time in 30 years. This movie sucks!!! All of the black characters are like "Ohh, Lawd... we in de ghetto, sho nuff!" All the white characters are horribly racist and every time they open their mouths, no matter what they say, it seems to come out as "nigger!" I'm sure some will say, "Well, that's the way it was in 1975 and these blaxploitation film paved an importance on the way to current progress. Well, whatever. This movie is so bad it's more of a joke than Saturday Night Live.
Anyway, I just watched this movie again for the first time in 30 years. This movie sucks!!! All of the black characters are like "Ohh, Lawd... we in de ghetto, sho nuff!" All the white characters are horribly racist and every time they open their mouths, no matter what they say, it seems to come out as "nigger!" I'm sure some will say, "Well, that's the way it was in 1975 and these blaxploitation film paved an importance on the way to current progress. Well, whatever. This movie is so bad it's more of a joke than Saturday Night Live.
An Unappreciated Masterpiece
BrightsunNYC5 March 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Cornbread, Earl and Me is NOT a blaxploitation film, what a ridiculous idea. This is a serious, beautiful, and powerful drama that is well acted and thoughtfully conceived. It also has a great soundtrack. Obviously, it is also highly underrated.
Everything in this movie rings true to real life, so it is funny to notice that some other reviewers say the opposite. It seems to me their problem is that it doesn't ring true to the fantasy of motion pictures, rather than that it doesn't ring true to reality.
Does the courtroom scene not seem realistic? Here is a news flash: the real life drama that goes down in real life courtrooms is chaotic and often bizarre. That's reality. Everything in this film felt true to me, and it rings true as a human story, leaving politics and ideology completely out of it.
And speaking of the courtroom scene, the way the coroner in charge of the courtroom treats the people coldly and superciliously and then gradually becomes ashamed of himself as they behave with grace and dignity is TOTALLY TRUE TO LIFE. It doesn't even have anything to do with race, which is one of the beautiful things about this film. The black people in the gallery feel like it has something to do with race, and the movie makes you understand how they would feel that way, but it also leaves the door open for you to understand that from the coroner's perspective race really might not be any factor in the equation of his behavior. He's just trying to churn through the usual bullshit and get through the day.
You don't know there are poor people who try to maintain their dignity and want to pay their way instead of signing off on a poor man's waiver? If you think that's not reality, you haven't seen much of the world. You don't know that their lips sometimes tremble when they reject the waiver and pay their cash instead?
So much of this movie is really beautifully acted. Laurence Fishburne puts in one of the best performances from a child actor that you will ever see. Several of the adults are even better.
To put it simply, this is a great film.
The scene when the cops shoot Cornbread is as good an example of how the wrong person can end up being shot as you will find anywhere in motion pictures. The cops are afraid, they're doing something brave under difficult circumstances, we in the audience can practically feel the rain pouring down on us and clouding our vision, and they shoot the person they legitimately believe to be a murderous criminal running away from them. It takes them weeks or more to realize they were wrong. They aren't bad men, or even bad cops, they just made a bad decision under a bad set of circumstances.
Or is the basketball element and the families involved supposed to be a caricature that should offend us? Really? Because it could have come straight out of the documentary Hoop Dreams which was produced twenty years later. Are we meant to suppose that all of the people depicted in Hoop Dreams decided to base their whole lives and personalities off of Cornbread, Earl and Me? Or can we admit that in fact families, neighborhoods, and characters like this existed in real life?
Apparently Cornbread, Earl and Me is too real for some people. Or maybe it just goes over many audience heads. The beauty of its drama is sometimes subtly wrought, to be fair. But if you can watch it with an open mind it is an extraordinary film and well worth your time.
Having seen it once as a teenager, and once again recently (many years later), I feel strongly enough about it to create an account to write this review. So there you go.
Everything in this movie rings true to real life, so it is funny to notice that some other reviewers say the opposite. It seems to me their problem is that it doesn't ring true to the fantasy of motion pictures, rather than that it doesn't ring true to reality.
Does the courtroom scene not seem realistic? Here is a news flash: the real life drama that goes down in real life courtrooms is chaotic and often bizarre. That's reality. Everything in this film felt true to me, and it rings true as a human story, leaving politics and ideology completely out of it.
And speaking of the courtroom scene, the way the coroner in charge of the courtroom treats the people coldly and superciliously and then gradually becomes ashamed of himself as they behave with grace and dignity is TOTALLY TRUE TO LIFE. It doesn't even have anything to do with race, which is one of the beautiful things about this film. The black people in the gallery feel like it has something to do with race, and the movie makes you understand how they would feel that way, but it also leaves the door open for you to understand that from the coroner's perspective race really might not be any factor in the equation of his behavior. He's just trying to churn through the usual bullshit and get through the day.
You don't know there are poor people who try to maintain their dignity and want to pay their way instead of signing off on a poor man's waiver? If you think that's not reality, you haven't seen much of the world. You don't know that their lips sometimes tremble when they reject the waiver and pay their cash instead?
So much of this movie is really beautifully acted. Laurence Fishburne puts in one of the best performances from a child actor that you will ever see. Several of the adults are even better.
To put it simply, this is a great film.
The scene when the cops shoot Cornbread is as good an example of how the wrong person can end up being shot as you will find anywhere in motion pictures. The cops are afraid, they're doing something brave under difficult circumstances, we in the audience can practically feel the rain pouring down on us and clouding our vision, and they shoot the person they legitimately believe to be a murderous criminal running away from them. It takes them weeks or more to realize they were wrong. They aren't bad men, or even bad cops, they just made a bad decision under a bad set of circumstances.
Or is the basketball element and the families involved supposed to be a caricature that should offend us? Really? Because it could have come straight out of the documentary Hoop Dreams which was produced twenty years later. Are we meant to suppose that all of the people depicted in Hoop Dreams decided to base their whole lives and personalities off of Cornbread, Earl and Me? Or can we admit that in fact families, neighborhoods, and characters like this existed in real life?
Apparently Cornbread, Earl and Me is too real for some people. Or maybe it just goes over many audience heads. The beauty of its drama is sometimes subtly wrought, to be fair. But if you can watch it with an open mind it is an extraordinary film and well worth your time.
Having seen it once as a teenager, and once again recently (many years later), I feel strongly enough about it to create an account to write this review. So there you go.
a sharply mixed bag
hotnoodletuna13 December 2001
The film does have a moderately intriguing mesage about polkice brutality and political corruption being obscenely hoisted upon African American communities in the urban United States. That said, the film is horribly dated, and elements of it are unnacceptable by today's standards. I mean the slain icon's name is Cornbread for Pete's sake!!! Where wre his cohorts Fried Chicken and Watermelon? Moreover, the societal corruption is presented in a way that makes us feel sad and powerless rather than angry and indignant. This is really a product of the early seventies Blaxploitation genre that would be utterly offensive by today's standards were it not for the still relevant and timely subject matter of the film. Worthwhile viewing for those who can differentiate between the message and the overdone elements. I fear, however, that the film's excess could leave white biggots laughing at the maudlin African American stereotypes on parade rather than addressing the political concerns of the film at all.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
