The themes of poverty, racial inequality, extraterrestrial runaway slave, and immigrants are the central to the narrative of the 1984 film The Brother from Different planet. Throughout the film, the audiences can see many subtle of racial differences and class divides being used. This list of racial differences and class divide includes the use of subway and races are seen in many scenes and emphasize the racial dissimilarity. The poverty is portrayed in one of scenes where we can see blue collar workers in their hoodies and steel-toe boots next to the polished-dress people reading The Wall Street Journal.
The second scenes of poverty we can see how the residents dressed in Manhattan and Harlem. The opening credit is the panning across the Manhattan skyline then ended with the Statue of Liberty behind the protagonist emphasized the social class segregation. We can see how the protagonist dressed as a slave while traveling near Ellis Island and searching for food in garage can to survive. He ended up in Harlem and his African America appearance helped him blend in with the residents in Harlem. His clothing material is similar as slaves from the 1800s.
Brother is a term used to describe the African American and the slavery thematic is often used in many scenes. The racial inequality device used the protagonist as humanoid as analogue to terrestrial racial differences. The political-cultural problem of nationality and ethnicity lies in one of many memorable scenes is in where the Man of Black is portrayed as superior while searching for the protagonist. The Man of Black One is portrayed as police authority and began to ask “have you seen this man? One of the characters responses to them “everyone is an immigrant, my people build North Carolina. ”
This quote helped me to distinct between American residents and immigrants but it is difficult to differentiate between them because America is built from immigrants. The way the characters in the bar scenes helped to hide the protagonist from the Man of Black is a delicately way to show the audience of the black solidarity. The director subtly included the allegory for the protagonist’s political perspective as he navigates Manhattan and Harlem as a wanted man from his predators.
We observed the protagonist as a symbol as extraterrestrial runaway slave. One of scenes showed how the protagonist first enters into a bar and the people was staring at his strange choice of clothes. As people found out he was a mute, they teased him but accepted him into the black community. But as they found out he was a technology wizard, they started to respect him and helped him find a job. His African American appearance helped him blend in the locals. In second scenes, we can see how the protagonist was learning about the slavery history in the museum.
In one of scenes, he made a gesture to a boy how he too understand the pictures of escaped slaves from the 1800s felt during their plight as he too is running away from the Man of Black from his planet. The director included the slavery motif as relations between the slave and master. Man of Black is portrayed as master who searching to recapture the escaped protagonist. The demographic is center around the immigrant community. In one of the scenes, we can see the protagonist riding the subway for the first time.
In the beginning of the ride to the end of the ride, we can see a large demographic change. The New Yorkers was spotted in the beginning of the ride but disappeared as the subway arrived to Harlem. A young man shows an elaborate card trick to the protagonist and offered the truth about the line of segregation between the white commuters and immigrants commuters. My favorite quote from him was “for my next trick, I will make the whites disappear. ” This seemed to be true since whites are portrayed rarity in Harlem.
We can see how Immigrants assimilate into American society by working in Manhattan. All throughout the film, we see constant use of extraterrestrial themes and different shape of slavery form to mirror the society we live in. Aliens runaway slave impact the audience to analyze their racism subconscious and reflect the class differences between the residents in Manhattan and Harlem. All these themes added up together have a very strong effect, clearly emphasizing all throughout the pieces of poverty racial inequality, feeling outsiders as extraterrestrial runaway slave, and immigrants.
