Product Description

Joe Morton stars in this story of a black extraterrestrial who crash-lands on Earth in Harlem and delivers a lesson in brotherly love.System Requirements:Starring: Joe Morton Daryl Edwards Steve James Leonard Jackson Maggie Renzi Rosetta LeNoire Directed By: John Sayles Running Time: 110 Min. Color Copyright 2003 MGM Studios.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 027616886460 Manufacturer No: 1004605

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12513 in DVD
• Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
• Released on: 2003-09-16
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 110 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Having been stymied in the midst of trying to make Matewan, John Sayles wrote what he thought could be a cheap, quick little movie and it turned out to be this near classic, which blends fish-out-of-water comedy with trenchant and serious science fiction. Joe Morton plays an extraterrestrial whose spaceship crashes in New York Harbor. When he swims ashore, he finds that most of Harlem is filled with earthlings who look just like him. He can't speak, but he quickly learns to communicate; he also finds ways to understand these strange, quarrelsome creatures, who seem to talk forever without really saying much. Sayles is at his economic best, drawing a touchingly complex performance from the silent Morton and good acting from a strong supporting cast of mostly unknowns. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

The Brother is Funny
I must say that this movie is one of my all time classics. It is a social commentary on race relations. It is a science fiction movie. It is a comedy. I loved the fact that the Brother sleeps with Dee Dee Bridgewater without ever saying a word. Let that be a lesson to guys who stumble over their tounges trying to come up with a come on line. Just be real and sincere and you may be surprised. Joe Morton is great. His acting was was not over the top. It was inspired on the part of John Sayles to have the Brother land in New York. This could have been a twilight zone episode. It had all the ingredients. A man who could not speak but had special powers living among humans. Get the movie you will enjoy it.

Morton is Magnificent, Brother Endures Time
If you appreciate fine acting, in particular, the artistry of silent acting, you will want to watch Joe Morton over and over again in this low-budget classic from John Sayles. Part Chaplin, part Keaton, even part Harpo, Morton is simply magnificent. His gestures and movements, his body language and facial expressions encompass a huge physical vocabulary from frightened innocence to gleeful joy, from tired resignation to bold determinism. In a heroic dash up and down Harlem, Morton's character pulls the audience along on a sometimes comic, sometimes gritty extraterrestrial flight from intergalactic cops.

The Brother from Another Planet, Sayles's funky sci-fi, grand metaphor of sanctuary and immigration, immortalizes Morton as a great silent star. Probably best known for his supporting role in Terminator 2 as the self-sacrificing scientist, he ironically enough got his start in the 1968 Broadway production of Hair and later earned a Tony Best Actor nomination for his performance in a musical version of A Raisin in the Sun. BTW, the first music you hear in Brother is a clip of rap that Morton's character "hears" from the graffiti-covered walls on a deserted back street. (Yes, he is able to pick up "lost" voices from walls and chairs and public spaces.) Watch the credits at the end and you will discover that the rapper is Morton himself!

Of course there is more to Brother than Joe Morton's sterling performance. Endless metaphors of racial inequality, issues of otherness, bureaucracy, drug trafficking, alienation, slavery, and the funny sadness of people constantly wrapped up in themselves resound throughout the film. Not as rough as a Sun Ra flick, but certainly as genuine and homey and wise, Brother endures time and looks just as current as when it was made in 1984.

Original and wonderfully fun to watch
If you enjoy quirky and dark humor, this is a delightful and thoughtful film. My wife and I are very happy to own this film.