Man and Boy

1971 "Bill Cosby comes to the big screen in a stunning switch from his TV and comedy portrayals to a starkly dramatic role!"
5.5| 1h38m| G| en| More Info
Released: 23 June 1971 Released
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Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

At the beginning of the 19th century a man and his son settle in Arizona which used to be a frontier state and full of criminals at that time.

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Reviews

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense
ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.
Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
Lee Skalla The most impressive thing about this film, to me, was it's realism. Many films have the pretense of reality, but very few movies have truly human characters. The only one you can become emotionally invested in is, of course, the boy. Everyone else is perfectly flawed. The Hero is, at times, a coward. The villains all seem to be driven by motives that one can easily understand. And under the same influences, one might be inclined to follow the same paths they chose. As in life, there are few truly righteous or evil people. Some, but very few. Most of us are somewhere in between. In short,"Man and Boy" is teaching us this lesson through the eyes of a young boy looking for a hero. Dose he find one? You be the judge.
firefx9 The thing I find very funny here is when ever a person of color takes on a role that you usually see a Caucasian actor play...people let the tan make them focus on things that have nothing to do with the film. It's like they are so used to seeing White people play everything and BE everything they can't except the story unless someone White is the hero. One poster mentioned the movie "Roots" being the motivation for Racism in America...he even suggested that Black people were the cause...for the life of me I can't figure out where he has been living. Not to mention, this movie wasn't about Racism...it was about a father taking his son out to make him a man. Even the description of this film is wrong. Just goes to show you how WE are treated...the person who wrote the description about what this film is about didn't even pay attention. After you see it, then read the description about the film again...it's pretty pitiful. With the way things were...a young Black male had to grow up quick...or not at all! It wasn't Bill's character's fault that ignorance was running rampant in America. Still, a man had to survive and had to raise his son. THIS...is what makes this story so good. For me, this film was very on the money. It was a simple yet sophisticated tale about how a father , during a very dangerous time in America (For Blacks) takes his son out and shows him what a man does. Racism was introduced in the film, but only to serve as a reminder of how dangerous it was for a Black male to wander outside of where he lived so close to after the Slaves were set free. There were still people that didn't agree with the slaves being free and owning land. This heightened the danger level when Cosby's character tells his wife he's taking his son with him to get their horse back after it was stolen. A lone man and his son wandering over the open range...looking for their horse. All of the people they encounter and the things that happen to them after the journey begins are fun and take the film in a different direction than expected. To the guy who missed the whole film because he felt someone Black made it so they could concentrate on Racism...he needs to pay more attention. The two characters who disrespect Cosby's character more than any of the White characters happen to be two well written Black Characters. Hank (played by Yaphet Kotto) and Lee Christmas (a well known bank robber and horse thief) Hank was a well liked Black character and even had White friends that respected him and even drank with him in town. So if Racism was all over this film...how could this colorful relationship happen? Thing is, Hank had issues with Bill's character. He was a balanced man and ended up getting the woman Hank wanted. Not only that, when Hank and Cosby's Character meet again...Hank sees that he had a child with the woman he wanted. This adds to his negative fuel against Bill's character. Needless to say, like two real men, they settle their differences like two cowboys...with a knock em out-jaw dropping scrap! No fancy stuff...just two real men fighting and then they get tired and keep on fighting. Then there's "Lee Christmas"...another well written character. Lee was a very skilled and dangerous man. He could shoot a gun (which is cool because Black characters usually act or are written to act like they have never seen or used one in Westerns)...and had some White friends he was robbing and killing with. When he encounters Bill's character...he tries to get Bill and his son to join him on a crime spree...when Bill declines...we See Lee get a little Jealous that his character has a family to go home to...so he abducts his son and we watch a loving FATHER (not a Black man)try and get his son back safely. See, like most movies about Westerns, they make Latinos and Black characters seem like all they did was behave like good slaves...or you just hardly even see us at all. The truth is...there were cities where Black's and Latino's weren't frowned on. They owned land and were farmers and cowboys. This film assumes you have been educated on the real west and I liked the movie...it was well written, well paced and directed.The only thing that leaves a sour taste in your mouth is when you read posts by people that are obviously living in caves. IF the hero is a Black character...you can count on the posts to go all over the place instead of discuss the heart of a film. After all the negative in America's past...this films finds a spot in time and does a great job of balancing things and telling a good story. FOUR STARS!
jcain3 Very well written story of the early American West and African American family. It is "G" rated but the subject is on adult level, for complete understanding. The psychology of the characters is very well defined and true to life as I see it, from my knowledge of early cowboys in Texas and the Western frontier. Fine acting and great scenery, a good movie to watch!
mrskywalker This was another film in the long Hollywood tradition of playing the race card. We have here a string of incidents designed to create anger between the races of those viewing this film. This was at its worst of course in Roots which has created a dynamic in America that is still with us.The focus is always on the most negative incidents that the writer can dream up. This of course has created a mental segregation based on anger or misplaced guilt depending on race. It should of course depend on whether your ancestors are abolitionists; plantation owners or black or white Revolutionary War heroes etc. Hopefully Hollywood will someday realize that a person is an individual not a race.It is not surprising that this film was used for second grade class as part of the horrible curriculum in today's schools. Strangely most of Cosby's work other than this is quite the opposite and is usually good.

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