Bardlerx Strictly average movie

Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

boblipton I'm going to tell you a lot of key points about this movie, so if you haven't seen it, stop reading now.The story of Lot and the destruction of Sodom and Gommorrah is foretold in this movie, with Sidney Poitier as an angel moving among the people of a small Southern town, looking for the righteous. Several pieces right out of Genesis are reproduced in non-religious terms, but it becomes particularly obvious as Richard Ward speaks up to the police to protect Sidney Poitier -- although he does not, like Lot, offer to let the cops have their way with his daughters.Sidney Poitier gives one of his typical graceful performances as 'Brother John', exuding an air of compassionate, disinterested watchfulness in his role. Except, of course, with pretty young women.But I think the strain of playing these superior beings was getting to him. Shortly he would try his hand at raunchy comedies and then disappear behind the camera for more than a decade.

georgedixon First of all Vincent Canby was wrong. Poitier's character John Kane is not an angel. He is very much a living breathing earthly being capable of error as evidenced by a scene where he thoughtlessly lets slip a bit of information he should not have mentioned. Do I know exactly who or what John Kane was meant to be taken for by Ernest Kinoy the screenwriter? Definitely not. Does that at all detract from the enjoyment of this film. Absolutely not. Think of Mark Twain's The Mysterous Stranger or the sci-fi film classic "The Day The Earth Stood Still" Both of these works are scathing indictments of the pettiness and baseness of human kind. If you have any knowledge of how wisdom is communicated in the eastern religions such as Budhism you will be mesmerized by the conversation that takes place in the jail cell between the world weary Kane and Dr. Thomas. It is significant that it is a physician who more accurately than any other character understands what Kane is up to. Who else but a physician is actually trained to see man as he really is, with all pretenses and garments removed? Dr.Thomas has in his own way been performing the same task as Kane all his life making dispassionate clinical observations. The fact that none of the social issues and conflicts portrayed in the film are fleshed out or resolved in any satisfying way is not a problem for this film. They are all just symptoms of the underlying disease. In my opinion Kinoy is saying the disease itself is simply the nature of man. Perhaps the beating and humiliation of an officer of the law (even a blatantly racist and evil one)- by an African American that takes place in this film was simply too radical in 1971 for it to be aggressively promoted or to be supported by critics. Don't let this film's obscurity keep you from superb performances by Mr Poitier and Will Geer.

ianlettice I first saw this movie when it was released in the UK and although similar politically to most of his movies of that time and with the usual script aimed at making Sidney Poitier appear to be the super human that we all know he is.It was still in my opinion one of his more meaningful but less celebrated rolls with little or no publicity when it was released in the UK.Having said that,when you think of the standard of performance Mr Poitier gives in the movie and the talent the casting agent managed to muster(all fine journeymen actors)as a supporting cast one wonders why I feel I am the only person in the UK who saw this movie.The other major plus is the soundtrack(I would love to have a copy)it is so good.

George041 Sidney Poitier gives an exemplary performance in a film in which the viewer is kept in suspense as to why and who. Right to the very end, the viewer never knows for sure what the visitor to a small town really is. The supporting cast is excellent and Will Geer and Sidney Poitier are outstanding.