Flutterby™! : Cry, the Beloved County

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Cry, the Beloved County

2000-10-05 15:16:18+00 by ebradway 2 comments

I had to go to the cable company the other day to make sure a bill was paid and ended up buying the new digital cable converter and the add-on pack. The main reason is that it includes the Sundance channel. Now I can watch independent films 24 hours a day. Oh boy! I just finished watching Cry, the Beloved Country based on the novel by Alan Paton. James Earl Jones plays a South African minister who travels to Johannesburg to find his son - only to find that he has murdered the son of a white man. I won't go into more plot detail but I will say that it was the most moving film I've seen in quite some time.

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:23+00 by: Mwalsh

Which one did you see? There was one with Canada Lee and Sidney Poitier produced more or less clandestinely back in 1951 in South Africa, with a cheap post-dubbed sound track. There is another more recent one with James Earle Jones and Richard Harris. I believe the novel was written in about 1947. There was also a musical written by Kurt Weill(!) in the 50's, called "Lost in the Stars". A film version with Raymond St. Jacques and Melba Moore was produced in 1974 as a part of the American Film Theater, a sporadically successful venture in bringing major theater pieces to the hinterlands (it's version of "The Iceman Cometh" is great, while "The Man in the Glass Box" is reprehensible."

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:23+00 by: ebradway

Since the second sentence mentions Jones, I think the question is answered. Of course when I found out about the 1951 version I realized I'm going to have to try to find a copy - I'm a big Sidney Portier fan.