AMERICAN SON
US, 2019, 90 minutes, Colour.
Kerry Washington, Stephen Pasquale, Jeremy Jordan, Eugene Lee.
Directed by Kenny Leon.
This is a film version, for television, of a successful Broadway play of 2018, written by Christopher Demos- Brown, who has written a number of plays but is a white trial lawyer in Miami.
This film version has the same cast as the Broadway production and the same director, Tony-award-winning, Kenny Leon.
The action is confined to one room, the waiting room of a police precinct in Miami. (There are a number of outside insertions, memories of a marriage, some riots… but they seem to be unnecessary.) The introduction of sounds of shooting on a mobile phone is effective. The cast consists of four actors led by a very striking Kerry Washington.
The action takes place in real time, a mother trying to get in contact with her 16-year-old son after an argument with him, coming to the police precinct to report him missing. She encounters a young policeman who goes by protocols and who is upset by her aggressive tantrums. He promises that an official will come to explain everything. The father of the boy then arrives, audiences perhaps surprised that he is a white businessman and that the marriage is interracial. Eventually, the Inspector does arrive, the father, revealed as an FBI agent, trying to throw his weight around but cuffed and the Inspector trying to control the angry mother.
The film is very dramatic in terms of race themes. The boy has been raised to be well-spoken and polite, a black young man amongst four in a white school. He is destined for West Point but does not want to go and is angry with his father walking out on him and his mother.
It is difficult to decide at times who is on the right, who is in the role or everybody at times in the wrong. Which means then that this is a provocative play, a critique of white superiority attitudes, more sympathetic to the putdown of the African- Americans, but continuing complex throughout.
1. The title? Patriotism? Family? Racial issues? The parallel with Native Son?
2. The original play, the emphasis on dialogue, adapted for television, the single set, the outside inserts? The musical score?
3. The police precinct in Miami, the waiting room, the corridor? The interiors and a sense of restriction? Four characters? The significance of performance, transition from stage to small screen? Individuals, groups of two, the whole group? Close-ups? Editing and pace, the feel of the screenplay?
4. The director, his work, African- American themes and perspectives? The broad perspective of interaction between white and black?
5. The creation of the characters, each character eliciting audience sympathy/or not? The audience appreciating each character for their strengths and flaws? The clashes, the increasing amount of information, the different perspectives? Black versus white?
6. The audience trying to decide who was in the right, who in the wrong? And why?
7. The situation, the background story, the encounter between Kendra and Scott, looking at each other, marrying, interracial marriage? The years passing? Kendra, her-name, her work, psychologist? The strength of character? Their sons name, the decision for Jamaal? His growing up with mixed race, going to the white school, the few African- Americans? His seeing himself as the face of African Americans? His speech and diction, carefully educated, able to move easily in white circles, his experience, his mother and her care? His father, the tradition of the family, military, his being enrolled in West Point? Expectations of him?
8. Jamaal as a teenager, the audience not seeing him, building up his character from hearing descriptions? The pressures on him, blackface, with white students, the prospect of West Point, his anger? Going out with black friends, the number plate about shooting the police, the drug connection, being pursued by the police? By black police doing their job?
9. Kendra, her anger and upset, her relationship with Jamaal, not revealing to the officer that she had quarrel with him and that he was angry? The meeting Paul, his rank with the police, making demands on him, wanting information, personal tantrums, the attack on Paul, his defence of himself? Scott’s arrival, her relating to Scott, Paul speaking more comfortably with Scott, giving him more information? The arguments, remembering more? Scott and his walking out on the family, Jamaal’s disappointment in him as a role model? Their having to wait for the official to come?
10. Scott, white, his family, military background, marriage, Jamaal’s name, mixed marriage, white expectations and demands? Is dealing with Paul, Paul as white, getting the coffee, more information? The brother phoning and the video, the audience hearing the sounds, the shots? Increasing anxiety?
11. Paul, observing the protocols, story of his own family, was he treating the white man better than the black woman?
12. The inspector, black, an official, the initial clash with Scott, the regulations, cutting him, taking him out? The clashes with Kendra? His demanding her to be quiet, her saying she understood? His own positions, age and experience, working with police regulations?
13. The part reconciliation between husband and wife, their being calmer, hopes?
14. The truth, the shot, the information about Jamaal accidentally being shot?
15. The devastation, no future?
16. Questions of racism, the taunts of whites, the taunts of Blacks, issues of white superiority, Blacks knowing their place? The screenplay and its arguing the pros and cons?
